Friday, August 27, 2010

Shaky Start, but Ooooo I Feel Lucky Today!!!

Well, per usual, our local school district (lsd--- just like a bad drug LOL) did not fail to disappoint.


Right out of the gate, no bus. The lsd got lucky cause the first day of school, I had to work. They dealt with the hubs. They tried to tell him "if it makes you feel any better, the sped** buses didn't come for about 12 of the kids here". Ummmm, NO!!!! That means that the parents who have enough to worry about sending their children with handicaps off to school had no busing! Sheesh.... so NOT okay. The hubs called & left a message with transportation. The next day, still no bus. They had to deal with me. Ut-oh!!! Mrs.I-know-our-rights-and-am-not-afraid-to-quote-them-or-go-over-your-head-and-won't-take-no-as-an-acceptable-answer-when-it's-on-the-IEP.


Yep, the b!tch is back.


Upon dropping her off at school, I met with the vice principal. She said it was a district thing, not at the school level. I went home and called the person in charge of transportation for special education. I called & called & called. I kept getting VM! Frustrating! I am going to make this long story short, for I spent hours chasing this down. I chewed out the lady who is in charge (but claims she is not), then talked to her supervisor and continued on up the chain. Upon all the calls & investigating, I found out the bus owner did ask why MM wasn't on the list! They claimed they had no paper work. WHATEV!!! The lady in charge was quite rude (hence the butt chewing from me. If you are rude to me, I push back---- HARD! If she hadn't been rude, I might have been content to wait it out for the week. I would have asked for transportation reimbursement, but I could have waited it out) and tried to claim it was a fluke. Not believing that for: 1.) She has been riding special transportation to this school for 3 years, this makes year 4. 2.) The bus owner asked why she wasn't on the list. 3.) This happened with kindergarten!!!! It was a large amount of finger pointing & blame shifting, just like our good bureaucratic system does at its finest.

Needless to say, the bus showed up on day three. Hee hee.... LSD 0 MM 1


As I have mentioned before, MM often has troubles with lunch at school. She doesn't always eat. She also doesn't drink sometimes. Not drinking is very bad as we all know, special needs or not. It is not good for a person to go 8 hours without drinking! We have it written on her IEP that she can drink when she wants. She is very prone to UTIs due to her CP issues & the autoimmune stuff. We are approaching the end of week two. I have been diligently documenting what she does or does not eat or drink from her lunch (long story on this cause the principal claims that they make sure all the children eat and drink when at school~ all except MY child). She has not been drinking ANYTHING from her lunch box. I have asked if she is drinking something else. I never get a clear answer, but I am guessing not because she is parched when she gets home & drinks like a fish. She came out of PT today & they asked if she was getting a UTI cause she kept holding herself. I didn't tell them about her not drinking, they know her & pick up on her cues quite well. After talking to my mom (who got her off the bus), she said she went to the bathroom 5 times in the 30minutes of being home from school. UGH!!! SO, after today, I will have almost two weeks of documentation to back up my concerns. I will meet with the teacher, the school nurse & the principal to get this resolved. WHY oh WHY does common sense elude these people????

MM does appear to be enjoying school so far. The work is quite easy for her so far. They do have her Neo & she is using it. The teacher has sent me quite a few notes as well as some emails. She says she loves having MM cause she is super smart & sweet! She is also behaving quite well.

I have had a week of ups & downs. One of the coolest ups, hence the lucky today, is that I actually won a really cool prize on Ellen's blog! I am super excited to get it! This was the first time I have one a major award and can't wait to receive my fragile package! (lol...Christmas Story reference). Go show Ellen, Sabrina & Super Purple Max some bloggy love! THANKS ELLEN! You are an amazing writer with some great kiddos & some cool give aways!


**"professional" people referring to it as SPED when talking to a parent is a whole other issue!!! I find it to be derogatory & will bring this up to the principal as well ! ARgh!

4 comments:

kristi said...

You go, Mama bear!

Brenda Rothman (Mama Be Good) said...

I hate that you're having to fight and struggle so much. Sigh. There oughta be a better way.

Rebecca said...

Sounds like they better watch out at the next IEP meeting. lol Our IEP meeting for this year is next week.

To Join the Autism / Aspie Blog Hop follow this link:http://www.sueberrylane.info/drupal/content/autism-information-fundraising

Then scroll down until you see "Click here to add your name to the list" in red. HTH

Becky @ Sueberry Lane

Anonymous said...

Hello, it's been a while since I've seen an update. I love reading blogs of younger children with ASD because I am entering graduate studies in special education/educational psychology in the fall of 2011 and plan to focus on autism research. I also have mild Asperger's Syndrome myself. As of today, I just wrote my last exam as an undergraduate student and in June 2011 I wall walk across the stage to receive my Bachelor of Psychology. I hope that in my future career, I will be able to help more individuals reach goals like that. Hopefully, someday it will be MM walking across the stage.