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An Update On Stephanie (February 28, 2009 - 6:54 a.m.) If you remember, at the end of our last ARD meeting, we all signed off on an agreement to have a new full evaluation done on Stephanie to try to resolve the problems we have been having with high school. The very next day (this surprised me), a school district psychologist met with Stephanie and asked her a lot of questions. Two days ago, I received an email from her, asking when would be a good time to call us and at what number. I gave her both our home number and my wife's work number, indicating that I sleep during the day, but she could reach my wife at work. Yesterday, she called my wife. When Christi told me about their conversations, I was almost weeping. I was experiencing extreme joy and anger all at the same time. Joy, because this lady basically validated everything we have been saying to the administrators at Central High School. Now, this psychologist is not an "autism expert." She is tasked to look at mental issues, though. We have also received a packet of forms to fill out and have sent them back to another lady, whose card said she is the "autism lead." My first question was..."How long have they had an "autism lead" and we didn't even know about her???" Anyway. The lady who met with Stephanie indicated that she just isn't capable of dealing with the type of classroom settings that they have her in. She was, basically, aghast at some of the things that were said by Steph's assistant principal in our ARD meeting. She also informed us of a program that Keller ISD has, called "Stars," that is specifically geared for (guess what?)... HIGH FUNCTIONING AUTISTIC KIDS!!!! Now, this is where I got angry. WHY HAS NOBODY EVER TOLD US ABOUT THIS???? It's a single classroom setting with a teacher who actually understands autism! It is not at Central, it's at Keller HS, but I don't care. We will have to have another ARD meeting, probably after the "autism lead" gets finished going over everything we sent her, but we will certainly be pushing for Steph to be moved to this program. It just boggles my mind that we have been having to fight every step of the way for the slightest help for Stephanie, when this program has been there all along. Nevertheless, the news, at this point, is tremendous, to say the least. We are very excited about this possibility, and looking forward to what the autism lead has to say about it. Now all we have to do is get through this current bout of what seems to be rheumatic fever. It's always something... TTFN, y'all! 5 comments so farMissed anything? |