Start to a New Year

After everything we went through this summer trying to keep JT at the school he was at last year, and then finding out he would indeed go to a new school, the much anticipated start to the year was upon us.  I had decided that, since I didn't have any other choice, I would give this new school an honest try and continued to pray that God would have great things in store for John, that this school, could maybe be even better than before.  I'm sure God does have great things in store for John still, but the year didn't start off too promising.

We went to the Life Skills orientation/meet the teacher night the week before school started.  That is where the uncertainty started.  We found out that the one life skills class they were starting at Shafer would have 12 students in it.  That is A LOT!  There would be a teacher and 3 paraprofessionals for a student/teacher ratio of 3:1.  Last year, the ratio in his class was 2:1.  That raised red flags for me immediately.  Then I realized there would be 5 students in his class in wheel chairs.  With only 4 adults, how were they going to push all of the chairs plus hold on to the kids who walk.  You could tell that the teacher was very overwhelmed.  The other concerning part is that there is only 1 nurse on campus.  Most campuses have a nurse and an assistant, but this campus, with 12 life skills students only had 1 nurse.

Finally, the first day of school came and went and from what I could tell, it went fine.  Then came the second day.  All seemed well.  When he came home from school, I began going through his back pack and cleaning out his lunch box.  When I opened the top of the lunch box, I noticed his snack was still in there.  The yogurt and drink were gone, but the snack was there.  I thought it was odd that he didn't get a snack that day.  Then I opened the bottom, where I keep his lunch and saw the container I put his lunch in, and it was still full.  My boy was not given lunch that day.  That sent me into a frenzie.  Well, not really, because I don't usually get frenzied, but I was upset about it.  I knew I couldn't tell Tommy right away, because he would come unglued, and I needed to find out what happened before I told him.  I tried calling the school, but they must have been gone for the day.  So I sent an email, hoping she would get it that day and call me.  After thinking about it a little longer, I decided to call her on her cell phone.  She had given me her number before school started and told me I could call her any time.  She was completely surprised when I told her that he hadn't eaten lunch.  Apparently what happened was the Occupational Therapist had come to work with John on his feeding and decided to give him lunch.  The teacher just assumed she had given him all of his lunch, but she only gave him his yogurt. No one followed up to see if he had eaten everything.  Also, they apparently just skipped snack time that day too, otherwise they would have noticed it when they gave him his snack.  She appologized and assured me it wouldn't happen again.  I just hate to think of my boy being hungry for lunch, but not being able to tell anyone.  That thought breaks my heart.

After stewing over it for a week, I decided, after being advised by a friend, that I needed to make sure the Principal knew about it.  So I sent her an email, telling her about him not being fed, and also to express my concerns about the class size and that they were not having their basic needs met.  If they can't meet the students' basic needs, they can't possibly meet their educational needs.  She responded rather quickly that they were working on opening a new class in the next few weeks.  In my experience, nothing like that works quickly.  So I decided to contact someone from the district to find out what was going on.

I sent an email to the Special Education Instructional Officer for Elementary Programs.  I included the email I had sent to the Principal, as well as the Principal's response and I asked her to call me after she had a chance to read it.  She did call me and was very kind.  She listened to all of my concerns and frustrations.  She told me that they were in the process of splitting up the class and setting up a new room for the new class.  They had hired a teacher substitute for the short term and were working on hiring a new life skills teacher.  They were hoping to have the position filled by September 21.

Yesterday, I received a call from his teacher telling me that the class has officially been divided in two.  She was going to keep the 2-4 graders and the new class would have k-1.  That would give each class exactly 6 kids.  I also found out that they actually have 6 wheel chairs instead of the 5 I thought they had.  And until they hire the new teacher, they would be using the special education lead teacher for elementary programs to teach the class.  I'm pleased that they took action, and this quickly, in order to rectify a situation that never should have happened to begin with.  And I am happy that John is in a smaller class where the ration will now be 2:1 and he will get much more attention.

On a side note, when I picked him up for therapy on Tuesday, the teacher that brought him to the office for me told me that when she brought him to his 2nd grade class that morning for reading, the kids in his class were fighting over which one got to read to John.  That makes me very happy.  I love when John gets to interact with kids his age, who are typical, but I love it even more when they are excited to interact with him.  Most of all, John loves being with them.  I'm so thankful that he is in a 2nd grade class that will include him with the group and where the other students enjoy being with him.