Everything else that has happened since Evelio started school.
By the end of Evelio's first year in the Little House Program, I did not notice the major improvement I was hoping for. I had heard stories from other parents about how once their kids got in school, they had overcome so much. I was extremely disappointed at finding he hadn't really retained any of what his teacher had taught him in class. I'm not bashing his teacher, I love her, I was just not happy with his progress.
With the summer passing, my hopes began to rise again. I had applied for Evelio to attend the local head start's 3 year old program. (Evelio would be shortly turning 4, but his birthday is 7 days after the 21st, so they still classified him as ineligible for regular public school head start). I was absolutely sure they could not turn him away because the application clearly stated that this facility considered primarily income first, and then special needs. Of course, he was accepted, and this made me extremely excited. Here's just what he needed! After all, now he would be getting head start services as well as the Little House instruction.
We had another IEP meeting. I expressed my concerns with the head start staff about Evelio's aggressive behavior. They assured me that I had nothing to worry about. "Oh just give him 2 weeks, then he'll be normal like everyone else." Normal like everyone else? I disregarded this again expressed my concerns. I was told, "Well, if you feel more comfortable, you are welcome to come and sit with Evelio while he is in class." This made me feel much better about the situation. After the first 2 days, I became very upset and began thinking it wasn't going to work out. First of all, they had 17 kids in his class with only 2 teachers and one volunteer (unless I was there). Second, everything they were teaching was way over Evelio's level, so I'm sure he felt completely lost, and they did not try to include things that would help him learn as well. Over the next 2 weeks or so, he was sent home at least 3 times for attacking or fit throwing. Then, they requested a meeting and proposed the idea of cutting down his day. I didn't want to at first, but then I thought that might work since Evelio is NOT a morning person. So we changed his IEP to state that he would not come to school until 10:30. Then a few more weeks passed, and more times than I could keep track of, he was sent home.
Then one day I got a call. A call requesting yet another meeting to ammend Evelio's IEP. I was absolutely furious. I researched some information about paraprofessionals for special needs kids. I took this information along with my parent aide advisor and her supervisor for support. We got to the meeting and the proposal was to dismiss Evelio from the head start classroom because he was not ready. My paraprofessional idea was shot down by the head start's "limited funding". To put a long story short, they already had the amendment typed out and sitting pretty just waiting for me to sign it. Great point to a meeting, huh?
Anyhow, he still attends the Little House Program. We have changed his medication around a few times. We tried Abilify. . .no success. Depakote. . .no success. Then we went right back to Risperdal and coupled it with a medication called Clonidine. It is working marvelously. Also we bought some Melatonin because he was waking up frequently during the night. Very satisfied with the meds at this time.
Now that all the background information has been covered. . .
Time for the real stuff. . .
No comments:
Post a Comment