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Advocate for Ben
I became an advocate because of my son Ben. He is diagnosed with PDD-NOS. In my
role as advocate I once faced a situation with our school district that made me
work for the title. The district gave me a list of "special ed schools" to look
at to place Ben in - instead of the traditional type school we had him in. He was
almost three at the time when I was sent to look at AHRC. First off, I wanted their
integrated classroom but there was no room in it for Ben. Instead they showed me
the class he would be placed in - 2 yr olds comprised of some non ambulatory children
in wheel chairs with no skills and some severely delayed children (they might have
been autistic). I was upset when faced with the thought of Ben being even being
considered for this room. I didn't see him being in the same functioning category.
He could run and play, seeing the kids in the wheelchairs I wanted to cry. I felt
bad for them, but I knew that room was not where Ben belonged. I thought with a
little help from a classroom aide to redirect him (after talking with his pre-school
teacher) we could get him to where he needed to be to function in the typically
developing world. George and I told the school district that is what we want and
that is what we left the meeting with.
I did my research and knew what Ben was entitled to. If you walk in with the list
of what your child is entitled to and you should walk out getting what is on that
list. My advice is to know your rights. I have heard other parents in other meetings
with kids whose function level was below Ben's and they didn't walk out with half
the stuff we did. That was because they didn't know.
My new battle as Ben's advocate is, I have to see if his kindergarten placement
is the wrong placement. I am beginning to believe that all of the kids in his class
have behavioral issues more than learning problems. There are two 15:1:1 classes
but they aren't broken up evenly. There are a total of 16 kids. So they had to make
two 15:1:1 classes. But Ben's class has only 6 kids in it, the other has 10. So
I am thinking that the behaviors' are what is separating them out. This is not what
we agreed to at the meeting. I am waiting for his teacher to call me and explain
the bruise he has on his head that he didn't have when he went to school. I wish
I had still had aides in the classroom. -I hate not knowing what is happening to
him. Traci in Sachem NY.
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