As parents with children that have learning disabilities we strive to get them the education needed to go through their years of school. My personal experience with this has not been an easy task. It starts before grade school, as a baby, who does not learn to sit up at 5 months or talk by age 2. They go to preschool and early intervention helps them to learn some skills, then kindergarten and parents hear from teachers, “they will be fine”. As each grade passes by, child is still not learning the basics as quickly so they are neurologically tested and diagnosed with ADD/ADHD or other diagnoses and put on IEPś in school to help them. I personally had to change elementary schools. Thankfully in the same district so it helped, temporarily.
As child gets older you see they are still behind and with meeting after meeting, child is still not at grade level. My child has ADD, has taken medication which she claims does not help her. even tried changing meds and dosage of meds. The Special Ed classes that she attends are with kids that have severe disabilities, which puts her further behind because she is not being challenged to even get to grade level. The teachers ¨baby¨ her and the class because of the students with severe disabilities. The problem: This child can learn and is able to learn but their isn’t anyone that can teach her because she learns at a slower pace. As her mother I have tried for years to teach her but since I am the mom their is always conflict between us.
Our middle school ends at 8th grade. I requested my child to be retained that year in order to catch up before going into high-school because she was not ready socially or educationally. She is basically one to two years behind educational and socially wise. My child also agreed, knowing she was not ready for High School. Other kids were starting to say things to her about why was she in the Special Ed room, which made things worse, and now she was hating school. I wanted to retain her and have her learn in a regular general classroom. The principal and superintendent denied my request after many emails,, phone calls and meetings.
The principal of the High School does not know my child nor did the superintendent as it was his first year in the school. Not to mention my childś dad passed away that same year between 7th and 8th grade. Do they not understand that had to have had some effect on her learning? They told me she would graduate with a ¨certificate” if all else fails. WHAT! a certificate! No! my child would receive the education she needed to get a High School Diploma, not a certificate. This child is capable. So basically, they will push a child who is capable of learning through each grade until they are out of school. This is absolutely not acceptable. What difference would it really mean to them to give the child one extra year? An extra year to catch up and be closer to her actually year level of learning.
I cannot wrap my head around this. Everyone says it affects the ¨score¨ of the school. That is B.S. I just want my child to learn every grade of school knowing child is capable of doing so. No parent wishes for their child to repeat a grade. I will keep on fighting for my child to receive the proper education. I feel we should be able to make the decisions on behalf of our own children. We should have rights as parents to decide what we want for our children that are not old enough to make these life decisions. We are the ones who know our children best!
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Politically Incorrect- The World We Live 