Drew's New School

This past year has been rather stressful where school is concerned. First we had to fight the school to mainstream Drew in the classroom instead of putting him in a Multi-handicap unit. Then the regular ed. teacher was scared to have him in her class at first. She didn't know what to do with him, but was willing to try things we suggested. We ended up doing all of his classwork modifications because the special ed. teacher said she "just didn't have time" to do them herself. The bright spot in the year has been his paraprofessional. She has been wonderful. And everything Drew has learned in school this year has been because of her. At the end of the year, Drew had only reached 39% of his IEP goals. And this is not because they were unattainable. Many of the goals had never been implemented.

Yesterday, we had a meeting with the school district requesting a change of placement for Drew. We asked that he be placed at the Nicolas School, a special ed school that my nephew with FXS attends, and is doing great. We had sent a letter to the school ten days ago with the request, and they came to the meeting prepared. They agreed to pay his tuition, provide transportation, and a full-time aide for him. The meeting was over in twenty minutes. We thought we'd have to do some fighting, but we didn't have to at all. What a blessing. Now, if we could just get his seizures under control....