After these little things occurred, I knew something had to be done quickly.  Changes had to be made.  I did document these incidents, mostly through email to the principal (which fell on deaf ears, apparently).  I had more than one person, including my husband, suggest that I keep Emma home from school with me.  If this had been last year, I would’ve.  I wasn’t working then.  But I was working part-time, now, in a Kindergarten classroom as an aide.  I felt loyal to the position, as well as to the teachers I worked with/for/under.  I didn’t want to leave them in a lurch by skipping out on the last 3 weeks of school.  I didn’t want to compromise my work ethic and integrity.

I came up with a solution.  I asked one of the teachers I worked with if I could bring Emma into class after lunch.  Some background on the teachers I work with.  One was my college roommate all four years.  We’ve been really good friends ever since those days (how she could live with me for 4 years and still be my friend is beyond me!).  We get together frequently as families or as couples.  She knew the background stuff going on with Emma. She told me it would be no problem having her in class for that last half hour.  I assumed she would mention it to the team teacher and it would be no problem.  Both of these teachers had Emma in their classroom last year for KG, and they knew her well.  I was so frustrated with the lack of supervision that Emma was getting that I wrote an email to the principal. Want to read it? Okay!

Dear Principal and School Psychologist,
Brett and I wanted to bring up a few concerns that we have regarding Emma and the rest of her year. It has become increasingly obvious to both Brett and myself that Emma is not happy.  She is reluctant to do much work.  She complains of headaches or other maladies frequently. She often looks sullen and sad.  It breaks our hearts to see our daughter, who once LOVED school, to be so upset.  It’s a daily battle to get her to school.  There are a few changes we will be making to the remaining 14 days of school, effective immediately.
Emma will be signed out of school by me at 1:00 every day.  I understand that this might make giving her evaluations a little trickier, but we are putting my daughter and her mental well-being first.  Please inform us when you plan to perform the rest of the evaluations so that we can make sure Emma is present.
Upon arriving to lunch in the cafeteria, I would like her to bring her backpack with her.  She will eat lunch with me at my table.  The reason we are making this decision is that I saw something that disturbed me last week.  I saw Ms. Para take food from Emma’s tray and eat it herself.  We don’t think it is appropriate for a para to be touching Emma’s food, let alone eating food off of her plate.  It’s unsanitary and completely unnecessary.  Not five minutes after I saw her eat food, she was blowing her nose.  This disgusts us.
She can spend the remainder of my hour at school with me on the kindergarten playground.  She will wait for my shift to end at 1:00.  Of course Emma still needs instruction, and therefore we have decided to hire a tutor to come to the house in the afternoons, but will seek reimbursement from the district for these services.
Brett and I had such high hopes for her education at this school.  It is very upsetting to us that she has not received the special education that she needed.  Our daughter has great potential and we feel that she was “swept under the rug” because her academic abilities were too challenging.  During the past two meetings, the other in-district program was mentioned and we appreciate that it is recognized that Emma needs to be in an appropriate program.  We are eager to obtain the results of the evaluation and incorporate them into Emma’s IEP.  Please provide these to us in advance of our meeting on May 18th.
Sincerely,
Brett and Jessica

The response I got in return was a request for Brett and I to meet with him to discuss my concerns about what was happening with Emma.  Unfortunately, I got that request on Tuesday, the day after the email.  Mason and I were leaving on Thursday for a family reunion back East.  I told him I was missing school for 3 days, but would be back the following week.  He suggested that we wait to meet until the date of the IEP meeting.  That was fine with me.  After all, what was he going to do? I had my concerns documented.

If anyone sees where this is going, it’s not over yet.  Seriously, it’s like a soap opera.  I’ll fill you in on the last day of school tomorrow.  It’s a doozy!

Lastly, if anyone is having problems with their child’s schooling, I highly recommend hiring an advocate.  Kristina is worth her weight in gold.  She has gotten so much accomplished already, and I feel very confident about Emma’s future schooling.  She is on top of her game.  She knows the laws.  And that’s what is really key.  You can read more about Kristina and her services by visiting her website here.  Hiring an advocate (any advocate) is not cheap.  But it would be a shame to put a price tag on Emma’s education.  We simply aren’t willing to do that.

More tomorrow!

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