I went to my friend’s house the other night to brainstorm some ideas for Jumping Waves, Inc.  Okay, I’m not officially Jumping Waves, Inc.  But really, I’m hoping to get the approval within the next week.  Then I will officially be a non-profit organization.  Check!

Next on my to-do was ordering business cards.  Which, in turn, made me hire a graphic artist to recreate my design on a business card.  That part has been checked off…I’m anxiously awaiting to see what the graphic artist comes back with!  Then off to VistaPrint I go!

The biggest item to tackle on my to-do is starting (and then ideally finishing) the application for the 501 c 3.  All 26 pages.  You read right.  26 pages.  It’s a little daunting!  But I have some pieces of information that will hopefully help the process.  And an aunt who is an attorney.  And a friend who runs a big NPO.

And when this whole process gets overwhelming, I need to remember why I’m doing it.  To get the word out there that educational advocates are necessary, I think, in almost every situation.  I really think that any child with an IEP should have an advocate who is “assigned” to him or her.  That’s how important they are.  In my ideal world, along with every IEP would come a qualified educational advocate to help the parents get the very best for their child.

Jumping Waves is starting small.  But it is starting.  I’m raising and saving money.  I’m taking the necessary steps.  And I’ve even given out my first scholarship.  I hope to share this deserving family’s story very soon.  I couldn’t have given it to a more deserving family at this time of year.  You’ll see what I’m talking about very soon!

I think this would’ve been nice to hear, if it were really from Emma’s special ed teacher.  It might have helped with the anger I still feel inside of me.  Let’s hope that perhaps this is what she (and the director) are feeling.  I read this letter on my friend, Apraxia Mom‘s blog.  She’s become a big supporter of Jumping Waves and for that I truly appreciate her.  Go check her out…she’s got great posts!  *I could not find the author of this letter.

Dear Parents of Special-Needs Children I’ve Taught In the Past,

I need to make a big apology.  You see, I’ve been teaching now for fourteen years, but I have only just recently joined your ranks.

I didn’t know.  Not even a clue.  I thought, mistakenly, that having two special-needs children in my family made me more sensitive toyour needs as a parent.  It didn’t.  And I’m so sorry for operating under the assumption that I did.  I’m not attempting verbal self-flagellation here.  I meant well.  I knew a lot about autism and some about other special-needs conditions.  I did care about your child.  And I did want to do right by him.  But, like a lot of teachers who Just Don’t Get It, I thought doing right by him meant giving him extra time on assignments and not allowing him to fail my class.  I thought being extra nice and seating her at the front of the room was what you needed from me.

But you needed more.  And I didn’t understand that.  You needed communication.  A lot of it.  You needed me to understand your depth of worry.  You needed me to understand that, if you’ve met one special-needs child, you’ve met one special-needs child.  You needed me to understand that I was teaching your child, not an I.E.P.  You needed to know, not assume, that I would go out on a limb to make sure your child’s needs were met all over the school and not just in my classroom.  You needed to not worry that, when your back was turned, I was still doing everything that I promised as well as thinking of better ways to meet your child’s needs.  You needed to talk about your child in meetings and not worry about the clock.

I know better now.  In just a few months, I am going to be placing my special little boy into the hands of the public school system.  Because he is non-verbal, I will have no way of literally knowing how his  day went, if he is being treated well, and if those to whom I am entrusting his care really do care about him.  This kind of fear is paralyzing.  And more so because I know just how little training (read almost none) that most of the staff in a public school have in dealing with children like my son.  They, too, will mean well.  But they won’t know.  They won’t get it.  I now know why you carry The Binder of Epic Proportions to every meeting.  Mine is getting bigger by the day.

I look back now at all of your children and wish that I had picked up the phone more, written quick notes home more often, challenged your child more often rather than less, and make you feel certain that someone else loved your baby in your absence.  For that, I’m sorry.  I promise to do better for those kids in the future.  I promise to not assume anything about your child’s unique situation and needs.  I won’t just react to bullying of your very different child.  I will actively be on the lookout for it.  I will remember your child and her possible confusion on activity bell schedule days.  I will take more time each day to get to know her.  I promise to do my best to push, cajole, educate, and even take to task my colleagues who don’t get it in the years to come.  I pray that teacher training will improve in the future and that my son will reap the rewards of that.  And I hope that I am just as patient, kind, and understanding with his teachers and schools as most of you were with us.

And those of you who weren’t?  I get you too.

Sincerely,

Your Child’s Former Teacher

**Post edit: This letter is from Leigh, at flappinessis.com.  I haven’t yet looked into her blog too much, but I am liking what I see already.  Go check her out!  And Leigh, I hope you don’t mind I copied this.  It sounds like I’m not the only one shouting AMEN!!

Everyone has experienced that, right?  It’s just called “life”.  Well, let me tell you, it’s pouring over here.  And not only is it pouring, it’s pouring sh!t. I feel like I’m being pelted by sh!t.  Sorry for the graphic nature, but this is how I’m feeling right now.  And it’s my blog.  I’m tired of this school situation.  I’m still really bugged by my evaluation.  And regarding that, if I don’t get answers soon, I feel like I have no choice but to move forward legally.  I got an email today from the director at the district.  She removed the part in the Parent Input plan that had to do with my employment.  Because it didn’t have anything to do with Emma’s placement.  Um, can she really remove parts of my PARENT input document? I wanted it in there because it does pertain to Emma, and more-so it pertains to their lack of attention to our situation. And I wanted it in there because an IEP is a legal document.  This will be documented legally. I’m bugged because I feel like I have a huge fight ahead of us.  I’m bugged because of <stupid> jury duty.  I hate jury duty.  And because of that I feel like I get pulled every 18 months.  Without fail.  Lottery my ass.  I could go into many more reasons why I’m perturbed (great word, no?) but I won’t.

I just feel like I’m being taken advantage of right now.  And I also feel like I’m swimming upstream.  While other (bigger) fish swim downstream obstructing my path.  Visual enough?

Brett and me swimming upstream.

Anyway, I’m ready for a little normalcy.  A little boredom.  Just for a week, maybe?  Where I have no drama.  And, more importantly, I don’t perseverate on said drama.  Brett says I think about it too much.  I stress over it.  I totally agree with him.  But how do you not?

My good friend got me this notepad:

Not that I’m a lush, but it’s fitting the bill right now.  And I need a pedicure.

I’ve almost caught up to the present!  Last Friday we had another meeting.  This was to rewrite Emma’s goals.  Because, per my advocate’s words, the old ones were “crap”.  Nicely said.  Brett and I let her do her thing and she came up with very specific goals for Emma.  And a lot more than the few that Emma had.  When she wrote these goals for Emma, she reviewed the Arizona Early Learning Standards.  And she made it very clear that these goals needed to be reached using ABA principles, with staff trained in ABA and PBIS using multi sensory teaching strategies.  What, you don’t know all of these acronyms?  It’s okay…neither do I.  I’m learning, slowly but surely.

Because my advocate rocks, all of Emma’s new goals were accepted, with some tweaking of wordage here and there.  And after about 1 ½ hours of running around the subject, we finally started talking about placement.  Where will Emma be next year?  As you can imagine, the district and my family have very different ideas of what is best for Emma.  It’s the district’s job to tell us why their own self-contained program will work just fine for Emma.  It’s our job to tell them why it won’t be good enough.  They’ve screwed up FAPE for her (Free And Public Education) and we’ve lost our faith in them.  Obviously more was said.  Kristina went over lots of data to tell them why their program wouldn’t work, and why this (predetermined, by Kristina and Brett and myself) private school would be the best placement.  Of course district doesn’t want to hear that.

Here’s where we stand:  We’re waiting to get another meeting to (hopefully) conclude this.  We have provided our Parent Input (again, something Kristina wrote up beautifully).  And, by the way, Kristina was able to subtly slide into this Parent Input the “unwarranted and false evaluation by the principal” that I received.  I told you, she’s good.  I think the district would be stupid to fight with us on this.  Especially with that little bombshell.  However, they could.  We will meet.  District will bring in two employees who have visited the private school we’ve chosen.  We will bring in the director of the private school we’ve chosen.  And we will hash this out, hopefully without going to mediation or due process.  But if they push us there, then we’ll fight with everything we have.

And….the biggest and best news…Emma is at this new school as I type as a shadow student for a day.  This is to make sure that this school is the best fit for Emma.  Can I just tell you how excited Emma was today to try a new school?  She immediately made a new friend and practically ran to the gymnasium without giving me a hug or kiss.  She couldn’t wait to start her day at this new school!!  This goes to show that Emma has a passion to learn.  She loves school.  She just needs to be in the right placement.

Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma

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!

Not only did we have concrete facts to show that Emma wasn’t progressing, we had her anxiety about school as well.  And on top of that, I witnessed lots of “little things” that just added up and created one very unhappy Mama.  Before I get into those, here’s some background.  Last year, in Kindergarten, Emma had a wonderful aide that she shared with another student who had a visual impairment.  Things were great.  She was in a classroom that was highly structured, she had 2 amazing teachers, and 1 amazing para (aide) who was able to attend to her inability to focus.  This past year, for first grade, we were super lucky to have this wonderful para back.  Little did I know, however, they piled 2 more kids onto her plate.  So Emma was now sharing this para with 3 other students with varying delays and disabilities.  Not only was this not fair to Emma (of course, my first concern), but this wasn’t fair to the para or the other 3 students.  I’m not sure of anyone who would be able to attend to these girls’ needs in the general ed setting.  We were setting ourselves up for failure.  I voiced my concerns.  Many times.  On top of that, Emma was now placed in a classroom that was less structured, less routine.  My fault in that was that I didn’t go into these classrooms before hand to observe the setting.  And I should have.  (Lesson 1, my friends!!  Learn from my mistakes!)

We had meetings to discuss Emma’s lack of progress (their words, not mine) and her anxiety.  We decided to put her into a classroom that was more “self-contained”.  Well, I should’ve thought more about that as well.  This special ed teacher had 32 kids on her plate (granted, not in the classroom at the same time).  She had paras floating in and out of the room.  As well as these kids.  There was no routine or structure in there.  While there were fewer kids, there were people coming in and out of the room.  This wasn’t a good situation for Emma either.  Her happiness declined.  Temper tantrums increased. This clearly wasn’t working out.  Again, I tried voicing my concerns.  They fell on deaf ears.  Or ears that didn’t want to do anything about it.

Enter “the little things”.  The last 2 months of school were just one big hill moving downward.  Quickly.

Issue 1: On a day when Emma’s para wasn’t there, there was no one to walk the kids out to the parent pick up line.  Emma found me immediately.  The little girl with the visual impairment was led out to the parent pick up line by another little girl with severe mental delays.  How is this right?  Fortunately I took over and led the VI girl to her mom, who doesn’t speak English, by the way.  How did this responsibility fall on the girls?  If the para had to leave early, why wasn’t there someone else to escort them out?  It’s in these girls IEP documents (legal documents, by the way) that they have para support during transitional times.  On top of that, the general ed teacher was right inside the gate, and led the other students to the bus line.  And another aide walked right by them.  When I asked this aide where an adult was, she just shrugged and hurried right past me.  I brought this concern to the attention of the principal and the special ed teacher.  The principal wasn’t happy.  The special ed teacher told me that the aide I spoke with had to hurry to another job.  I’m sorry…what?  Wouldn’t most people have a moral obligation to help a student who is blind?  Let alone a para who works with them should have that moral obligation.

Issue 2: I have the pleasure to supervise my students at lunch at the same time Emma eats lunch.  During lunch, again, Emma (and the 3 little girls) have para support. The para, at this time, helps them buy their hot lunch, makes sure they get utensils, and helps them sit down.  The para also makes sure that they can open straws or forks (something that’s difficult for Emma with her low muscle tone).  And she also makes sure they eat a little something! During this lunch period, their wonderful para gets relieved by another para so she can eat lunch.  The second para, by the way, is the same person who also rushed by me after school in Issue 1.  Well, this para made sure she helped Emma clean her plate.  I saw her (twice) eat food off of Emma’s plate.  This is wrong on so many different levels.  First, no where in Emma’s IEP does it say that she is to be fed.  She’s very able to feed herself.  She just needs redirection, sometimes.  Also, as an aide, I don’t want to touch my students food.  Ew.  I don’t know where their hands have been.  She teases Emma with a grape, then pops it into her own mouth. Not 5 minutes later, I see this para blowing her nose into a napkin.  Okay, when I am watching over my students, I do everything I can NOT to touch their food.  And I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer around my neck.  Not quite believing what I saw, I put the other aides I work with on alert.  Finally, someone else sees what I see.  Again, I wrote an email to the principal to let him know of what I saw.

Am I in the twilight zone? <fade in music>

Issue 3: On a day when Emma’s regular para wasn’t in school, she had no support during the first part of lunch.  By the time the second para came in to help, Emma had packed her lunchbox up.  The para didn’t ask to see what she ate or look inside (perhaps the para wasn’t hungry that day?).  When I got home, this is what I found:

This is just another reason why Emma needs para support at lunch.  She didn’t get her open yogurt to the trash, nor her open and full juice box.  She didn’t even touch her peanut butter sandwich or her cheese stick, the “important” things (containing the most protein).  Immediately I took this picture and attached it to a nice email I sent to the special education teacher.  Want to read that email?  Okay!

Mrs. Special Ed Teacher,
I attached a picture to this email that shows Emma’s lunch box as I found it yesterday after school.  It emphasizes the fact that not only does she NEED para support at lunch time, but it is in her IEP.
I understand if there isn’t a sub to pick up her normal Para’s position.  You can’t force someone to take a sub job.  HOWEVER, there are plenty of para’s on campus, ESPECIALLY the DPS paras that are on lunch time during Emma’s lunch.  One of them could very easily provide assistance and supervision to Emma and the 3 other girls in Ms. Para’s care.  This is the school’s responsibility to find a para to fill in, per her IEP.
I wanted to bring this to your attention.
Sincerely,
Brett and Jessica

Can you tell I’m getting worked up just typing this out?  Turns out this is a great release for me!  I have more.  But as not to bore you (or make you equally as frustrated as I am), I will save it for tomorrow.

Keep this as food for thought…no pun intended.

What would you have done in my situation?  I’m very curious!  Please leave comments!

I realize I haven’t shared with you how the latest IEP meeting went.  In a word: AWESOME!  See, here’s how it goes for me.  For about a week before the meeting, I am a stress all.  It’s not a pretty picture, and it’s not good for me and my family.  This time was no different, and perhaps a bit worse.  With the last IEP meeting I was caught off-guard.  I didn’t know she wasn’t progressing.  I honestly didn’t.  Which is kind of weird because I’m usually in tune with how things are going.  So I was frustrated that I was caught off guard.  Emma’s school situation consumed my thoughts from that meeting on September 23rd until this last one on October 15th.  I was racking my brain to figure out how to fix it and make her situation better.  I wanted her to thrive and I didn’t know if she could get the environment she needed.  After mulling this over (mmm…mulled cider, anyone?), I came to a conclusion in my head.  I wanted her to stay put.  She knew everyone around her and she worked well with them (I even snuck around and checked up on some of them).  She knew the school really well.  And I wanted to disrupt her schedule as little as possible.  So I was going to ask for more of a “self-contained” environment.  Technically they don’t have one at this school, which is a shame.  But that’s another story.  But I wanted to see if we could create one for her by keeping her in the resource room (with the special ed teacher) for the morning, and part of the afternoon.  She’d get pulled for her therapies from that room, and she’d always know where she should be and where she’d be going.  To make a long story short, they AGREED!  This was going to be Emma’s new setting!

Here’s how it works.  Basically, she’s in resource all morning and gets pulled for therapies from there.  She heads to lunch and specials with her class.  Then she returns to resource for a bit.  She’ll spend the last part of the day in the classroom with her classmates and learn science, social studies, and also will go to library.

This past week was the first week we had the new schedule. Well, it was filled with rain and half-days, so we couldn’t really conclude anything. The next few weeks will be telling. I have a good feeling about this new schedule though. Oh, and we see the psychiatrist in a few weeks to talk about her medication…if it’s the right one, etc.

The feeling I had following that meeting was great. I felt like a HUGE weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. I just pray, now, that Emma is able to start making some progress in school. However, in this household we celebrate all progress, small and large!

Yeah, I apologize for my absence.  Or maybe you didn’t notice- I shouldn’t be presumptuous!  Anyway, last week was kind of long.  With peaks and valleys.  On Monday, it was my birthday.  Yes, I’m 33 now.  Brett says it’s still considered early 30′s.  Whew!  We had a BBQ with friends last weekend, and then on Monday Brett and I went out to dinner.  It was great fun!  Thursday, however, I hit my valley when we had a meeting with Emma’s Team (a.k.a. Team Emma).  Well, what they said honestly came as a surprise to me.  I wasn’t expecting it.  Because Emma was doing better at home.  But now?  Not only is she (still) aggressive towards other kids (which is so not Emma), but she’s not progressing academically.  Cognitively.  Not at all.  When you’re not expecting to hear that, it kind of feels like a punch in the gut.  Like I seriously had a hard time breathing.  Because I wasn’t expecting it.  It’s one thing if you’re expecting the news.  Which, in retrospect, is kind of shocking.  I mean, I’m pretty much on my A Game all the time with her.  Pretty observant, and in the know.  Notsomuch.

So what do you do in that situation?  Well, if you’re me, you have a pretty rotten day where you bite your lip for most of it.  You go through “why Emma?” and “why me?” spells sporadically.  You cherish the time at work so your mind stays preoccupied.  You trudge through your workout, pouring out all your energy into it.  And you pause on the food consumption for the day.  You also email the resource teacher for clarification and questions.

And Friday?  You put on your big girl panties, damnit, and get to work. Fortunately, I’ve learned to feel sorry for myself for very short periods of time.  And then I just figure out what I need to do and get to it.  Unfortunately, at this point, there’s not much I can do.  The good news?  The resource teacher and I want the same things for Emma.  Basically, more time with her aide, and more time in the resource room.  It’s become apparent that Emma gets too frustrated in the general ed setting.  Therefore she acts out, becomes disruptive, and can be a bully.  So, let’s take her out of that situation.  Right now we’re on hold, waiting for the psychologist to get back with her schedule so we can set up an IEP meeting to revise it.  As it seems, no one will have to be bowing down because we’re all on the same page.

I’ll keep you posted on when the IEP meeting occurs.  At this point I’m just ready to get the ball rolling.  When it comes to Emma and what she needs, I can become impatient.  I’m not going to sit around for too long.

Onward and Upward!

IEPs (as they might have been viewed by Dr. Seuss)

Do you like these IEPs?

I do not like these IEPs
I do not like them, Geez Louise
We test, we check
We plan, we meet
But nothing ever seems complete

Would you, could you like the form?

I do not like the form I see
Not page 1, not 2, not 3
Another change
A brand new box
I think we all
Have lost our rocks

Could you all meet here or there?

We could not all meet here or there
We cannot all fit anywhere!
Not in a room
Not in the hall
There seems to be no space at all

Would you, could you meet again?

I cannot meet again next week
No lunch, no prep
Please hear me speak
No not at dusk. No not at dawn
At 4 p.m. I should be gone

Could you hear while all speak out?
Would you write the words they spout?

I could not hear, I would not write
This does not need to be a fight
Sign here, date there
Mark this, check that
Beware the student’s ad-vo-cat(e)

You do not like them
So you say
Try again, try again!
And you may

If you will let me be
I will try again
You’ll see

Say!

I almost like these IEPs!
I think I’ll write six thousand three
And I will practice day and night
Until they say
“You’ve got it right!”

Today was Emma’s IEP.  To be quite honest, my anxiety was pretty low!  In part, it had to do with a comment I got from my previous IEP post here.  I was a bit on fire after reading that (and not in a mean, nasty way!).

Long story short, we all went through Emma’s goals, therapist by therapist.  She has been progressing, but not at the rate her goals were written at.  So, many of her goals have remained the same.  Which is fine…she needs to  master these goals before moving on to the next, right?  Well, my biggest concern was her extra para-professional support.  She shares an aide with 2 other students in the class.  Before the meeting, I asked her aide if she’d be interested in moving up with Emma to the 1st grade.  She said she’d love to do that…phew…one less thing to worry about!  The concern with the para is that we had a bit of a struggle “convincing” someone on the team last year that she needed para support.  In the end, she got what she needed.  Maybe it was to shut me up?  So, because of that experience, I was hesitant about the reaction I’d get this time. (And it should be noted that this time the person I needed to convince wasn’t in attendance)  However, upon bringing it up this year, everyone was in complete agreement that Emma needed that continued para support.  And that’s it…that was my biggest fear!  Nothing to fear in the end, but going into it, I didn’t know.

That is why I go into every IEP meeting with a confident mindset.  Whether it’s keeping my phrase, “bow down bitches” in the back of my head, or just continually telling myself that “yes, Emma will get what she needs”, I go in there like a mother bear ready to protect her cub.  You might say it’s a “fighting attitude” but not the bad kind of fighting.  The kind that won’t back down.

So the comment yesterday surprised me at first.  But then upon rereading my own post, I could see how someone might get the wrong idea if they didn’t know me.  I could also see that this person who commented didn’t know anything about the IEP process.  This person, in my assessment, had never had experience with a situation like mine.  And obviously this person didn’t know me personally.  Because I’m not a mean person, nor do I have a negative demeanor.  I do appreciate her honesty and I encourage those people who have differing opinions!  Healthy discussions are just that: healthy.

Any questions?