School Update- Jill

The week before Christmas Break I had a meeting with Jill's teacher, her Vice Principal, the school psychologist, and the school's speech therapist about if Jill qualified for an IEP, based on recommendations from the speech pathologist at Jill's IOP last year who suggested she be assessed. I have learned that there are thirteen different categories of disability in reference to special education under IDEA, including:

1. Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
2. Speech or Language Impairment
3. Other Health Impairment
4. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
5. Intellectual Disability
6. Emotional Disturbance
7. Developmental Delay
8. Multiple Disabilities
9. Deaf-Blindness
10. Deafness
11. Hearing Impairment
12. Orthopedic Impairment
13. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Jill's school psychologist (who conducted the majority of testing) informed me that Jill would be assessed under the category of Autism to see if she qualified for an Individualized Education Plan. Speaking of autism, pretty cool that there's now a Barbie with autism (which, I've read, was designed by an autistic person), but I laughed even harder when I saw this: 

Although the meeting was over an hour, the team didn't tell me until about ten minutes before it actually ended that Jill did not meet the qualifications for an IEP since the majority of the meeting was spent going over her different testing results.  I kind of wish they would have told me their decision at the beginning and then backed it up with the data instead of waiting till the end to learn that she didn't qualify.  Evidently, she did much better on the speech assessment with the speech therapist than she did on the same assessment at her IOP and that was the main area of concern.

I have mixed feelings about Jill not qualifying for an IEP.  In one sense, I guess I should feel relieved, but in another sense I was left feeling like I do much of the time with Jill's special needs- "Yes, she has special needs- but she's getting by and her needs aren't severe enough to require serious intervention." Her teacher confirmed that sometimes she struggles in class, but not enought to have to actually be pulled out of class.  That being said, she still has her 504 Plan and I thought it was very convenient that at the next Parent Teacher Conference the Vice Principal will be in attendance to update her 504 with her teacher and me.

I think my biggest concern is that Jill will be starting junior high next year and I just want her to be successful (meaning, not overwhelmed). I am curious if having different classes and teachers instead of just one classroom and teacher all day will help Jill's AuDHD brain. I just want her to have the accommodations she needs.

One part of the IEP Meeting where I literally almost cried in both stress and relief at how far Jill has come in actually attending school is when we looked at her attendance record from her 4th grade year with 47 absences and from her 5th grade year with 52 absences.  This year she has only had two absences from legitimate sickness. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then, when I can across this statistic about school attendance:

I am happy to report that Jill enjoys the social aspect of school and because of that I am able to successfully get her off to school most days. However, this morning after a brief argument/insistence that she wear her coat today (It was 19 degrees outside by the time she left for the bus stop and I could see her breath) she reluctantly put it on, said some choice words to me and then I said goodbye and closed the front door. Her argument about not putting it on is that it “makes her sweaty” because it’s so warm. [Tell me you have a child with sensory issues without telling me you have a child with sensory issues]!  About an hour later when my son left for school he said “Mom- did you know that Jill’s coat is on the porch?” [Tell me you have a PDA child without telling me you have a PDA child!]