High School

[Guest guest]

This is Nick's second year at the high school (he's attending the one he would

attend without a disability too!). High School started a little rough -- last

year after I about had a fit over the original placement that we being led to

believe he was getting (self-contained classroom with students that based on

what I knew of the students, as I know several of them from other activities,

Nick was more advanced than). We met with the head of special ed and she

agreed that was not the proper placement and sent the IEP specialist to

straighten things out. IEP was reconvened at the end of summer and Nick was to

spend part of the day in the self-contained (science/math/ind.living skills),

reading & pre-voc would be with a teacher that taught, I'm assuming here, more

LD students as would History (but with a different teacher) and PE would be with

the kids from the self-contained class. IEP was written for this year to be the

same.

Anyway this year at the start of the year I find out that someone (Vice

Principal & Pre-Voc teacher) decided Nick would be in the self-contained

classroom all day. Self-contained teacher has confirmed that Nick is more

advanced than her other students and, like me, she feared he would act out more

if bored and she was having difficulty trying to figure out how to keep him

engaged without losing the other students. I told her that was in violation of

his IEP -- she agreed. Problem was the Vice Principal (who is over special ed

students) was saying that the other teacher could only have 8 students and she

had those already. Quick call to the board office (thankfully Nick's home base

teacher was proactive for me) and the VP was informed no, she could have 12

students and Nick was to be assigned to her class. Nick, teacher and staff

spent the next week trying to figure out a schedule for Nick. Finally got one

that would work but lost the independent living skills (so sad, NOT) so IEP had

to be reconvened.

IEP specialist came with a new Behavioral Plan (done by the head of special ed

-- love her). Plan for now is Nick will work toward walking independently from

class to class by February 2011. He is to eat at a table with typical

classmates (IEP specialist's daughter is in Nick's grade and has volunteered to

be Nick's lunch buddy for now and has him eating at her table with her friends).

He's under the same rules as the rest of the school as far as handling being

tardy and lunch behavior. (Just need to get the aides to back down -- excuse is

they are just so protective of the special ed students.) He has

reading/language arts with the more advanced teacher for 1st period. 2nd period

is Social Studies with his home base teacher (self-contained classroom). The

teacher that taught last year is no longer teacher special ed and they thought

the regular ed class would be too advanced for him. 3rd period is Math with his

home base teacher (self-contained classroom). 4th period Music Appreciation

with a regular ed teacher but with the kids from the self-contained class. Then

he has lunch. After lunch he has Science with his home base teacher

(self-contained classroom). 6th period he goes to PE (alone, no aide -- all

typical kids), Nick doesn't dress, but for now that is best -- locker room isn't

supervised and he gets into way too many things. 7th period is Pre-Voc with the

other non-self-contained special ed teacher.

Goal is to have him ready for a job by summer 2011. IEP Specialist is hoping to

get him on at one of the local golf courses. (Prayers for Nick's maturity level

and behavior to get to where it needs to be to make this happen would be greatly

appreciated.) If all goes well, we may just opt to have him graduate with his

class (2013) and be done. (Original plan was for him to walk across the stage

and come back for one more year of strictly job training.)

Cari