Guest guest Posted July 31, 2004 Report Share Posted July 31, 2004 One time we had a weird interdistrict thing happen to us in California. Our county program (Santa Cruz) was ASL, but we wanted TC for our child. We made arrangements, through our district, to tour a public school in the neighboring county (Oster School in San ). My husband and I went and liked what we saw. Next, our school district made arrangements for 's teacher of the deaf and other administrators to visit Oster and start making plans for to go there (this was when he was turning 3 and graduating from the early intervention program.) Our team went there on the appointed day, and when they arrived, the director of the Oster program turned them away! She said circumstances had changed and they no longer had space to take students from out of district! (I think they were doing some remodeling, or maybe there was some administrative reorganization going on.) Our team was quite taken aback and said that had never happened to them before. We tried to argue with Oster's director to no avail. In the end, everything was fine because we found an equally appropriate TC program in Monterey County. He went there for a year, then got an implant and our district paid his tuition at a private auditory/oral school the following year. I can see how the CASE program in Concord (where my son was the past 3 years together with Stefanie's son) might not want to be accused of " enticing " families from outside of the CASE collaborative towns by letting them visit if their own district will be unwilling to send them there. That might be why, as a policy, they require a referral for the visit from the student's own district. Since they are one of the few public oral programs in the area, they might also feel that too many visitors too often would be intrusive. (And they do make you sit in a cage when you visit, even to observe your own child! They don't want the kids to be distracted! I am not kidding -- you sit in a section of the room with a partition built partly of plywood with screened windows! Of course, the kids still know you are there and turn around and wave constantly, so I am not really sure what good it does! :-) I would be curious to know if other collaboratives in Massachusetts also abide by the same strict rules. Lydia Mom of , 7 1/2 CI at age 4 and Colin, 10 1/2, hearing > Thanks Jill! I think Mass is a great state too - just like to keep my > options open. > Re: Re: Top state > > > > > > Alisa, > > > > I've heard great stuff about the services in Mass. so perhaps they do have > > their act together, even with this odd control thing going on. Here in NY > there > > is no crisp clean process. That has its pros and cons, I guess. We had to > > discover what services were available and what Ian needed ... had to do > the > > searching on our own. That left us open to visits schools but then needing > to > > fight for whatever placement we might have chosen. We didn't deal with the > > local EI program, Ian was far too old. There was no program director for > us to > > disagree with, so I guess Mass has the better of the state-wide programs. > So > > that's one vote for Ma as a top state. (grin) > > > > Jill > > > > > > > > In a message dated 7/31/2004 2:10:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time, > > alisaoliver@c... writes: > > > > Jill, > > > > I agree that it is unethical but, I think the main reason they do it is > > because we are in the state of Massachusetts. They would much rather you > > stay within your own district. There are some districts in which a > process > > like this would be seemless however, Dracut does not appear to be one of > > them. > > > > Alisa > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 1, 2004 Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 Hi again, Alisa, I had a couple of ideas about how you can do a little visiting in the mean time before Hannah turns 2 1/2. First, I would guess (but can't be sure!) that e East in Canton, being a private school, would let you visit without a referral. Even if you think it might be too far away for you, it might be worth going just to see what an audiotory/oral program might look like. There might be other opportunities for visits to other places. One time I was visiting my friend in Santa Fe, NM, and my friend (who does not have deaf children) made arrangements for me to visit the New Mexico School for the Deaf. My friend made it clear I was a visitor on vacation, but they were so proud of their school, the assistant director was pleased to show us around. I learned a lot on that visit. I learned that, compared to a deaf 3-year-old child with deaf parents, my signing skills were abysmal! ( had been diagnosed about a year earlier.) I also witnessed a tough separation between a young girl and her parents who were leaving her for the week. She was quite young still, but a residential student. The state is so big and the population very spread out. They fly children home for weekends. In all, it was very educational. And my friend has maintained her connection to the school and often does science (laser optics) demonstrations/experiments for the high school students. She says it's been great and she's really impressed with the students. Maybe, in addition to coming to Mom's Night Out, we could have a get- together with the kids so you could meet some slightly older children too! I am sure they would love to meet Hannah! Take care, Lydia > Thanks Jill! I think Mass is a great state too - just like to keep my > options open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 1, 2004 Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 Hi again, Alisa, I had a couple of ideas about how you can do a little visiting in the mean time before Hannah turns 2 1/2. First, I would guess (but can't be sure!) that e East in Canton, being a private school, would let you visit without a referral. Even if you think it might be too far away for you, it might be worth going just to see what an audiotory/oral program might look like. There might be other opportunities for visits to other places. One time I was visiting my friend in Santa Fe, NM, and my friend (who does not have deaf children) made arrangements for me to visit the New Mexico School for the Deaf. My friend made it clear I was a visitor on vacation, but they were so proud of their school, the assistant director was pleased to show us around. I learned a lot on that visit. I learned that, compared to a deaf 3-year-old child with deaf parents, my signing skills were abysmal! ( had been diagnosed about a year earlier.) I also witnessed a tough separation between a young girl and her parents who were leaving her for the week. She was quite young still, but a residential student. The state is so big and the population very spread out. They fly children home for weekends. In all, it was very educational. And my friend has maintained her connection to the school and often does science (laser optics) demonstrations/experiments for the high school students. She says it's been great and she's really impressed with the students. Maybe, in addition to coming to Mom's Night Out, we could have a get- together with the kids so you could meet some slightly older children too! I am sure they would love to meet Hannah! Take care, Lydia > Thanks Jill! I think Mass is a great state too - just like to keep my > options open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 1, 2004 Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 Hi again, Alisa, I had a couple of ideas about how you can do a little visiting in the mean time before Hannah turns 2 1/2. First, I would guess (but can't be sure!) that e East in Canton, being a private school, would let you visit without a referral. Even if you think it might be too far away for you, it might be worth going just to see what an audiotory/oral program might look like. There might be other opportunities for visits to other places. One time I was visiting my friend in Santa Fe, NM, and my friend (who does not have deaf children) made arrangements for me to visit the New Mexico School for the Deaf. My friend made it clear I was a visitor on vacation, but they were so proud of their school, the assistant director was pleased to show us around. I learned a lot on that visit. I learned that, compared to a deaf 3-year-old child with deaf parents, my signing skills were abysmal! ( had been diagnosed about a year earlier.) I also witnessed a tough separation between a young girl and her parents who were leaving her for the week. She was quite young still, but a residential student. The state is so big and the population very spread out. They fly children home for weekends. In all, it was very educational. And my friend has maintained her connection to the school and often does science (laser optics) demonstrations/experiments for the high school students. She says it's been great and she's really impressed with the students. Maybe, in addition to coming to Mom's Night Out, we could have a get- together with the kids so you could meet some slightly older children too! I am sure they would love to meet Hannah! Take care, Lydia > Thanks Jill! I think Mass is a great state too - just like to keep my > options open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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