Private Program/suing the school

[Guest guest]

Hello Everyone-

I am really struggling with a decision regarding my severly global

apraxic 6 year old son. We moved in May to a new town with an

excellent educational reputation, unfortunately their special ed

program is less then desirable from our experiences. I did not

realize how bad my son was doing until I did a school visit this

past week to help a new aide get acclimated to 's needs.

Unfortunately the school has lied to use numerous times about how

wonderful is doing and how they have him paired up with another

boy (with sever Down Syndrome) all day because they motivate each

other. We also fought for a one on one aide for and got it a

month ago only to find he is still sharing it with this DS boy. In

every PPT since the start of the year they all say what great

progress is making, however when I say him in the classroom by

heart broke. He is a zombie and spacing out to escape the stressful

environment he is in. In addition, he was potty trained since last

Feb, but from all the changes of staff and potty protocols he is not

crying and refusing the use the bathroom at school. I just found

out this week the school never tried my protocol, only theirs which

had many steps where did everything on his own. Which is a

great long term goal, but to much for a child with motor planning

issues at a new school. So bacially from what we have seen, as well

as 's private therapist who did a site visit at the school, he

is tramatized. The school cannot handle his needs and won't admit

it. I even offered to pay to have his private therapist come in and

train everyone the way needs to be taught and they will not

allow it.

There are a lot of other bad things that happened, from being sent

home with feces 4 times for the aide to make a point to the school,

to the aide and ST saying they do not use his commuication device

(which is outlined in his IEP with 3 pages of goals)because it

detracts the other kids, to having my son eat a hot dog out of a bun

and not eating the bun and pushing the hot dog through the bun to

look normal (he usually does not eat the bun and I have them cut it

for him, but a child asked if he was a baby, so they taught him this

other way to look normal).

My husband wants to pull our son out of school right now. I do not

want the school to get away without having to pay for anything. We

found a private therapist for our son who can develop a day program

for that would be all one on one therapy and tutoring in a

medical based facility. It would be a 3-5 month deal and then try

mainstreaming him back in the district. I think he would make

termendous progress as he has with her in the 3 months he has been

working with her. But I guess I fear he will have an even harder

time adjusting to going back to school, plus I feel guilty taking

him away from the typical children he enjoys playing with. It is

such a hard decision.

My son use to love school and be so confident and social and he is

just a different kid.

Also has anyone sued a school district before for emotional

distress, not following the IEP, risk of injury, or discrimanation?

We will probably end up going that route, but then I feel I cannot

stay in this town and I hate to move again, especially since change

is so hard for .

Michele