Blogview Q & A

Blogview Q & A

 

 

Hi: Melissa
My name is Carmen thank u for your blog very helpful. I am looking for a elementary school for my son he is going to kindergarten. I looked some private and nothing. In your opinion any good public school north broward Or any private? Once again thank you for your blog.

 

Hi Carmen,

I am happy to hear you find the blog helpful, it contains a lot of information I wish I had had from the beginning. In my opinion public school is the only way to go when entering kindergarten. There you have the opportunity to have an expert panel to identify weaknesses and receive free services. In private school anything they need speech/OT/special ed teacher will likely be at a high price dollar wise unless it is one strictly geared for special needs.That being said if you want excellent results you as the parent must be the driving force. Know your rights by taking the free ESE parenting classes that the county provides, read wrights law, and get independent evaluations to prove what services your child requires in order to receive a free appropriate education. Work on goals on your own and call an interim meeting when you can prove they are mastered, do not wait on the schools progress reports.. I always chose two goals to work on at home or with an outside therapist so that we were not waiting an entire year for the school to help her meet a goal. If an issue is under 50%tile the school alone will likely not be able to get your child up to speed in time to keep them on level. Time is not on your side and Its all about academics for the school and what is academically necessary ONLY! Know the sunshine state standards for each grade level(make sure you work daily to reach these standards) and research accommodations not modifications for your child. If your child needs modifications to what is being taught then he is not working on state standards and not on level. If after a few years you have done everything humanly possible to get your child on level and he is still not meeting goals than modifications to the curriculum become necessary. It is a full time job. I promise if you sacrifice and push them hard while they are young you will have a better outcome when he is older. You have to always believe in your child, I can, I will, I do attitude and look for the truth about your child and work to make the necessary changes needed in them. Sometimes the truth hurts, If you don't know you cant fix it. There are many methods of learning and therapies out there(go with your gut and don't believe in quick easy fixes). If their doing it at home they are doing it at school. We earned our way to the Mckay scholarship through hard work and if she had not been on level or her behavior had been still off we would have stayed in public school. Autism has contributed to the financial ruin of my family along with my husband loosing his job after 23 years, so success has come at a high price. If you have a diagnosis of Autism your child should be eligible for social security benefits to help pay for therapy. We are selling our home and moving to another state, where we will be back in public school for financial reasons, I will have to start over and learn the ESE rules for another state as they are all different but all go by the American with disabilities act.

Never give up persist, persist, persist and don't ever let an educator make you feel bad for advocating for your child.

Sincerely,

Melissa B.