The Good Fight

It seems that we are always fighting for what Emma needs! Once she was diagnosed with Autisim my husband and I began the search for the right professionals to have on our team. We wanted to make sure Emma was getting what she needed from us and from her school. so, we got Emma in with a great Psycholgist and Psyciritrist.

We also contacted her school to set up a meeting to request testing to change her disbaility on her IEP to Autisim...and so the fight begins! At our first meeting the school pushed back and did not want to grant Emma testing for OT (occupational therapy). They tried to tell me they had to wait until her eligibility to discuss getting an OT assessment. I had to remind them that Emma already had an IEP so that they could do the OT assessement. See, OT is a big issue for Emma. She has sensory and fine motor issues. I knew as a teacher myself how important these areas are for her. After emphasizing out point, we did get what we wanted, but we had to fight for it. It just stinks that we have to fight so hard to get our kids what they need!

Then we had to move. We were renting a house and our landlord decided to change things up on us. School started. Emma had already began school and was doing great before we got this blow. So here we are just getting settled and Emma had to up and change schools. Emma loved her class, her school, and teacher. We tried to get the school to let her stay, but no county policy was that she had to go to her home school. See Emma had Autisim, but the school did not recoginze it yet. This switch was hard for Emma, we had to up root everything in her life! She acted out. She did not like her new teacher....we did not like her new teacher. The fight intensified!

Before Emma even moved schools the principal said to my husband that we would have to change Emma's IEP because it did not match what they had to the school. That was the first red flag. The principal said something to that effect several times. I kept on resuring my husband that not, they cannot do that and the school must do as the IEP says or face legal issues. Then there was the teacher. A sweet older lady. I went to open house and mentioned that Emma was already reading and needed to be pushed. I was blown off. She didn't want to give Emma more, she wanted to focus on how Emma did not want to do the work with the class. At the first conference, again the teacher was not listening to what Emma needed. Emma showed her teacher that she knew a lot on the PALs test. Her teacher said that Emma must have seen it before since she knew the reading do well. I again said, no Emma is reading. She taught herself to read between the ages of 3 and 4. We would get note how about Emma not listening in class and not participating. All the while brining prereading, beginning letter sound work home. Her class was learning the letters and the sounds they made. Emma had to sit in class and do work that was years lower than her ability.

But what proof did I have? They didn't believe what I said. We had to prove the her teacher and school that Emma had this hidden talent and ability that they could not see!!