Friday, October 15, 2010

I think I'm getting WHY McKenna has so MANY issues at school!

Okay, so we've been in a holding pattern on the school issue for a while. We've put off pulling her out of her school and/or looking for a new school and/or homeschooling her. We had a great sleepover with a classmate of the  ONE parent I spoke with regarding our issues with the school.  Her daughter befriend McKenna after an absence of a few years of them being not so friendly.

So we go to her Parent Teacher conference last week and we chat with her teacher...and map out where we are since the Hospital visit....and I ask if it's true that he won't accept her Spelling/English homework unless she has her Math homework done too. He says that is the class rule and it's not fair for other students who do all the work to see her turn in only her Spelling homework. So I told him that he will NEVER see homework from her then because even if she has it completed (and sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't) that she just won't hand it in...because it's messy. Well, he says that's the rule.

Then we discuss her melancholy and her ongoing therapy...and he brings up the fact that she basically just sat down and cried for about an hour the previous week. He asked if he could help her and she just told him to leave her alone. Um, this was the first time I'd hear about this. No call home, no text, no email, nothing. I'm thinking for a child who was just hospitalized for Anxiety/Depression that perhaps this needs to be communicated in some manner!!!

That made me a LOT pissed. I told him the next time he needed to call me so I could come get her. His response was: "well, sometimes children just need to cry." ???????????????????

We also pointed out that we'd like her moved to a separate area with a desk against the wall so that she won't get distracted by other students talking and leading her to talk/not pay attention. This was something Mac and her Psychologist came up with for helping her in school. (Accommodations list which every child who falls under ADA regulations should have at school )....but since this school has never had an IEP with us, even though we've asked again and again.....we don't have an accommodations list. Oh, and she's still not by herself but rather in a row of other students!

Overall, at the time I felt better that we had some time with him and that Den and I explained how she learns and has been self learning.....we explained to him that we didn't want her left in the room for math but rather put with someone who could retrain her from the beginning...doing basic addition and subtraction since she wasn't retaining that information. He said that he didn't know if there was anyone who could give her remedial help but that she could leave when they do math. But if nobody is going to help her then where will she be with math???

Again, I was happy that we got a chance to talk with him......when I was explaining to my sister, Amy, what he'd said and what we talked about she looks at me and says: " So he said there's going to be no help in math, no accommodation for taking some but not all homework, she passes tests on subjects that she wasn't even there for so he's not teaching her the stuff she excels in and he lets her cry without calling you after she's been hospitalized? Why do you think you made any progress?"

She's right! They've dragged their feet about an IEP for a YEAR AND A HALF. They don't treat her Special needs in Math nor do they treat her giftedness in English/Spelling/Social Studies and all things NOT math! And he doesn't inform me of major breakdowns while at school!!!! And has little to no control over his class while at recess, referring to the bullying going on all the time.

It's time for a new school! We will be stepping up the effort for Mac once again! Ridiculous!

1 comment:

  1. What type of school is this? Is he a part of a teacher's union? He doesn't seem to be motivated to teach. I am concerned that he has tenure.

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