I have physics homework due tomorrow and I haven't even started it. Instead, I've been mulling over the IEP meeting I had at difficult child's school today and specifically the fact that they denied it because she's "able to benefit educationally" without accomodations.
To re-cap, toward the end of last school year (April 2012), difficult child attempted suicide and had to be hospitalized for observation for a little over a week. She was stripped of her ADHD diagnosis and diagnosis'd with psychosis, trichotilomania (sp?), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), general anxiety, sever depression, insomnia, and some other things. It's a pretty extensive list. When she got out of the mental hospital, she spent most of the rest of the year either in the school nurse's office or the school counselor's office because she wasn't stable enough to really stay in class, plus her medications were new and they'd rather watch her anyway. Grades had already been determined, so it wasn't really a big deal where that was concerned.
I spent the summer really trying to make sure she felt loved, safe, happy, etc. It was essentially focus on difficult child time. I thought our relationship was getting better, but little did I know that she was telling her therapist that I was more or less ignoring her, she didn't feel loved, etc. This resulted in her therapist verbally attacking me in her office in September in front of difficult child saying that difficult child doesn't have any problems, and if I'd just give her more positive attention, all difficult child's issues would go away.
Since the beginning of the school year, difficult child's behavior at home has taken a nose-dive. She's resumed harming her little sister (difficult child will be 11 in days, baby sister is 15 mo.s), harrasing the pets, yelling at me. At school, she's out-right failing writing and has a D in math. Coincidentally enough, since the beginning of the year, she's told me several times that she feels her classmates are bullying her.
Today, we had the IEP meeting. She's been denied because the school psychologist feels difficult child is able to benefit educationally in a regular classroom without accomodations. I asked for clarification, and she said that though difficult child clearly has emotional and mental health issues that are recoginzed and have been diagnosis'd by a psychiatrist, because they do not negatively effect her ability to receive an education, she is denied.
So, I specifically asked her, how does spending all day in the counselor or nurse's office where there is no education occuring at all *NOT* negatively affecting her ability to receive an education? How is her being bullied to the point that she attempts suicide and has to be hospitalized where there is effectively no education occuring *NOT* negatively affecting her ability to receive an education? How does her F in writing (she loves to write, by the way) and D in math reflect that her mental and emotional conditions are *NOT* negatively affecting her ability to receive an education?
No real response except to acknowledge that they understand that I'm frustrated and to inform me that I have the option to appeal their decision with the director of education.
Which will happen. They want me to email her (provided her email address, no physical address). I feel this is a ruse of some sort; I've never been told to handle this type of official, legal business through email; it just sounds fishy. But what do I say? I mean, they acknowledge all the issues I stated above and still denied her IEP. What else is there *to* say?
To re-cap, toward the end of last school year (April 2012), difficult child attempted suicide and had to be hospitalized for observation for a little over a week. She was stripped of her ADHD diagnosis and diagnosis'd with psychosis, trichotilomania (sp?), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), general anxiety, sever depression, insomnia, and some other things. It's a pretty extensive list. When she got out of the mental hospital, she spent most of the rest of the year either in the school nurse's office or the school counselor's office because she wasn't stable enough to really stay in class, plus her medications were new and they'd rather watch her anyway. Grades had already been determined, so it wasn't really a big deal where that was concerned.
I spent the summer really trying to make sure she felt loved, safe, happy, etc. It was essentially focus on difficult child time. I thought our relationship was getting better, but little did I know that she was telling her therapist that I was more or less ignoring her, she didn't feel loved, etc. This resulted in her therapist verbally attacking me in her office in September in front of difficult child saying that difficult child doesn't have any problems, and if I'd just give her more positive attention, all difficult child's issues would go away.
Since the beginning of the school year, difficult child's behavior at home has taken a nose-dive. She's resumed harming her little sister (difficult child will be 11 in days, baby sister is 15 mo.s), harrasing the pets, yelling at me. At school, she's out-right failing writing and has a D in math. Coincidentally enough, since the beginning of the year, she's told me several times that she feels her classmates are bullying her.
Today, we had the IEP meeting. She's been denied because the school psychologist feels difficult child is able to benefit educationally in a regular classroom without accomodations. I asked for clarification, and she said that though difficult child clearly has emotional and mental health issues that are recoginzed and have been diagnosis'd by a psychiatrist, because they do not negatively effect her ability to receive an education, she is denied.
So, I specifically asked her, how does spending all day in the counselor or nurse's office where there is no education occuring at all *NOT* negatively affecting her ability to receive an education? How is her being bullied to the point that she attempts suicide and has to be hospitalized where there is effectively no education occuring *NOT* negatively affecting her ability to receive an education? How does her F in writing (she loves to write, by the way) and D in math reflect that her mental and emotional conditions are *NOT* negatively affecting her ability to receive an education?
No real response except to acknowledge that they understand that I'm frustrated and to inform me that I have the option to appeal their decision with the director of education.
Which will happen. They want me to email her (provided her email address, no physical address). I feel this is a ruse of some sort; I've never been told to handle this type of official, legal business through email; it just sounds fishy. But what do I say? I mean, they acknowledge all the issues I stated above and still denied her IEP. What else is there *to* say?