I'm sorry that I haven't been around lately.
Here's my (very) long explanation and update. I have learned over that past few years that having a child who is different means you attend a lot of meetings to discuss his different-ness. And so I've spent the last few weeks preparing for the last three days of meetings (and painting, cleaning, laundry, errands, cooking, chauffeuring, etc)
Day 1 (Monday)
It has become very apparent to Chris and I over the last year or so, and especially the last few months, that Aiden is too unique for public school. He is a super bright boy who soaks up knowledge like a sponge but he is reading at a first grade level. Despite research and knowledge of what will work the school is continuing to drag their feet in providing an appropriate curriculum (more on that later).
So Chris and I looked at the 12 states with dyslexia laws on the books and compared that to the list of work locations for him and came up with Cincinnati. Then we called the Springer School, a private special needs school there, and talked with their admissions director. Usually you fill out an application, then the parents come in for a meeting, and then the child goes in for an interview and tour. However, because we don't live close by we had the parent interview on the phone and on our way back to Erie from our visit with my parents we stopped in Cincinnati and Aiden had his interview as well as a tour.
Before I tell you about the tour, let me explain why we are going to send him to a private school when we are specifically looking at states that recognize dyslexia. We want to be in a state that recognizes dyslexia because most non boarding special needs schools only go through 8th grade. So eventually he will need to be in a public school, we want to make sure that the public school he attends will recognize and be able to work with Aiden as a dyslexic. The reason we are going private instead of public is because Aiden needs help. A lot of help. He is a third grader reading at a first grade level. The gap between what he should be able to do and what he can do just keeps getting wider. This is make or break time and Aiden and his ability to read are too important to continue to wait for people to help.
***A side note. Aiden has a private tutor once a week. It takes dyslexics an average of 3 years to remediate (read on grade level). That is true only if they are getting 2-5 hours of help a week. If we could give him that we would but he leaves for school at 8:20 AM and doesn't return until 3:50. When he gets home he is tired. Tutoring at that point is not an option. The help needs to come during the school day when he is best able to learn.
Okay. The tour and interview. Both went well. We weren't in the room, we can only take the word of the director that things went well. The tour was awesome. This school knows kids like Aiden. This is not a school for kids of all disabilities. They don't work with kids on the Autism Spectrum, kids with an IQ lower than 90, etc. This is a school for kids like Aiden. He isn't so unique there, and that is a great thing. There is a motor therapist that watches the kids once a week during handwriting to help them out (Aiden also has dysgraphia which very basically means that handwriting is very hard for him and getting things from his brain to the paper can be overwhelmingly frustrating to him.) The school teaches using Orton-Gillingham methods (the name of the types of curriculum that work best for dyslexics). They understand and can help kids learn they way they need to learn. Average enrollment is 3-4 years. One to one laptop ratio in 4th grade and higher. Art class, music class, gym class, science lab, technology are all part of the curriculum. They teach the kids strategies so that when they leave they are ready to take on the world. It's exactly what we want for Aiden.
The director is taking all of Aiden's stacks of paperwork to the admissions board and we should hear within a month or so whether he is accepted. If he is we will begin the process of selling the house and moving.
Day 2 (Tuesday)
This was the easy meeting.
Because we have been having such a hard time getting the school to listen to us we chose to find an advocate. We found an awesome one. Her own son is dyslexic so not only is she extremely knowledgeable in Special Ed law she also has a lot of knowledge in what it takes to educate a dyslexic.
We went on Tuesday to run through our presentation and have her help us make any necessary tweaks before we met with the school on Wednesday. All went well in that meeting. She just had a few small things that we should change but if nothing else the practice was very helpful.
Day 3 (Wednesday)
This was the hardest meeting.
And we rocked it.
Okay. So the curriculum that they are using for Aiden is not helping him learn. We had graphs, a power point, a packet of information for everyone. We brought the smackdown. We expected a lot of questions but there weren't many. The silence was deafening. They asked for a few weeks to talk and see what they can work out and we have a follow up meeting on the 11th.
Not a lot of detail out of that one because it just happened and I'm still processing. We also don't have a conclusion yet.
We asked for them to change his curriculum.
We will have to see if they actually do it.
Even if they don't we still rocked that meeting.
And that's it for now.
