I think he should be tested just like D9. You want to have a full picture not just one that may show what your H is hoping for. I would think even the judge might address why they weren't tested the same. I would insist on it.
kat
Me-53(and learning!) S24, S21, D18, D17 Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming. Dory
That's what I was thinking too! Also, H just sent me an email wanting to know when I'd be out of the house as he wants to try to give the house back to the bank without foreclosure. I emailed back I'm going to try to have everything out by the end of the month and then of course I wanted to do some additional cleaning when everything's out. And I said that would be great! I didn't know you could give back houses you haven't been paying on without going through foreclosure though??? He just worries me. I think b/c of the entire past 2 years behavior I trust him less than anyone on the planet pretty much.
He hasn't proven himself worthy to be trusted. I don't blame you. I think you may be on the right track that he is setting up to show that your children aren't academically where they should be and that it is your fault, and that they should be in public school.
Just keep your lawyer informed as to any conversations/concerns you have with H. SHe will know if it is relevant or not and express your concern. She's been through this and will know if your H is up to something.
Karen, As you know I teach children with learning disabilities. I wish I could say that these students make a lot of progress during the school year, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.
I also believe that once kids reach the high school years they start to plateau. Keep in mind that typically these students receive 5 out of 7 classes in the regular education classes depending on the severity of their disability. Usually they receive their English and math in the special education classes with them being mainstreamed for everything else. Some are self-contained in the special classes depending on the severity of their disability. Sometimes you see more progress in the younger students than you do the older ones.
I honestly believe with your background of teaching they are getting much more individualized instruction with you. We all know that teachers are spread very thinly even in special education classes.
Be sure to compare their new scores with their previous pshychological exams to check for gains. How many years has it been since their last exam?
Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are. -- Bernice Johnson Reagon
Five years since they were evaluated (by the University of Washington Autism Center--they did the full battery of testing then).
My thing is that the kids have shown great improvement and continue to do so, even S15 still. D9 has come from reading bat-sat-cat a year ago to reading almost on grade level this year (can read almost every word on 3rd grade level). S15 had a huge improvement with reading a few years ago, from significant delays to reading adult level books last year. And this year his writing has jumped up maybe 4 to 5 grades in the past year. They seem to have delays but then make up some of them dramatically all of a sudden like that.
S15 still has significant delays in math, I know they found short-term memory issues with him and I think he has long-term memory issues also b/c I have to reteach, reteach, and reteach which has always been frustrating. I've just been working on basic math skills with him and also if we keep hsing would like to spend the next couple years working on life math skills, you know for grocery shopping, bills, checking account, etc. I could have used that myself in school, but I think he could esp. use that. I want to keep him using the Florida Virtual school which is public school online but he can do his own pace, and eventually community college dual-enrollment when he's old enough in 2 years.
I just talked to the evaluator when she called me back and told her my concerns. Testing will show he has significant math delays at this point, and some writing delays, but without the testing which reveals his lds, autism, and processing issues, I'm afraid that H could/would use that against me in court suggesting that public school would be a better fit.
I do think it would be fine in most states, but northwest FL where I live has minimal special ed. There was a student in 5th grade when I was student teaching that couldn't read and they pulled him out for reading tutoring about one hour a week. In my opinion, it should have been at least an hour or 2 a day and that's what I did with S15 until he could read. They just don't have funding. When he got speech therapy, she had 120 kids and didn't have time to see him, so what little you can even get they can't do. H at the time was disgusted with the ps system and said they couldn't offer anything as good as my homeschooling was for him. Times change I guess!
I asked the evaluator if there was some reason or justification for not doing the full testing on S15, and she said it was H's idea, and he hadn't said why....She's going to talk to him tomorrow and I told her I would prefer complete testing, but if not, then I wouldn't want S15 to have the partial testing. I asked her to call me and if there's a problem with that (if h doesn't agree) I'd like to know so I can talk to my L about it and she said she would.
What I'm wondering is if your H might accidentally overstate his case, that your S is performing so poorly that even public school would be inadequate, and that special, private instruction might be in order?
I feel pretty confident about my hsing the kids. I knocked myself out esp. with S15, spending hours and hours doing special programs and stuff with him. 3 rounds of speech therapy and occupational therapy, etc. D9 is going through OT now. So if the testing is good, it should reflect some of that.
Everyone I talk to says it's doubtful anyone could meet S15 for 5 minutes and not think public school would be a bad idea, much less be tested for 2 days. I think he is making a mistake with evaluating S15 at all, I mean it could be more $$$ for him than he realizes. I don't think he fully realizes or admits completely S15's autism, although he told the evaluator he realizes some of it.
H in depo with my L insisted just public school for them not private, so it's clear he wants to do their education as cheap as possible. If the court/evaluation system is not good and he winds up going to public school, maybe I should push for special instruction/tutoring from the get go that he will need rather than wait for the teachers to complain (as they did in the past)? Karen
