Summer school is right around the corner, and with summer school comes new decisions that need to be made which means another IEP (Individual Education Plan) for the Doodle.
At the last impromptu IEP they called in January, the one where they tried to get rid of our nurse, it was decided that we could keep our nurse through May 28th which is the end of the school year. This was agreed to based on the advice from our Doctor at UCSF in the form of a letter.
And now, we have an upcoming appointment with UCSF so I'm anxious to see what the Doctor says about this now. The last letter I have from the Doctor is that at the very minimum he should have a nurse through the end of the year and beyond. I know I'm going to have to bite the bullet and have the Doodle suffer through an agonizing 3 night video eeg with the toxic eeg glue...
So I received a phone call today from the Doodle's Shape Supervisor to ask me where I would like him to go to summer school?
Hmmmmm. Do I want to keep in the class he's in right now, the medically fragile class, and then move him into a regular special day class (for children on the spectrum, but they don't call it an autism class for some weird political reasons even though it most certainly and technically IS too). And then, if he does move to another class is that the class I would want him to be in next school year.
My thinking is if he's not going to get to have the nurse he loves as his one on one, I may as well move him into the special class he is going to be in next school year with a new Shape Assistant one on one. If I kept him in his comfort zone in the medically fragile class he's going to be used to having Nurse LuLu there and be looking for her and expecting her. And in that environment, I don't know that he'd give someone new a chance. He might just make the new person miserable. Or am I giving him too much credit? Will he even remember the nurse? The new Shape Assistant one on one he gets assigned is going to have some pretty big shoes to fill. It's not easy making a connection with an autistic child and this new person will be starting off from scratch...from riding the bus to understanding the seizure activity and everything else this little guy is packing in his bag of issues.
I've decided, if we lose our nurse, I will go ahead and move him to one of the other classes. Seems silly to keep him in a medically fragile classroom if they take his nurse from him which is supposed to mean he's no longer medically fragile right? But he still is. It only takes one breakthrough seizure or change in medicine to set him back and then we'd be starting all over, scrambling for another nurse.
Deciding which class is going to be hard because one of the choices is at his same school but just the class room next door that uses the same play ground. One of his Shape Assistants, Rachel, is in that class so he will have a familiar face. The other choice is at a different school altogether but is more communication and PECS driven. There he also has one of his Shape Aids, Betsy, so he'd have a familiar face there too.
As usual, I'm over-thinking things and losing sleep because of it. The Doodle doesn't do too well with change and transition and things are going so smoothly right now, I hate to rock the boat. Or, am I capsizing it?
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Well, I read this and the pecs one backwards as in I read the pecs one first then this one. I'd say that's your answer right there. You are looking for more communication from him. If it were me, I'd move him to that class IF I had to move in. But as you know, opinions are like belly buttons. Everyone has one! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Penny. I always, always appreciate your opinion. That is the direction I want to go. I just hate having to move him twice! Once for summer school and then in August when the school year starts. He's not so good with change.
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