Educational Decisions II

Well, we had a very long team meeting today. There were lots of people there, including OT, PT, speech, school psych, classroom teacher, resource teacher, reading specialist, principal, school social worker, and me. We talked about both Jon and Maria. Things are really going well with Maria and we got all her services in place. The team had not realized that Maria's IEP is due to be reviewed this month. For some unexplainable reason, none of her IEPs since 2004 have made into her cumulative record. So, we planned everything today and when we get the pertinent paperwork from Holland, we'll meet again to put it all in writing.

Jon was a little more complicated and we decided not to decide anything just yet. When I met with the public school principal yesterday, he thought the school district might pay for a parapro (teacher aide) to help out with Jon in the classroom. He thought he could get funding for that because of Jon's seizures. Jon did have this support back in Holland. So, the principal is going to explore this option. If it turns out that this can't happen, the plan B is to explore whether the Christian school board is willing to hire a parapro anyway (apparently the principal has a someone in mind that might fit the position). They are also going to have Jon get more resource room support during the class day. They may even try having him participate in some of the reading activities in the first grade classroom to see how that goes, but it sounded like there were a lot of obstacles to that being a possibility. Finally, they are going to look into having him go over to the public school for part of the day. As I said, the schools are very close to each other. Yesterday, when I met with one of the special education teachers at the public school, she told me that she is working with a small group of second graders who are at about the same place academically that Jon is, so going to that building for part of the day to participate in that group could be a good plan for him as well.

Many of you let me know that you were praying about this. Thank you all for your prayers. I feel that they were answered as the team really seemed to be looking for the best way to meet Jon's needs while allowing him to continue at the Christian school. I am very comfortable with this plan to explore all our options before making a decision. Please also pray for Jon's teacher. She is understandably feeling some frustration with the lack of support she has received so far. I hope things get better now that everyone is aware that she needs more help in order to meet Jon's needs.