Tomorrow is the "Big" day. We meet with the school district to try and resolve our dispute with them regarding Erin's placement. It seems the district wanted to schedule two meetings, an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) first , and then a resolution meeting. The resolution meeting at the district level by law is not allowed to include an attorney. So in order to get around this little legal item, the district decided to try to hold an IEP meeting and invite their attorney to attend. We declined the IEP meeting on the grounds that the attorney would be present and we do not have formal legal representation. We have an advocate who has a law degree (from UC Davis), but he is not allowed to practice law until he passes the California bar. Therefore he is acting in the capacity of an advocate for Erin. So anyway, their people called our people yesterday to say that the attorney has agreed not to be present if we will agree to have an IEP meeting first before we go to resolution (because we have filed for due process hearing, the school district doesn't want a black mark on their record if we prevail, so it's in their interests to try and resolve outside of the legal system). Supposedly they now have an offer they want to put on the table that is different from the last two we received and subsequently rejected. Did I tell you they wanted to put my 4th grade daughter in Middle School!! Do I have the word the word "STUPID" written across my forehead? In my opinion we don't need an IEP until we resolve Erin's placement. We need to do the resolution meeting first then do her IEP. But in an effort to demonstrate our willingness to come to the table, yet again, we went ahead and agreed to another IEP meeting prior to a resolution meeting so long as no attorneys are present. The IEP is at 3pm , the resolution will be at 4pm tomorrow. The good part is that our advocate can be present for both meetings, since technically he's not an attorney yet. Our primary goal is to keep Erin where she is for this school year 2005-2006. Then figure out what makes sense next year, whether its middle school, or something else. Our advocate says that based on the data he has he believes that Erin is likely to stay put where she is but Cris and I do not trust the district. They've pulled enough stunts in the last two years that make us believe that they will take whatever measures they deem necessary to place Erin in an environment that is more restrictive.
Other news...Gillian is crawling everywhere!!! On Monday while we were in Modesto at Cris' parents house, Gillian pulled herself to a standing position on the bricks in front of the fire place. We are not ready for this...Actually we thought her legs were too fat to stand on!!! Guess she proved us wrong. At any rate its fun to see her motivated to move around. She wants to be following Nathan about I guess. Still having lots of trouble with Nathan's ears. He's on a round of antibiotics again for 10 days, plus benadryl to dry up the fluid that seems to just sit there.
Frances joined two clubs at school, the French Club and a Christian Group. She was part of the Christian group in Middle School but the French club is new. She's taking Geometry this year and has been leaving early to get to the tutorials that start at 7:45 every morning. At least she's motivated to get there at that hour and I don't have to drive her!
Erin starts her dance class again on Thursday this week. She's moved up a level to Ballet II and she has a new instructor. I'm hoping Erin will bond as well with this instructor as she did with the last. The dance studio has been wonderful over the last 3 years and so far they have welcomed her wholeheartedly. This will be her fourth year at the studio but her third year in ballet.
I have more to say, but I need to get some other things done right now...So my other thoughts will have to wait.
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