We Compromised...

Cris and I decided to withdraw our request for a due process hearing and compromise with the school district. We withdrew our request because we decided that if we prevailed in the hearing (based on the law and the situation with Erin and the advise of our advocate, he felt strongly that we had a very very good case), that Erin would still be in a school that did not want her physical presence and with teachers who did not believe in Erin's abilities or have a willingness to work with her. So even if we won, there would still be tension between our family and the teacher and school site administrative staff.

I don't know if this was the right move or not, but I know things will be better now for Erin from an academic standpoint. She will have access to resources that have been withheld from her for three years. From the social and peer standpoint, its a disaster, but hopefully with the help of the new teachers (who seem wonderful and who really want to work with her) and staff at the middle school we can find some creative ways to integrate Erin with typically developing kids and still obtain a reasonable balance between the academics and peer support and interaction. Safety is still a big issue for us, because she is so small compared to the other kids; but those in her classroom are of similar size and there are 4 educational assistants who provide added supervision for Erin and her classmates when they are moving around campus. It's not ideal, but as Erin becomes more and more comfortable with the campus and where things are, it think it will be ok. She'll be at the middle school for 4 years, then will transition to high school. Right now Erin is the youngest in her class. There are 11 students 5 girls, and 6 boys including Erin. Age ranges 10 years to 12 years old. Two other children in the class besides Erin have Down Syndrome, a boy named John, and a girl named Gracie. Erin immediately bonded with Gracie on the day we went to visit the classroom. Erin actively participated in the program all day and she really really liked it.

We witnessed some behavior problems in the class (something that we did not want to add to the mix and part of our rationale for keeping Erin in regular ed classes) but we learned later in the day that of the 10 students in the original class 8 of them are new students to the program and middle school too. So the teachers are working to integrate not just Erin but 8 other children. Later in the day, the two or three students who were having trouble, settled down and things moved along ok. I think 4 of the kids are autistic, one boy has cerebral palsy and is blind, and the rest have other types of disabilities but their diagnosis is not clear just based on personal observation.

Cris and I are going to give this a few weeks and see how things are working. We want to ensure that the level of integration with typically developing kids is greater than what was originally proposed by the district; and the district has agreed to increase the amount of integration for Erin from the norm. So we just have to wait and see how this all plays out. If we don't like it, we will file again for due process and go the legal route.

Erin's regular ed class is giving her a goodbye party this afternoon and Erin asked me to bring treats for everyone. The class has been told that because Erin is almost 11 she had the opportunity to either stay in 4th grade or she could choose to move to 5th grade at the middle school. The class was told that Erin's decision was that she wanted to go to 5th grade at the middle school but that she still would come to the after school program at her elementary school.

What I was trying to ensure was that the children in the class were being sent a positive message in that it was Erin's choice to move from the classroom; simply leave out the whole issue of her special needs. I don't know, but I feel like that if the kids are told that Erin has special needs and therefore has to go to a special class it sends a message that she is somehow not adequate and therefore doesn't deserve to be a part of a regular education classroom. She becomes somehow unacceptable. I know I'm not expressing it in the right terms, but I just hope the kids can see Erin as Erin and chose to respect her for who she is, disabilities and all. I can't force kids to like Erin or even be her friend but I hope I can encourage them to look beyond what society deems unacceptable or different and help them to see that even though she has disabilities she also has abilities that we might not notice at first glance. But given time and patience and understanding they might come to see the world through her eyes and then conclude that Erin is indeed a very special person whose worth should not be measured by academic achievement, athletic ability, or social standing but by the purity of her heart and the goodness that lies within.