The folks are really helpful at school and Dennis' teacher is on his short list of favorite things in his life. That said they clearly want Dennis in a dedicated special Ed class. I know the real reason... If you take all his needs together, he is a unique case for them. If you ignore his age and look at him as a non-English speaker with developmental delays he is normal. But it is hard for them to separate the age and the delays... Concerns over standardized tests and such. The vice principal almost was straight with us about the reason, but not quite.
For us it is easy, basic math and reading/writing is all we care about this year... He doesn't need to know who the President is or what year the first Olympic games was held.
Anyways, I think we are ok here. They understand and are willing to agree to a plan that includes OT/PT but not a dedicated special Ed class. The special Ed teacher was there trying to sell us on it... It is at a separate school with an hour bus ride each way instead if 5minutes. The big selling points were that we could put him in or take him out at anytime and that it is the only environment where he will be educated with peers. So I asked how many kids have ever left the program... None. What are the ages of these peers... 2 in kindergarten, 2 in first, 1 in 3rd, and 1 in 5th. I wasn't really getting warm fuzzies here.
So the agreement was that he will stay in the normal school/class and we will reevaluate at the end of the first qtr after Melissa has gotten to visit the special Ed class. Honestly I just want ELL with some basic math to demonstrate his ability to learn now that he is in a good environment... That is what he needs this year.
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