Back To It

Posted by Dad Enough

Today was the Monster’s first day of school for the year.

In prior years, he’s been off at camp for the entire summer. We’ve been fortunate that the JCC Camps here all offer ESY (Extended School Year, for those not in the know) integrated into the camp program – while he might not get the general education services that he’d get by attending the city schools’ program, he’s been getting speech and OT, which are what he needs far more than the academics. But this year, since he’s at an 11-month school, he actually has school during the month of July, and so…

Off he went this morning on his yellow bus to go meet his classmates. Continue reading →

Camp Thoughts

Posted by Dad Enough

There’s always the question of what to do with a special needs child over the summer. There’s school-provided ESY, or other enrichment programs, or perhaps doing some home schooling… or there’s regular camp.

As we did last summer, this summer we decided to send the Monster to Camp Milldale. Continue reading →

Towards Deeper Water

Posted by Dad Enough

The assessment meeting finally took place this morning.

Now, setting aside that the rep from Early Learning included a FAPE meeting as part of the discussion on the “miss” of the 90 day rule, the meeting was essentially what we had expected – a discussion of the assessments that were ordered in December, coupled with placement discussions for next year and the decision on ESY services for this summer. Continue reading →

The Non Event

Posted by Dad Enough

About two weeks ago, we got notification for the Monster’s IEP review meeting.

For those of you who follow my tweet feed, you’ve heard me whining about how the paperwork was all late. Maryland state law requires paperwork to be delivered five business days before the meeting to be admissible for discussion, and none of it arrived on time. Still, we had enough time to review the IEP with the Monster’s advocate, and felt adequately prepared for today’s meeting. Continue reading →