As we prepare for back to school in August. We need to start thinking about how we want this school year to go in comparison to the previous or the multiple years prior. Each year, whether in public or private school, students have a new teacher and often an entire new team of teachers. The…
Tag: IEP
Moms, does it get any easier?
Does it get any easier raising and fighting for a child that has special needs? From my veteran fighting moms….please tell me it does! In my recent experience this school year, shifting from public to private, I would say that it is not easier; it is different. Ways it changed: no more IEP meetings no…
IEP, PBIB, ABA, OT, SLP… What does all this mean?
When you first realize that your child is struggling to develop at the same level as other children their age, you begin the early intervention process. Little did you know that you would have to learn a new language: acronyms. Below is a list of acronyms that I have learned over the years working through…
Reviewing and Writing IEP Goals
We are half way through the school year. How is your child’s progress toward their goals on their IEP? Do you have recent feedback and progress reports about how your student is progressing for the year? Have you had a conference recently? If you are happy with your child’s progress; you should schedule an IEP…
Marriage and Autism
The topic of marriage is always a discussion that leads to statistic rates and normally includes a discussion of divorce. I have written about divorce, autism and denial before and understand the reality that divorce is far too common among couples who have a child with autism or special needs child. I recently read in…
5 Ways Public Schools Fail Special Needs Children
original blog post: How Schools Fail Special Needs Children In my original post regarding how the school system fails special needs children my primary focus was around communication. Communication on multiple levels and capacities. I have refined my list for five ways our public schools are failing special needs children. Thinking one size fits all…
Back to School: What to do when the Going Gets Tough
We are going on week two for school, really only day three come Monday and teachers have to hit the ground running teaching students how to follow rules, procedures and schedules then add the curriculum content and all the mandatory pre-testing, benchmark testing and assessing required. I teach high school and am completely outnumbered and…
Tips to Transition Back to School
Heading back to school this month?! Florida schools are. When school starts, I feel that there is a lot of stress surrounding the event. When you are starting a new school or even moving up a grade to a new teacher kids can be nervous, excited, scared or disinterested. I started thinking about this topic…
Learning Through The Mistakes
Pretty sure that I have made a big and costly mistake! Can you help me fix it?! So, this McKay Scholarship is all tricky and complex! There are all these rules and processes and no real human to walk you thru the system. It’s one thing to just file intent and fill out some private…
504 and High School
This post is different from most because it relates to high school. Ruthfulness has a primary focus on early intervention for parents and students but as a high school teacher, I get to see how teens and their parents handle or fail to handle their/(child’s) special needs. Teachers, students, parents, and the community: A 504…
Ruthfulness 