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…
Tag: public
It’s time for VPK!
In the beginning of the year, we apply for the August start of the new school year. We are planning eight months out! So, as a mom of two this is actually my first time going through this process because my oldest had an IEP. Because we were already in the preschool system with an…
Stressful September
Well, I am so very excited that September is on it’s last day! I rarely write on Ruthfulness about topics that don’t relate directly to education, access and advocating for autism and early intervention. But, we are one year in! Happy Anniversary to Ruthfulness. It has been a year since I started publicly sharing my…
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…
Collaboration with private therapy and public education
Children with autism in my school district are often placed in ASD units within a self contained classroom or on the other end they have their services taken from them sometimes their entire IEP and parents have to fight for a 504 plan. There seems to be very little in between in the public school….
The serious business about the McKay Scholarship
Does your child have an IEP or 504 in the state of Florida? Florida was the first state to implement a scholarship like McKay. McKay allows for parents of special needs children to use funds allocated to the public school for private school tuition. (you can use McKay to transfer to another public school as…
the longest IEP meeting of my life!
IEP re-evaluation and eligibility determination my meeting was from 2:30 to 5pm! This time of year is key for parents of pre-k students or students getting ready for kindergarten. When a student is first eligible for services with the school they are most often labelled DD for developmentally delayed. This label drops by age…
How schools fail special needs children
Part 1 of a never-ending story! Some of the ways that schools fail special needs children: communication, training, allowing good teachers to teach, involving parents, doing the right thing, honesty, paying professionals with special education what they are worth, testing, lack of outside time, class size, providing resources to help parents at home…
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