Its that time of year again...

It's time for the IEP ambush again, I mean annual review.

I know the receiving school wants to bump my son over to a different self-contained class. We all agree he isn't ready to go back to a regular ed classroom (espeically his one class per grade overcrowded classroom at the home school). The receiving school, my advocate, and I all agree that my son was mislabeled as a ED/BD. The only one who truly believes the statement is the one who created the self-fulfilling prophecy--his home district case manager.  Then again her one report was dated 3 weeks before she did her observations... 

I have no idea who is coming, she won't tell me.  What else is new? For now the meeting is Tuesday. It shall be interesting. At least I know most of what hsi current out of district teacher and social worker have to say.  The main issue I have with the receiving school is that their OT is not trained in sensory processing disorder and related needs.  She has no idea how to work on touch seeking, sound avoiding, strangely distractable kids on the spectrum.  Ironically his classroom teacher "gets it".  She realized I'm not making excuses for my son but trying to offer explanations for his actions. This way if she knows why or when he does certain things, perhaps we can prevent them from happening.  I used this analogy: my son likes to spin until he is beyond dizzy, it is soothing and he feels better. However, it doesn't mean that if he is in the middle of a math test and  gets frustrated that he should get up and start spinning...

I am already having stomach pains about going to the meeting.  His case manager scares me.  At least my advocate is supposed to be there with me.  She's good (and she is not afraid of his case manager as she has worked with her in the past) and she knows the law, even if the case manager tries to skirt around it.

I don't need the extra stress. Especially since I have the junior-high drama to deal with at school from my allegedly adult classmates.  Seriously, certain people really need to focus on their own lives and issues rather than gossip and tell tales (embellished with false statement & comments misheard when eavesdropping) about others.  As an adult I understand that it is likely a sign of weakness, jealousy, and/or simple lack of manners.

I know deep breath.  I had no idea she'd bump the meeting up a week earlier, especially since the original date that worked for "her" was 2 weeks away. Of course she knows that I am unavailable in the morning so she is certain to schedule the meeting then so we can play the rescheduling game....so passive-agressive of her.  Honestly, having just completed my psychiatric/mental health nursing unit in school, I'm almost looking forward to the meeting just so I can tick off the defense mechanisms and personality issues. 

I just wish I had more time to prepare...but of course if my availability changes I'm the negligent parent that won't cooperate wth the "school district" representative..