Calm and Rational

As many of you know I have been having difficulty with just what services my 9th grade freshman son needs to do well in school. One group thought that since he did well in his classes he was demostrating he did not need special ed, another group did not. I was getting two different sets of opinions and all from professionals. I sat down today and spoke with the director of special ed and we both actually came to the same conclusion. We determined he did well 1st quarter because it was mainly a review of things he knew already and he had the support he needed. Through review of his school records and recent tests we were able to determine that he remembered things that have been taught more then once well but has great difficulty with new material. He has tons of backround knowledge, good compensating skills, and good comprehension. What holds him up is his actual reading skills. On recent testing he showed the ability to comprehend well but VERY poor word attack skills. The director determined he was a word quesser that used his knowledge and what he could read to determine what something was about. She admitted this will not work for high school level work. Our difficulty came in trying not to “insult” his intellience yet still get him the help he needs. We determined he needed to stay on an IEP, he needed his accomodations in place, needed exposure to regular ed classes, but also needed reading help. We changed his tech ed class to a reading skills class that works individually with students reading based on their needs. Since he tires easily with too much listening and reading we arranged his schedule so reading was 1st so he could get the most benefit. Math his strong subject will be at the end of the day. They are going to provide all his teacher with his accomodation page, and best yet he gets to stay in all his other regular ed classes since he has demonstrated he is cabable givin the support. The director complimented me at the end of the meeting for being so polite and tryint to see both sides. She also thought it was great I was so willing to help and not just leaving it to the school. I guess something can be said for being calm and polite.