Uh oh! I'm being summoned!
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| Tue, 03-14-2006 - 8:18pm |
Well, I got home from work tonight and found an ominous letter in the mail from dd's middle school. The opening sentence read, "The teachers in team 82 need to have a conference with you." I felt like I was being summoned to the principal's office! I asked dd what I had done wrong and she said probably nothing. I then asked her why she thought they all wanted to talk to me. She said, "probably my grades". No kidding!!?? With only 2 Ds and 3 Fs!!?? She asked me if I was mad and I said no; that if she wanted to repeat 8th grade that was her business, however, she was going to do so at the new school I am lining up for her. She then went into her defensive mode and told me she was going to get her grades up, etc., etc. I will call the school tomorrow and schedule a time for the conference. Life is never dull with a teen, is it? Anyway, I just wanted to share this with ya'll.
Amelia

I had/have a similar situation with my dd14. She had similar grades at her first semester report card. I took a pro-active approach, called the counselor and we immediately set up a "student study team" meeting with all her teachers to come up with a plan. I also asked that dd be tested for learning disabilities (I know the system better now, having navigated it with my ds16). Turns out dd has ADD which is harder to diagnose in girls. DD did not meet the criteria for special education services (legally I could contest this, am on the fence about it at the moment) but we are developing a Section 504 plan. In fact we have the meeting this Friday. This plan will give special allowances for dd with her ADD - such as preferential seating, extra time for assignment completion, etc. This will go with her to high school. Sometimes I don't think its worth the paper it's written on - as a parent you have to be constantly on the school to make certain they are indeed accomodating the provisions in the plan. But hey, it's better than nothing.
I also have an appointment time with another psychiatrist (dd hated the first) to consider continuing medication. DD was on Wellbutrin for her depression, and later we were going to address the possibility of meds for her ADD.
Oh, and we took the t.v. out of her room - although she's brought two grades up, it's still not back. She's lucky I let her keep her cell phone (for now). As a family I try to make 6 pm to 8 pm study time for everyone. Sometimes dinner interferes with this. Every Friday I check with the teachers and if homework or classwork is missing she has to complete it before enjoying her weekend. I do the same thing with ds16. Hope this helped.
I think it is important to have a "what are WE going to do about this?" attitude with the schools
They spout 'it takes a village' when they want parents chipping in on the fundraisers but, boy, when your kid screws up, the ole village disappears and it seems to end up squarely in mom and/or dad's lap
I hope you can come to some resolution as a team-kids respond so much better when theyre getting the same message from everyone