HELP! Already trouble with school

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-02-2003
HELP! Already trouble with school
8
Thu, 09-14-2006 - 12:14pm

It has only been one week of school and Everett is already getting kicked out. I knew that it wasn't going to be an easy adjustment, but one week and already recommended to get kicked out that seems to quick.

I met with the teacher yesterday and she told me some things that were not surprising, like not doing his homework, not participating in class, and calling out but said she was willing to work with him. Then the principal called at 7:30 this morning asking that I meet with her when I drop off the kids. So we met and she said things that the teacher did not tell me like he has been cursing in class, down right refusing to do his work, and being very disruptive in Mass. Everett is starting with a new therapist this Monday and as soon as I told the principal that she was more flexible and willing to work a little. She was willing to let him stay today and depending on how today goes he can stay tomorrow. Plus when I mentioned that I am a single mother supporting two children she was willing to work with me more. She seemed to realize that keeping him home isn't all that easy.

Before Everett's Aspergers dx he took Ritalin and before that Adderall when he had a dx of ADHD and they both helped him focus so much so that he got A's and B's in school. I am considering now putting him back on medication. The biggest problem we had with the medication was he was unable to sleep and it decreased his appetite significantly.

If he does wind up having to leave school I will have to home school him until I can get him into, hopefully, the Summit School. The biggest hold up there is getting the official dx of Aspergers from NYU, who I have already called to find out where it is, so I can take that to the BOE and get his IEP change to Learning Disabled so he is eligible for the Summit school. Once that is done then I can send the application to the Summit school and hopefully get him admitted there. Until then I would have to pay someone to home school him. I do know someone already who may be able to it. The BOE is suppose to pay for situations like this, right? Any help, please!

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-22-2003
Thu, 09-14-2006 - 1:24pm

If you're looking into medication options, there is new "ADHD Patch" that I've heard great things about. The trick is getting it on 2 hours before school, and taking it off within a certain number of hours. From the mom's I've spoken with, they've seen immediate results and the kids are able to sleep better than they did when they were on oral meds. They eat breakfast better, since it takes a while for the meds to work, and they do better at dinner also. Evidently lunch is still an issue...but a lot of kids don't like to eat a big lunch at school. (They'd rather enjoy recess.)

My aspie son take Concerta now...used to take Adderall. We had good luck with both. He doesn't require as much sleep as our two girls do, but it hasn't been a big issue for our family. He does though, still have appetite issues. He's a lot like the "patch" kids...big breakfast, small lunch, big dinner.

Hope This Helps...

Amy

Meez 3D avatar avatars games

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-03-2004
Fri, 09-15-2006 - 12:30pm

Hi there. NYC is currently NOT paying for any interim services, as we just found out last Friday when we went for them. You can take the BOE to mediation to try to get interim services, but there is currently a mandate against giving out ANY interim services to anyone. So getting an at-home tutor is not available without a fight. Is that legal? Nope, but there you have it.

We are pulling son and filing to homeschool, then going for RSAs to get home OT, Speech and behavioral counseling --- but we have our son on an IEP for those services already so we should be able to get them easily. Then we have to find the providers, another mountain to climb...

Summit doesn't insist on an Asperger's dx to accept kiddos, although you will need an evaluation. Do you have a current eval? You should call them up and talk with Dr. Gardner specifically about your son, get free full eval from BOE and apply anyways right now, if they have any openings for your son's age group. They don't for my son right at the moment, but of course we are applying anyways becuse moving forward, we need to be talking with these schools. Also, Reece, The Child School, Lowell, there's a new school opening in the Bronx called New Life. Reece is only through middle school, but there programing is now supposed to be very good.

You can also go for getting services for him AT the Catholic school. Have you called Advocates for Children? They should be able to give you legal assistance for a sliding scale. Much of the legal need here is just FIGURING OUT WHERE TO GO AND WHO THE ---- TO TALK TO!

Ask any questions and if I can, I will certainly help out. We will be homeschooling for awhile while we look for an appropriate placement, fortuneately son is way ahead of grade level and studies on his own easily, plus has extensive group of friends and activities, so we should be able to keep him happy and growing for awhile. At the moment, he is playing with his hamsters.

Good luck. I do feel that for most of our kids, being in a mainstream class of any sort without support and understanding is basically like asking a child in a wheelchair to get up and run a marathon without the chair! And teachers without training (or an innate gift straight from the heavens) canNOT teach our kids, period.

yours,

Sara
ilovemalcolm

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Fri, 09-15-2006 - 12:52pm

I don't know how I missed this. Sorry.


Sara gave you great advice about NYC stuff, and Amy had good insights into the meds issue.


There are new ADHD meds coming onmarket all the time (focalin is one I can think of), so it might be a good idea to talk to the ped. If the difference is getting As and Bs vs getting kicked out of school: Well, to me it's a no-brainer.

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-02-2003
Fri, 09-15-2006 - 1:24pm

It's not that I am waiting for the official Asperger's dx, it is just that the BOE currently has him classified as Other Health Impairment and I want the official Asperger's dx to back me up when I go to the BOE to get his IEP changed to Learning Disabled since Summit (or any other school that fits his needs) requires the IEP to say Learning Disabled.

I call The Child School already and they do not have space for any one new at his grade level, 6th grade. I chose not to pursue Reece since it only goes through middle school and therefore he would only be there a short period of time. As for Lowell well that same thing goes for Lowell and does Summit, need that Learning Disabled classification.

His current IEP states that he need behavioral counseling. Speech and OT he has been discharged from for over one year (yeah!), since before we were in NYC.

After talking again with the teacher yesterday after school she said that she wants Everett to stay and will help in getting him in the proper setting. Sending him to catholic school was never my intention of keeping him there long-term. It was really just a decent school to send him to until I could get the whole specialized school thing squared away for him. It turns out that his teacher is also a case worker and she says that she has some pull with politicians. I mentioned the Summit school to her and she said that she will help getting him into Summit or another school that will fit his needs. In just one week she was able to determine that Everett is a very brillant child, wants to learn, but just needs a one on one learning environment.

His behavior, however, is not all the schools fault. Most of the behavior are things that he knows is wrong. He is 12 1/2 going on 13 and some behavior is just his age. Even when we didn't live in NYC and he was getting the correct services he would purposefully not write down homework assignments that he didn't want to do, or erase homework assignments from his homework pad after the teacher had made sure he had written everything down. And he also has a history of staring off into space or pretend to do classwork when he really isn't. When I spoke with Everett about these behaviors he knew what he was doing was wrong and I had to lay down the law and threaten to take the computer and gameboy away till Christmas.

I think that Everett understands the topic very quickly and then once he understands it he doesn't want to continue reviewing it so he gets bored. He is always saying that he needs to be challenged. So he meets the challenge and is ready to move on to the next challenge while the rest of the class is working on the old challenge.

I spoke a few months ago with Advocates for Children and they said that the BOE has a legal obligation to pay for interim services like homeschooling and tutoring.

Can you recommend a good pediatrician to take Everett to. I need to select a new PCP.

Also do you know anything about YAI National Institute for Disabilites? They were referred to me and Everett has an appointment this Monday with them. Or, can you recommend another good counselor? Everett needs talk therapy sessions outside of his IEP for things that have happened at home with my ex-h. But it has to someone who understands and has experience with AS.

Lastly, I spoke with Everett about the possibility of him taking medication again. He said that he liked the way he was able to function on the medication, he just didn't like physically having to take the medicine. Not that he has trouble swallowing pill, because he could swallow the pill without anything to drink. He just didn't like the taste of the pill. My sister's boyfriend's brother is a doctor (unfortunately not in the city) and she is talking with him about the possibility of medication and what may work better for Everett. He has met Everett and I am sure my sister talks about him plenty.

I went long than planned and have to go.

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-02-2003
Fri, 09-15-2006 - 1:41pm

Paula,

Thanks for you insight.

We have tried Strattera in the past and it didn't really work well, in fact he got highly aggressive on the Strattera.

He has taken Adderall XR and Ritalin LA. The Adderall XR worked great but he couldn't fall asleep at night even with taking melatonin and/or drinking chamomile tea. The Ritalin LA work great too except that it wears off sooner that Adderall XR and he was unable to get his homework done, so we would have to give him another 5mg to get through homework and then we had the sleeping problem. With both meds. he would eat a big breakfast but he still wasn't gaining statisfactory weight (like 1 to 2 lbs a year) and wasn't growing. The kid had bags under his eyes from not getting enough sleep.

Since he hasn't been on medication for one year he has grown at least 4 inches and gained 15 lbs. He has gone from a size 5 boys shoe to a 7 1/2. He has gone from a size 8/10 clothes to 14 boys. He has basically shot up like a weed. I can hard keep him in clothes. He is now 5 feet tall.

Just as a side note. I just read today that when taking Adderall XR and eating a high-fat breakfast the Adderall doesn't absorb as well when eating a low fat breakfast. The study was perform by Ortho-McNeil the makers of Concerta. The study said that Concerta absorbs right when eating any kind of breakfast.

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Fri, 09-15-2006 - 2:09pm

I think you missed my point.


My point was don't give him Adderall XR. Give him regular Adderall: one in the morning, one mid-afternoon (before 2pm) and he should eat dinner and sleep.

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Fri, 09-15-2006 - 2:58pm

I just wanted to add some strategies for eating while on stims. -I have to eat every 2½ hours because of a seperate condition -real difficult on stims because I just don't feel hungry or want to eat:


A Timex Ironman watch can be programmed with up to 200 alarms.

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-03-2004
Fri, 09-15-2006 - 3:23pm

Sounds like you are on it. Technically, however, the Advocates are right, BUT you will not get the interim services without going to mediation because a mandate just came down that the DOE staff cannot give out ANY interim services. Period. No matter what the situation, even life threaening. Highly, highly illegal, but the staff's hands are completely tied, at any IEP review you won't get interim services.

We are due the services by law, too. We can't get them. I know people who have the services from previous years. Our lawyer says this JUST happened. You should have seen the DOE staff, because they are still trying to figure out if there is anything they can do and there isn't. Not without us going to mediation.

So, the Advocates were right and last Spring you could have gotten them, but the current situation has completely changed. We are with Regina Skyer's firm and I am here to say that they were shocked. So there are no interim services for anyone unless you are prepared to just hire the lawyers and schedule the mediation, whenever you can get that scheduled. And that will take quite awhile to set up, and cost alot of money.

Sorry. Wish I had better news. We really wanted the serviced owed us as well, but are choosing to homeschool and use our resources in other ways.

Sara
ilovemalcolm