New w/ lots of ???'s

I teach hearing impaired kids, and don't really belong to this board...I just happened upon it today. I would suggest that you request testing to see if he is educationally impacted by his hearing loss, or if there are other things going on (like you mentioned, 2nd grade being harder, teacher being harder...etc.) As a parent, you can request an educational and psychological test be done to find out if he has a deficit. From that, it would be determined if an IEP should be written. You would start the eligibility process, but an IEP could only be written after finding out if he qualifies for services. It would be good to catch this now since his hearing is fluctuating. You don't want him to fall behind in class. I don't know how your state handles IEPs, but he could also be considered for OHI (other health impairments) and at least get some accommodations like preferential seating, extended time, assistive listening device (does he have a desktop speaker to use, or classroom amplification?), etc. You can e-mail me through my profile if you'd like. I go through these meetings every month.