We told you so!!

Note added later by "the Mom": This was written in a foul mood of hopelessness. It has a happy ending. Read the subsequent follow-up post above for some good news, and a greatly-improved outlook. :)

This morning actually went very well. Jennica rode the bus......all was good. Until the phone rang right after school.

It would seem that our little dear took matters into her own hands today and........er........left. As in.......see ya, I'm outta here, good-bye.......walked off the playground and left the school grounds. I'm a little sketchy on the details, so I don't know how far she got or who found her and took her back. She's alive......she's in one piece.......I'll find out the details later. The principal also found her wandering the hallway no less than three times today. I'm not sure if this was pre-playground-escape or post-playground-escape. But she was clearly either looking to escape. Or escape again.


So......I'm a bit torn here. Obviously, I'm concerned about the safety of my daughter. If she were missing at this very moment, I would be frantic and.........oh.........so many other emotions. But she's not. She arrived back at our door on the school bus and is eating her snack as happy as a clam. Since my emotions are not entangled with fear and worry, I'm partially ticked and partially gloating. The ticked off part.........you can understand that. How in the heck did a kindergartener in an orange shirt escape the fenced playground? Are you kidding me? And how did she repeatedly escape the classroom with a heavy door, a teacher, a full-time paraeducator, and 23 other kids not noticing? But okay......let's move beyond that part. She has escaped on me a time or two, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt.


Now.......the gloating. We told the school last Spring that kindergarten was going to be a problem. Larger class-size + longer day = High probability that a kid with SPD is going to implode. Its not a possibility, it is a fact. We went back to Mary Bridge for the exclusive purpose of coming away with documentation from a neurologist that would validate the need for this child to have an IEP and a 1:1 or 1:2 paraeducator. We accomplished that! We have that documentation! We have a long history with this child and this school district. They have already had her in preschool for two years! For heaven's sakes, the OT assistant and the kindergarten teacher have attended an SPD conference with us and the kindergarten teacher went with us to an OT appointment in Olympia in August!!!

We have continued to re-iterate to the school staff that this child NEEDS to be on an IEP, and NEEDS a para-educator. They have continued to remind us that she has no cognitive delays, and that she won't qualify for an IEP or a para. We have tried to tell them that we understand Wrightslaw and know that there are other issues aside from cognitive delays that will warrant a qualification. But we were told to wait. "Let's see how she does." "Let's give it a month and we'll talk at the end of September if she's struggling." "She'll be fine!"

So...........This is Day 2, and my 5-year-old by-passed all of your security measures and got off campus. She repeatedly left the classroom on her own without the teacher even noticing, and she's refusing to participate in ANY classroom activities.




So......Almighty-School-District........How's this working for you? Wish you had that IEP that warranted the 1:1 or 1:2 paraeducator? WE TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!





Breathe in.......breathe out.........breathe in........breathe out..........I must be calm. I must be calm. I must be calm. IDIOTS!!! I sure hope I can laugh about this someday......