Thursday, May 31, 2012

FWISD NO BUENO!


This is my boy!  My sweet, irritating, basket handing (never mind) little Ross.  Only he's not so little anymore.  I went to a meeting for him today at his school and walked out feeling a little lost - almost the same feeling I had last year when I told Dr. C.  and his CSC group to kiss my ass while I walked out their door for the last time.  I had no idea where I was going to take my son for school for the fall 2011 year and after fighting and kicking and screaming was able to get him into his current school.  I knew it was on a year-to-year basis because he doesn't live in the area where the school is but I was still under the impression that as long as he does well in the TAP program, he should be able to stay.  Well, not so fast.  It seems that he may not be able to stay after all.  Four kids are leaving to go on to high school and there will be new kids coming in which means Ross's spot might be taken by a "feeder" kid; a kid that attends an elementary school that automatically feeds into the middle school that Ross attends now. 

We have worked so hard to get into this school and he's done so well and has made some friends (and enemies, lol) and actually loves going to school there.  He still has quite a bit of trouble and we have concluded that Ross needs a smaller classroom with fewer kids to get the most he can from his school work.  I told them at the beginning of the year Ross was not ready for 6th grade curriculum work as he was working on only a 3rd grade level but they were able to modify his work and make it easier for him to get through.  I hate to say this but I actually long for the days when he was at CSC and I knew that he was doing well there.  He's just not ready for big classes or lots of kids around him.



Now I have to find a new school.  It won't be in FWISD if we have to go somewhere else.  Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind putting him in the one by my parents house but that school is a Spanish speaking school now.  They teach SOME of the classes in English, but mostly in Spanish and all the kids talk to each other in Spanish.  How is my son, who already has Expressive/Receptive Language Disorder, going to make friends or understand social cues or handle being mainstreamed in some classes if no one speaks any English?  Can you imagine the confusion for him?  And before any of you liberal friends of mine dare say I'm just being racist, think about all the points I just made.  How can my son learn and socialize with people that he can't understand?  The other school is in a really, really bad part of town and my son would be beaten up on a daily basis.  So that's a no-go as well.  Now I'm back to square one, beating my head against a wall.



Our school system is so fucked, it's not even funny.  I can't help but think if the administrators and the superintendents didn't make so much ($340k per year for the superintendent??) and the unions didn't give all these lavish benefits at our expense and the federal government would step back and let the districts and parents decide what and how to teach our kids, there might actually be money available to fund more than 3 flippin' schools in the ISD with TAP units as the TEA insists we do anyway.  It's the law that they have to provide services.  My son cannot get services in a safe, English speaking school even though I pay taxes so that the ISD can provide those services to him if needed.  And they are needed!  I told my mom today on the phone that if parents were to take over the school budget and be in charge of pay, benefits, curriculum and programs, we could do a way better job that the Dept of Education ever could.  But nope!  We don't have the right to have a say as to how the schools are run or how our kids are educated.  This is disgusting.  My kid isn't the only one, either.  How many kids are diagnosed every day with autism?  How many are coming into all the ISDs?  Why are there only THREE schools in Fort Worth, population 300,000 + people, with a TAP unit?  1 out of 130 kids are diagnosed with autism or other learning delay and we can only choose from 3 schools in the whole damn city??  Man, something is WRONG!

Now I may just have to put my son in Weatherford ISDs TAP program.  There's no other choice for us if we lose our spot here.  I'll have to make a 48 mi drive to and from every day just so he can get a modified education. 

Endeavor to persevere, right?

3 comments:

  1. It really breaks my heart to see you going through all this. You're the least deserving I know of this type of strain. I wonder sometimes whether God gave Ross to you because He knew you would be such a loving caring mother for him. I'll pray He continues to guide you through this and give you the strength to be such an amazing mother and person, even if you are a bit obsessed with Ron Paul.

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  2. Thanks, Adrian. I just want my son to go somewere he can learn. In a good environment.

    I'm not obssessed with RP. But I do love the man. ;-)

    You going to the meeting tonight?

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  3. Jen I had the same feeling about CSC. Totally know what you mean. We have had tremendous help with Weatherford ISD. Come on out a little further west!

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