Something I’d never thought I’d do

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Disclaimer – it’s a long post .. you have been warned!

I hadn’t posted much about this here on the blog (but if you follow me on Facebook , you’ve heard me vent here and there)  Over the last several weeks, We (I ) had have lots of problems with the middle school Kiersten attends.(Carson Middle School)  Basically, they were not supporting her and her special needs like they were supposed to and her grades, self confidence, etc. were suffering. Y’all know me… you do not mess with my family!

This all started back in May when we had Kiersten’s transition meeting. (going from elementary to middle school). The meeting seemed normal until I started to get a bad feeling about it. We were discussing K’s options for electives and the new IEP person lowered the boom on us all.

We were told that Kiersten COULD NOT have any electives because of her “extra ” classes. SGT Daddy and I were floored and K was devasted. They were saying K would have a 100% academic day with no time for “fun ” classes.

I of course vented my opinion about this .. stating how they were punishing her for her special needs and that was NOT her fault.  This was the first time I ever had to disagree with the IEP suggestions and the first time I left an IEP meeting and not signing it. After several days of negotiations, they agreed to drop one of her special classes and give her 1 elective.We were also promised that K would have help navigating from class to class the first week of class.

So we spend all summer happy about her schedule … both sides were happy with the results.

As school approaches, we still haven’t heard anything about her actual schedule, who would be helping her,etc.  Finally I go in the day before school is to start and ask. They tell me that ALL the 6th graders will receive their schedule the first day of school. They also tell me that all the 6th graders will meet in the gym and Kiersten’s homeroom teacher will help her.

So I’m satisfied once again and think — Problem solved. WRONG!

Kiersten comes home the first day in tears … her schedule had no electives, no one helped her and her schedule was such small print she could barely read it.  Mama is not happy and went to the school and got the schedule changed. No respone on the other things.  Now this schedule change would be the first of 4 (yes 4 ) …

The communication was horrible with the teachers, IEP manager , adminstration! After several weeks of them moving her from classroom to classroom, not doing well with her grades (she had a F in one of her classes 3 weeks in school), being bullied by another 6th grade girl .. I had enough!

I spoke with counselors, her homeroom teacher, even the Asst Prinicpal. Sometimes they blamed ME and sometimes they blamed Kiersten. Many times I got the typical administration “brush off ” !  Then, I started to notice Kiersten’s self confidence was dropping.. she didn’t want to play with her friends outside anymore, using bad language and an attitude to match, she didn’t want to go to “that” school anymore. Pretty sad huh?

I realized that this was a SERIOUS problem … so after having MANY conversations with SGT Daddy , we knew we had to get her out of there. We finally decided on having her attend the Colorado Virtual School.  It’s a lot like online college but for k – 12. Basically it is homeschooling but the school creates the curriculum, lesson plans ,etc and I help her learn that in an online virtual environment. We enrolled her and pulled Kiersten out of Carson Middle school the very same day! Yes I’m a homeschooling mom… can you believe it ? (i still can’t)

Kiersten has been attending school at home for a couple of days now and I have to say she is back to her old sweet self. She is a happy girl again .. which makes Mama happy!  This is certainly not what I expected to be doing in the middle of a year long deployment, but what my kids need is more important then anything else.