Wednesday, April 16, 2014

not a typical 5th grader

One of the things that drove me nuts about Drew's old school is they would always say that things Drew did were not "typical" 5th grade behavior. Well, ummmmm, Drew is not a typical 5th grader.  He has a neurological disability that needs to be accommodated according to federal guidelines.  That never happened.

Drew tics A LOT.  ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT. Moving 24/7 is bound to make a body tired. He is also on meds that can make him sleepy.  An accommodation that we tried to be put in place was that he be allowed to go rest if he was overly tired.  We were informed that being tired was not typical behavior and they refused to accommodate it.  Everytime he would dose off in class they would call me and force me to pick him  up.  I continually pointed out that other districts had accommodated kids with TS by allowing them a quiet place to sleep for 30 minutes or so if needed.  It was not an every day thing or even an every week thing.  But once in a while it would happen. I was told that there was no way the school or district would allow such a thing to be accommodated.  If he had a diagnosis of narcolepsy it would not have been a problem.

So today, Drew has done math and spelling.  Then this happened during silent reading.


It happens we adjust and move on.  too bad public schools can't do the same.