I'm in school studying to become a teacher (probably a special education teacher in the early elementary years). I try to tread lightly at ds's school because of this fact (I'm currently a sub para also so if I don't tread lightly then they can just completely block me from subbing at that school, which would suck).
However, this morning I blew up on the principal. I have a feeling if I should ever apply at that school I will not even be considered. BUT- ds comes first. Here's the story....
In ds's IEP he has it written that he has a para for all transitions (going to class from the car, going from room to room, to lunch, recess, bathroom, to the car line until he safely gets in my car, etc). Actually, he's supposed to have a para all day but I've been lenient this year about while in the classroom because he's doing pretty well. He NEEDS the para during transitions though because he's a flight risk (has escaped or attempted to escape from school many many times in the last 2 years he's been here- for preschool and kindergarten).
So this year we decided that he's a big boy and he needs to transition to being able to get out of the car in the morning through the car drop off line (teachers/paras are there and open each door to greet the child) and that a para or teacher would walk him up to his room. Last year I had to park my car every day and walk ds to his classroom. DS is doing really really well with this!! He has given us no trouble with getting out of the car. However, I had already voiced my concern because it appeared that nobody in particular was in charge of bringing ds to his room. It was just whoever volunteered. Sometimes that was his special ed teacher, sometimes it was the assistant teacher that is in his class, sometimes it was somebody else.
But I've had a sneaking suspicion that the last few days they've been slacking on this. I couldn't really prove it though because once the kid is out of the car you have to drive away so the line can continue to move. I can't really sit there and watch until someone walks him in.
But today it happened. One of the ladies opened his door and let him out. As she was shutting the door I heard her say to ds "have a great day!" and kinda pointed him to the door to the school. I thought that maybe there was somebody over there that I didn't see that was going to take him upstairs to his class. But as I was driving away my gut was telling me to check on him. So I parked my car, walked inside, went to the office, signed in, walked upstairs and to his classroom. I peeked in but he wasn't there. Hmmmm. It should have taken me way longer to do all that than for him to walk to his class. So I went to the other side of the building (there's 2 sets of stairs- the set I went up wasn't the set he would have taken to get up). I went down the stairs ds would have taken to get up, but he wasn't there. I walked the path ds should have walked and went all the way back out to the car line.... no ds. Walked back up the way ds should have walked up and went to his classroom...... no ds. I went inside the classroom and asked his teacher and his para if ds had come in..... nope, they hadn't seen him.
I flipped. I was so freaking pissed off. His teacher came out and helped look for him. We finally found him on the other side of the school (by his old Kindergarten class). I'm not sure if he was getting a drink because there's a fountain there. She walked him back to class and I marched my a$$ down to the office and demanded to speak to the principal. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty.
There were NO ADULTS down the hallway ds was in. The upstairs is shaped like a big U. His classroom is down at the bottom of the U. The stairs he walked up was on the middle of the right side of the U. He was found at the very top of the left side of the U. At both the top points of the U there are doors leading to the outside. See the problem? If he had wanted to he could have easily walked out of school. And NOBODY WOULD HAVE KNOWN! Since his teacher had no idea he was even at school he could have walked out and his teacher would have just marked him absent. Usually they start calling parents of absent kids around 9 or 9:30 to see if they are sick or what. So 2 HOURS would have gone by before I would have gotten a call asking why he wasn't at school, when I thought he was, and we all would had figured out he was missing. 2 HOURS. He could have gotten hit by a car, kidnapped, molested, killed, any number of things can happen to a 6 year old child in 2 hours.
In my talk with the principal she said "well, maybe we should make sure there's one person responsible for bringing him to his class..." Ya think?!? I was so pissed off I told her that she needs to figure out who that person is, who will be the back up if that person is gone as well as who is with him for EVERY SINGLE TRANSITION every single day. I want names. It needs to be made VERY clear who is responsible. No more of this "well, whoever happens to be around can be responsible for him....". Because we've only been in school for 3 weeks and already I've witnessed 3 transitions where he's had no supervision at all and could easily have walked out of the school. 3rd time is my limit. I threatened getting a lawyer if his IEP isn't followed and have formally requested an ARC/IEP meeting to get everything reviewed.
However, this morning I blew up on the principal. I have a feeling if I should ever apply at that school I will not even be considered. BUT- ds comes first. Here's the story....
In ds's IEP he has it written that he has a para for all transitions (going to class from the car, going from room to room, to lunch, recess, bathroom, to the car line until he safely gets in my car, etc). Actually, he's supposed to have a para all day but I've been lenient this year about while in the classroom because he's doing pretty well. He NEEDS the para during transitions though because he's a flight risk (has escaped or attempted to escape from school many many times in the last 2 years he's been here- for preschool and kindergarten).
So this year we decided that he's a big boy and he needs to transition to being able to get out of the car in the morning through the car drop off line (teachers/paras are there and open each door to greet the child) and that a para or teacher would walk him up to his room. Last year I had to park my car every day and walk ds to his classroom. DS is doing really really well with this!! He has given us no trouble with getting out of the car. However, I had already voiced my concern because it appeared that nobody in particular was in charge of bringing ds to his room. It was just whoever volunteered. Sometimes that was his special ed teacher, sometimes it was the assistant teacher that is in his class, sometimes it was somebody else.
But I've had a sneaking suspicion that the last few days they've been slacking on this. I couldn't really prove it though because once the kid is out of the car you have to drive away so the line can continue to move. I can't really sit there and watch until someone walks him in.
But today it happened. One of the ladies opened his door and let him out. As she was shutting the door I heard her say to ds "have a great day!" and kinda pointed him to the door to the school. I thought that maybe there was somebody over there that I didn't see that was going to take him upstairs to his class. But as I was driving away my gut was telling me to check on him. So I parked my car, walked inside, went to the office, signed in, walked upstairs and to his classroom. I peeked in but he wasn't there. Hmmmm. It should have taken me way longer to do all that than for him to walk to his class. So I went to the other side of the building (there's 2 sets of stairs- the set I went up wasn't the set he would have taken to get up). I went down the stairs ds would have taken to get up, but he wasn't there. I walked the path ds should have walked and went all the way back out to the car line.... no ds. Walked back up the way ds should have walked up and went to his classroom...... no ds. I went inside the classroom and asked his teacher and his para if ds had come in..... nope, they hadn't seen him.
I flipped. I was so freaking pissed off. His teacher came out and helped look for him. We finally found him on the other side of the school (by his old Kindergarten class). I'm not sure if he was getting a drink because there's a fountain there. She walked him back to class and I marched my a$$ down to the office and demanded to speak to the principal. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty.
There were NO ADULTS down the hallway ds was in. The upstairs is shaped like a big U. His classroom is down at the bottom of the U. The stairs he walked up was on the middle of the right side of the U. He was found at the very top of the left side of the U. At both the top points of the U there are doors leading to the outside. See the problem? If he had wanted to he could have easily walked out of school. And NOBODY WOULD HAVE KNOWN! Since his teacher had no idea he was even at school he could have walked out and his teacher would have just marked him absent. Usually they start calling parents of absent kids around 9 or 9:30 to see if they are sick or what. So 2 HOURS would have gone by before I would have gotten a call asking why he wasn't at school, when I thought he was, and we all would had figured out he was missing. 2 HOURS. He could have gotten hit by a car, kidnapped, molested, killed, any number of things can happen to a 6 year old child in 2 hours.
In my talk with the principal she said "well, maybe we should make sure there's one person responsible for bringing him to his class..." Ya think?!? I was so pissed off I told her that she needs to figure out who that person is, who will be the back up if that person is gone as well as who is with him for EVERY SINGLE TRANSITION every single day. I want names. It needs to be made VERY clear who is responsible. No more of this "well, whoever happens to be around can be responsible for him....". Because we've only been in school for 3 weeks and already I've witnessed 3 transitions where he's had no supervision at all and could easily have walked out of the school. 3rd time is my limit. I threatened getting a lawyer if his IEP isn't followed and have formally requested an ARC/IEP meeting to get everything reviewed.
Oh mama!! What an awful feeling that must have been to not know where your child was. I would have been livid as well! Hopefully the principal with understand that you had every right to be angry and that they screwed up big time. I think asking for names is a perfect way to ensure that the school does what it needs to do, because what happened was inexcusable. How is your son doing? Was he scared?
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