Just got a call from the school and apparently Jeffrey had a meltdown on one of their field trips. He started obsessing about a landmark. Plus this field trip is less structured than the one on Tuesday. Also his bus aide is just too passive. If Jeffrey has a meltdown this summer on the bus, they will have trouble
Tammy
i know i have always had problems with transportation. never an aide on bus when iep says he needs one. saves them money not to have one and if you don't stay on top of them and complain they will let it slide. same with seat belts. make sure your child has his belt on in bus. if there is no aide, who is assisting with the seat belt. can not even beging to tell the horror stories about my sons transportation. called police three times already because they were lost with him for over 5 hours. the drivers they employ are not the smartest.Oh,
Now this afternoon, right after our flash floods moved thru the area with hail and it looking as dark as night, I got a phone call from the director of the extended school year program. She told me that they don't have house to house transportation. Huhhhhh????????? YOu mean to tell me one part of special ed is not communicating with the other part?????? Gee why am I not surprised. After all don't they get federal funds from our government? So I explained the situation to her and she told me tomorrow to say something to the driver about pulling into the parking lot. She also informed me that basically be thankful my kids were picked up at all. Over half of the kids that were suppose to be picked up wasn't
Tammy
Today was the first day of summer school.
Okay so I call the school. They need another secretary by the way. Talking to me on the phone and her mouth is full of food. So I explain the situation and she says she will get his teacher to get in touch with me. The teacher calls me back quite promptly I might add. She tells me she will have to call me back later after the kids leave and she can look at the IEP. OH but she did thank me for calling transportation and keeping on top of things with them. Transportation has a very bad reputation here. After this phone call I call Pacer.org. I explain to them the steps I have done and should I do any other steps. They explain to me that in MInneapolis a parent cannot request a meeting with transportation. Only the teacher or IEP team leader can. Gee I wonder why they have it that way. Probably because if us parents could do this they would constantly be in meetings. Okay so I was told I did everything , made the proper phone calls,etc. I then asked them about the other kid. Gabe has asthma and it was brought to my attention that some bus drivers have worn strong perfume before. I was told to request another IEP meeting to deal with this at the beginning of school year this fall. I also brought up that he was wrote up twice this past school year for inappropriate behaviour that is quite common with his maturity age. I was then asked if he has a bus aide. I told them I have requested one but haven't gotten one. I was then informed that maybe they just don't think the behaviour is bad enough to require one. So remember, just because you ask for a bus aide, doesn't mean you will get one. I was then told to make sure the language is very specific about his behaviours, that a teacher has to get him off the bus and on it. And it wouldn't hurt having a letter from his lung specialist on the perfume. Pacer told me that is more common now than it used to be. Pacer also said that on the behaviour after so many writeups they can say the kid is suspended from transportation and cannot ride the bus anymore. So first thing in the fall I am gonna be on this bigtime. Now we did talk about it this before Gabe's IEP meeting but not during. Now Jeffrey's school just called me back and told me they believe it says hand to hand in the IEP. So they will call transportation and inform them of that. Just goes to show you that even tho you have an IEP in place, the schools will cut corners when they can. You have to be on their butt at every turn. Tammy girl, good for you! I tell you a simple thing like transportation can be huge to our kids, I"m glad Jeffery and Gabe have you! I'm sending Nicholas for the first time on a bus this summer, I'm freaked out and scared out of my wits about it...I'll be following that bus the first week I swear, I told my boss I'll be late that week and why and she said I don't blame you...but if I drove him and picked him up from the summer program they are in a different city and its shorter days I'd only make it to work for 2 hours a day, that wouldn't fly w/ her oh well...LOL..I'm gonna pay attention very closely now! thanks for sharing that, and nice job mom! Ali Well lets see................here in the last year there has been one school bus driver that had a previous dui that the bus company "claims" they didn't know about. There also was another bus driver that had been convicted of child molestation. Same story from the bus company too. Now I do know with the second one he was driving elemantary age children. And that was about the age of the victim . Don't think it was special ed tho. But still all it would take is just a little bit of effort to check up on these things. I mean is it asking that much to do that? If you had a place for rent, you would check on their rental history. Why not check for driving history and other things. Tammy Tammy What a Mess! It sounds about as bad as here! LOL But I know you WILL get it straightened out! Of course that isnt the point. We have more than enough to deal with everyday then to have to keep journals and track of everything going on and dot all our i's and cross all our t's. I would love to get special ed transportation for Tyler. Hes on the bus at least 45 minutes every morning with a full bus loaded to the max. He can't handle the noise, it drives him crazy. They wont even try head phones with him or his vest until AFTER we do a sensory profile (what they think Im lying?) I know thi s one time 2 elementary kids got into a little spat on the bus. The driver got mad and freaked out screaming at the kids! Tghey kept up so she pulled the bus over on the side of the road made all the kids get off and stand in a ditch for a different bus driver to come pick them up and drop them all off. ALL the kids... even those not involved! She says it was unsafe on the bus because 2 were arguing. Please tell me HOW it was safer to have what 60 or more kids standing in a ditch on the side of a road with 1 adult! Tyler had such a hard time getting back on a bus after that. I asked for an aide when he was in special ed preschool. They wouldnt give him one. However they did pull over on the side of the road and call me to tell me he had climbesd out of his car seat and they couldnt get him back in and I needed to come get him so they could continue their route. Makes me sick. They see no problems to add additional supports, but cant handle the situations with them. There are services in place for you to access some resources but 101 reasons why you dont qualify, yet hey they offered the services. Too bad living a lifestyle with a special needs kid isnt a requirement to work with our kids. Maybe if it were there would be the services, understanding, help, determination and so forth needed to actually help our kids! Let us know how things go Tammy! JUST SCREAM!!!! Have a meltdown and see how the kids respond! Or at least feel a little better!
Cheer up preseason football is only about 7 1/2 weeks away
Tammy *laughssss* I just realized I should make it clear.... No I am not smoking while I'm pregnant... but... I'm pretty sure I'll be stepping outside to have a smoke after the baby is born *laughs and laughs* Whew!!!! So glad you cleared that up Sarah
Tammy Lets see..........the city bus was late. So here we are standing out at the bus stop waiting on the
While we are in the doctor's office they get into it again. Now the appointment itself goes pretty smoothly. His weight only went up 5 lbs. He was good up to a point. Then he starts the "lets irritate Jeffrey". Which works so well. The pca met us down there. So we have to walk two blocks to the car. Of course Jeffrey starts complaining about this too. He was complaint city today. Now yesterday Gabe didn't mind the pca so today he couldn't go anywhere. He knew this. But as soon as we get home there is a mad dash to change into his swimming trunks. And Jeffrey, my gosh!!!! He was deliberately stalling!!!! I told him "get your stuff together, get out of here or you are staying home!!!" So the pca and him leave. Then Gabe throws another fit!!!!!!!!! Tears up the bus passes. Tries to tear up the metro id's. Tears up three cigarettes. Yes I smoke. Shot me. I don't drink or do drugs so it is my only remaining outlet. Then he stomps his feet. Tears up a computer game users book. Then my favorite. He decides to tear apart the cable remote. You know the cheap ones that if you don't turn them in when you disconnect it they will charge you 0.00 for? That one!!!! And right now he is calming down. So ...............anyone wanna trade?
Tammy
You sound like a FABULOUS advocate! Lucky for your kids, they have you!
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