Saturday, October 19, 2013

Not done with SpecEd., after all

I thought I was done with Special Education. Maybe you're never done with it.

I became intimately familiar with Special Education after moving to Woodstock in 1996. My experience began at Dean St. School, and one of the smartest things I did, after taking an informal one-day class in Special Ed Advocacy at the Family Resource Center on Disabilities, was to hire a full-time advocate who had more than 15 years of hands-on experience.

He wasn't cheap, and he was worth it!

I learned about placement in-district, placement out-of-district, private therapeutic day schools, hospitalization, inclusion, exclusion, a teacher's rant (not intended for my eyes, of course), and the Age 18-to-21 Transition Program at McHenry County College.

All of which can be content for many stand-alone articles.

Thanks to this blog and another (www.WoodstockAdvocate.com), parents still find me.

Parents need support. They need it, and are entitled to it, from the school districts. They need support from others - family members, neighbors, friends, co-workers, the community.

There is support available. Watch here for new articles. Some will have what some consider "old" information. Be refreshed. Never give up!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There is no special education in Woodstock school district. The teachers principle and whole special education department is full of people who lie dont educate our kids ignore students parents and just do as they want with no responsiblility to any one. I pulled my child out over 3 years ago went to the district office asking to speak with her not my first time in the office the secretary even recognized me and said she would have her call me the next day. 3 years later no contact. I didn't want my son not to be educated i wanted help in 12 years never got any we had ieps dr notes dr talking to them advocate hired they got no where.
My child would go to the special school here and when walking through the door a teacher would say your a loser drop out your never going to amount to anything. This went on for years. Told why don't you leave school when the child did as told and left i was called and yelled at i said what do you expect only doing as told . Given 3 gym classes even though the child read at a 5th grade level same at math but 3 gym classes were more important then reading said this first day of school i also had dr speak to them,because of a disability this would be dangerous to him. Ignored called an iep meeting then with dr only then would they conply but lied about alot of things. Why should anyone have 3 gym classes when credits were lacking to graduate and needed so much help elsewhere. Also didnt need that much gym classes as the child was taken out of school ever year from freshmen year on by dr because of damage school was doing. That makes gym class a pass by dr they did this many times in the distict for many students i know of. My child now has no education Never given any by schools is at 5 th grade level for years and has no hope of an education yet i pay 5000 or so a year in taxes for schools. This district is and always has been a disgrace. Never cared about educating students with special needs only care about the cost