Education For Some

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Clik here to view.My husband and I had to attend the nine week conference at my daughter’s school.  At the conference they talk about how your child is doing so far, the areas they need to improve on, and if they are on grade level. Last year when we attended the conference my daughter had only been in that school for about a week, so they didn’t have a whole lot of information to discuss. They took her information from the previous school and the assignments that she had completed to come up with the areas that she was struggling in. Last year my daughter was behind in all subjects and was struggling with reading and mathematics. My daughter is two grade levels behind and already has repeated a grade before. We knew when we adopted my daughter that she was struggling in school due to her disabilities and her situation of being in foster care.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

We were hoping that by the time she gets to middle school we can get her on track, which was a goal of about two years.  So back to the conference so far in her current grade she is still behind and has not made much improvement in regards to reading, but has improved in math. My daughter has Borderline Intellectual Functioning and ADHD and these all impair her comprehension abilities and her executive functioning. It is really hard to hear that your daughter is behind and struggling in school and making little progress. Her dad and I are doing everything we possibly can to assist her. All summer she had a tutor helping her on skills that she was behind on and skills that she would need for her current grade level. Her tutor helped her work on comprehension in reading, but of course it was only three months until she had to go back to school so not much progress was made there.

My daughter has a hard time understanding what is asked of her to do when she’s doing her work. She also has a hard time doing word problems and pretty much anything that does not tell her directly what to do; Of course this is all due to her disabilities and we’re trying to help her work through that. But I must say that I have to disagree with how this school works with special needs children. My child will come home every week with her graded papers and they will have grades like 100, 90, 89, and 92’s in subjects that require comprehension. This concerns me because if my child is reading on a grade level that is two years behind how is she making these types of grades doing grade level work. Therefore, I know that they are helping her, but not in the way that they should be. What I mean is my daughter, still does not understand the work rather she is being guided to the answer.

This is not my concept of teaching and this certainly will not help my daughter get caught up. It’s hard navigating through the school system, let alone having a child that has special needs and an IEP. Last year, when my daughter moved with us it was an overwhelming experience for both her and me because she was new to our family and to the school. I had no clue about IEP’s or how elementary schools operate as she is my first child. Now I have done quite a bit of research and I have been able to see the strengths and weaknesses that my daughter has. While I am working on a specific plan that is going to aid in bringing my daughter up to speed, I do know that in the meantime giving the child the answer does not help with comprehension.  I have decided to get a new tutor who has specifically worked with kids with this type of disability and is looking into an additional advocate to go with me when I talk to the school about her education.

I know that over time my daughter will catch up and will be just fine. She is a hard-working and is doing her very best and that is all that I can ask for. But now the school needs to step up because she has been behind for far too long and it is their responsibility to help and aid in getting her caught up to speed as well. Now I’m not blaming them for her disability or lack of effort in the past, but there is clearly a problem when she has all A’s and B’s doing grade level work and is two grade levels behind. This is the time where as her parent I am going to have to step and not accept how and what they are doing so that I may help my daughter secede in life and I plan to do just that!

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