Are some schools better, Autism?

Well, that's the million dollar question for the day. As you know I posted on Friday about scheduling my iep meeting. And this teacher is on on on it! Had my meeting last Friday, which is today. And yeah I posted my blog late, no surprise on iep days. For some reason iep days always end up being the wildest days. I don't even know why! It's just crazy.

Last year a Para lost her mind on me and I just sat there and smiled, nodding my head. And the moment I got home, I was contacting my advocates because I was so hot under the collar. Livid doesn't even come close to how I felt on that day. I think the devil himself was hiding from me as mad as I was, that day.

Well, like I said days for iep review meeting are always a little wild. I won't get into what happened on Friday but I will say that it is the best meeting I've had in awhile. I am really liking this teacher. So far since school has been in session for about 2 weeks I'm no longer having the issues with getting Doodle ready in the mornings that I did last year.

Today was the first day that homework came home and she did it all with no complaints. She had so many issues getting homework done last year I had to bribe her with sweets. Not the case, this year. This teacher is on her game.

Now I will say this. There is a difference in what a teacher does for the student. If the teacher is geared more for teaching children on the spectrum, they can relate and handle them better. Which is the case with this new teacher this year. You will see how your child will get back into the child that you know by the work of the teacher. If you have a teacher that doesn't really know how to keep your child busy and working with them every moment of the day with sensory and with school work then you will have a frustrated child.

And if having so many iep's last year pushed the teacher to take another position so that the self contained classroom needed a new teacher, then I'm so glad I pushed.

This is what I found out at the meeting on Friday. Doodle was not taught out of Edmark last year. Which I suspected considering the work coming home for homework. This was frustrating Doodle as her teacher Ms. Heather had done this years ago with her. Children on the spectrum need to be challenged. Heck, Doodle challenges me just about every single day it seems like. She is very bright.
But my problem is, Doodle is a grade behind because she wasn't taught with the curriculum that is geared to her level. Am I happy that she's a year behind. Nope, not one single bit and that means that I will be pushing this teacher to double Doodle's work to get her back on track.

I have been promised that in October when the school's fiscal year starts edmark is on the top of the list to be ordered. I will find out at the beginning of  November. I'm keeping track with Doodle's progress. It's my job to make sure that she is a success. My child wants to be a doctor. She will get there by a lot of encouragement and a lot of hard work and it will be worth it.

So you know, today's blog post is late. Later then it's ever been and I am truly sorry for that. It's been an extremely busy day as the last of the editing is taking place on Doodle's book. Every day it's getting closer and closer to the final production of seeing her work in print. And I can assure you that this will not be the only thing that she gets into print.

Have a great night and if you are reading this in the day, have a great day!