Unfortunately where we live, Middle School starts in 6th grade. What happened to the good ‘ol days when Junior High School was that brief 2 year transition (7th and 8th grades) from elementary to high school??! To be honest the only thing I remember of Jessica’s 6th grade experience was the annual 504 meeting in which everyone said the same thing they had said the previous years, yet, the only thing that changed was that she was falling more behind.
The summer between 6th and 7th grade the kids and I moved to San Luis Obispo. It was only a short distance south from where I had been living. The biggest difference (besides the climate) was the school district! 7th and 8th grade Junior High School in this town, which meant everyone was a new student on the first day of school. But that wasn’t the best part. Two weeks into school, just as I was getting ready to reach out to the teachers for my annual “this is Jessica and can you help her…” I got a call from the school counselor requesting a meeting with her and Jessica’s teachers. Two weeks, that is all it took and the teachers were expressing concern! I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I was that someone else was seeing what I had been jumping up and down about for the past few years. Finally! The school counselor was going to retire after this year and she had decided that Jessica was going to be her pet project before she left. She advocated for Jessica to get an IEP. The school psychologist agreed to use the previous evaluation and she was qualified under the “Other Health Impairment (OHI)” eligibility. THIS IS IMPORTANT! There are 13 criteria under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). They can all be found on understood.org (on my resource list), under “school & learning”. The IDEA definition of OHI is as follows: An umbrella term, “other health impairment” (OHI) encompasses a range of conditions. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) names several such disorders in OHI’s official definition: “having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that— (a) is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis [a kidney disorder], rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome; and (b) adversely affects a child’s educational performance.” (www.specialeducationguide.com). So, I will pose the obvious question….why didn’t the previous school district use this to qualify Jessica years ago??? Well, the schools will tell you that “adversely affecting a child’s educational performance” means that there is a significant discrepancy between where a child should be academically and where they actually are. Now, my logic says, if you put the resources an supports in place before there is a significant discrepancy, wouldn’t that prevent the problem from becoming “significant” and therefore promote positive school experiences? OF COURSE! But we are a crisis oriented society, not a prevention oriented society…this defies logic. Are you shaking your head like me???
Being Jessica's Mom: Growing up on the Autistic Spectrum 