Ethan

I picked Ethan up from school today and for the hundredth time, he told me one of the other boys took part of his lunch without asking. Instead of repeating my daily, hmm, advice to him of take it back, tell your teacher, etc., I walked my 5 yr old son back into the school and to the classroom, where I proceeded to tell his teacher what was occurring. I felt I had given it ample time(over a month!) to be worked out amongst Ethan and the other kids. Ethan is not very assertive, you could say he is the type of kid who lets others walk all over him. Not a good situation when there are 24 other kids and 1 teacher.
I told her and she said she was not surprised at all, some of the kids are a huge handful, she will have someone keep an eye on Ethan in the lunchroom. I then asked her about his IEP, if he had had speech or OT yet. She told me that he met the speech therapist yesterday, for the first time!!! YESTERDAY, OVER A MONTH AFTER HE STARTED THERE!!!!!! Not only that but the OT had met with him and given his teacher ideas of what she could do to help him with transitions, sensory issues, etc. Like she has any time(or experience, which she told me she has no spec ed experience!) with 24 other children and no aide in her class! His teacher proceeded to tell me Ethan is a very smart child but that he would do better in a different setting, there is too much stimulation, too many children in his class, etc. I told her, he was in a regular education classroom and excelled at his old school and that he is not going in a special education classroom. She looked almost sad, disappointed maybe, I don't know. Not that I didn't want him in a SE class but that there wasn't/isn't more she can do for him. He needs more one on one attention. He is supposed to receive OT with the therapist an hour a week, speech an hour a week and have a classroom aide. This is according to the IEP written up at his old school. If the new school couldn't provide this, then after reading his IEP and NOT IMPLEMENTING IT, they should have called me. We should have already had a meeting. I know I should have probably called, gone in there, whatever, sooner, but having not received a phone call from the special ed team, psychologist, principal or teacher that there are problems with his IEP or that he's been having transition issues(AGAIN!! and these had all but disappeared before break at the old school), how was I supposed to know there was anything wrong??? I am so angry I could scream. My child is basically falling through the cracks. His teacher had literally 5 minutes to look over his IEP before it was put in his file and handed over to the "SAT team". She has no idea what he needs, how to provide it, and no support. Ethan isn't getting help other than going to the fourth-grade class a couple days a week for an hour with a little boy(4th grader) with Autism who loves maps as much as Ethan. He is just there in class basically getting nothing out of it because he has a meltdown every time they go to a new activity or whatever and he has no schedule! If they had read his IEP they would know that he needs a visual schedule as an aid to help him deal with the changes! *MOM SCREAMS AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS*

Sigh. I just want the best for him, just like any parent. Everyone keeps telling me how bright he is, he has such potential, blah, blah, blah. THEN DO SOMETHING FOR HIM!! Help him learn, help him with his transitions. Help him before he falls through the cracks, loses his potential because he gives up or gets bored, before he gets to the point that nothing will help him because his meltdowns prevent him from learning and they give up on him. I just don't know what to do. He loves going to school, being with all the other kids. Jason is completely against me homeschooling him. But I know he would excel at home. The only other option is the Catholic school that I keep mentioning. But they don't have the resources for OT either. They do have smaller classes though, which might take away the necessity of OT altogether, more one-on-one attention. The other thing is, even if we can afford it this year, and probably next year because of savings, what happens if the tuition goes up or our savings is gone and we don't have good-paying jobs how will be able to afford? I know its easy to say give it to God, but that's so hard to do sometimes, you know?