What a change in 24 hours

*editors note, I meant to post this yesterday, as in Friday August 9th.  Although it is "technically" Sunday, to me it is still Saturday, being I work third shift.  It magically becomes the next day at 7am, when I change the on-call doctors.  So technically this post is two days late, to me it is one day late.... thus the title is relevant.
2nd editors note-- THIS IS LONG

Brief Family History Statement:  I had an exceptionally easy time in school.  I was in some gifted classes.  I could effortlessly do well on test without studying.  This was my reality.  In my distorted head as a student, I always believed kids who "failed" in school were not trying, didn't do their work, or were severely disabled (enter downs syndrome, mental retardation or some other drastic and obvious disability).  Now, with eyes wide opened, I feel horrible about this.  I met and fell in love with my husband, far before I ever knew he had a Learning Disability.  Marko and his brothers have a variety of learning disabilities.  The main one is Dyslexia.

My brief thoughts on Jayna: Jayna is eager to please.  Jayna is a hard worker.  She loves to write, although her writing is copying from books and she can't read what she is copying.  By 1st grade I knew she has some learning disability.  I certainly assumed by the end of 2nd grade she has dyslexia and I told the school.  Mrs. Carroll did everything within her power to help Jayna.  Dyslexia is INHERITED.  Did you know it is one of the highest inherited issue in the family tree with a 50/50 odd?!  The child study does not test for dyslexia.  Did you know 20% of students have dyslexia.  Did you know even worse only 1 in 10 kids WITH dyslexia on the tests will qualify for an IEP (or equivelant).

Back Story: Jayna is academically behind, due to the fact she cannot read.  We have been fighting with her educational issues since she was in Kindergarten.  By the end of Kindy, she was on track and meeting all standards.  In first grade, Jayna's teacher was at school for the first 2 weeks, followed by FOURTEEN,yes 14 weeks of a total of 15 substitute teachers.  Jayna quickly fell off track and no one noticed since she had no consistency in teachers.  Parent teacher conferences were canceled and never rescheduled and Jayna's report cards reflected that she was meeting all standards, although by Christmas I had my doubts that she was where she should be.  In late January her teacher returned with limited work.  She still had numerous "sick" days off.  In Feb, they said Jayna was in danger of failing, the first time ANYTHING had been said about her academics negatively.  How she went from meeting standard to "in danger" in a mater of a couple weeks, AMAZING.  Or not.  I doubt anyone actually looked at her work or paid any attention to her academics.  She is well behaved and well liked student who never causes problems so the fact she was in desperate need of additional help was ignored or overlooked.  Jayna finally began getting Title 1 reading help in late February.  However, due to a lot of end of school year testing, for a majority of May she had no additional help.  The school refused to do a Child Study on Jayna.  They wanted to retain her and I refused, because I fully feel they totally dropped the ball and really FAILED Jayna this year (1st grade).  Jayna went to 2nd grade, received Title 1 all year.  She had great teachers who really wanted the best for her and hated watching her struggle as much as I did.  In Dec we again requested a Child Study.  In late January we had our intial meeting and they quickly agreed to do a full Child Study on Jayna to see if she could get an IEP.  That process of testing Jayna by multiple different people in different areas it was April 19th before we had our decision making meeting.  I was optimistic going in, because the previous meeting had gone so well.  They denied Jayna eligible.  I signed that I DISAGREED with their decision.  That following week, I filed a request for an appeal with the director of special education.  I never received a call back.  Then the last day of April I called again and once in May.  Three calls, three voice mails, no response.  Jayna's teacher Mrs. Carroll did her absolute best to advocate for Jayna.  She I think was as disappointed as me in the meeting.  In the paperwork from the child study, it stated things reguarding vision in the Occupational Therepy section.  I scheduled Jayna an eye dr appointment.  Dr. Jon, (Optometrist) diagnosed Jayna with convergence insufficiency.  Again I was hopeful that this was the answer, at last we had a small something to grab onto as an answer.  The symptoms matched and we were hopeful to see progress with her new glasses with prism.  Although Mrs. Carroll referred Jayna for the city's summer school program, apparently she was not approved.  I also followed up with this, communicating with the Ast Principal at Jayna's school  about summer school and a 504 plan.  She told me she was looking into answers.  I asked again 10 days later and she never responded.  I think it is clear the school system is continually passing the buck when it comes to Jayna. She made nearly no progress in a year of 2nd grade and they claimed she didn't even qualify for an IEP, refused to follow through with the appeals process, and wouldn't even accommodate her in summer school or a 504.

A tradition of excellence for some

LCS Mission Statement (our school distict)
Every Child, By Name and By Need, to Graduation.

Apparently they do NOT really mean EVERY child, because it is clear they don't care about my child's educational needs.  They probably mean
Every TYPICAL, Average or above average child, by name (but not always spelled or pronounced right.... all throughout her child study it says Jana and they mis-spoke her name calling her Jane or Jan-uh) and by Basic needs(as long as our typical format works for them with minimal extras), to potential graduation (or whatever it takes to get more funding, for said child)

No longer a Sheffield Elementary Tiger

This Summer: All summer Jayna has "summer homeschool" with Grandma 4-5 days a week.  We have seen no difference other than Jayna complaining of headaches, and all the same previous symptoms.  We went for a second opinion for treatments to help with Jayna's diagnosis.  Dr. Ganser, MD (board-certified pediatric ophthalmologist and also specializes in neuro-ophthlamology) said she saw no signs of Convergence Insufficiency.  So that first week of July we were refered for a third opinion.  Our Appointment with Dr Clark (working with children and infants. She evaluates, consults and treats patients with learning difficulties, autism, head injury, stroke, strabismus, convergence insufficiency, and computer stress syndrome.) wouldn't be until Sept 26th- a long almost 3 month wait, and with that vision issues are at a stand still.  At the same time we took Jayna BACK TO the family Dr to get a referal to a developmental pediatrician.  Again this too is an excessively long wait.  We requested this in early July, our appointment in Nov 6th to see Dr Brennan (Developmental Pediatrics: The Evaluation & Follow-up of Developmentally At-risk or Delayed Infants & Children).  Everything was pretty much at a stand still.     This summer I have again contacted the Director of Special Education.  He finally returned one call to tell me I needed to specifically explain what part of the child study I disagreed with and then he can get us a 2nd opinion.  He told me to look it over and call him back.  I did, and once again 2 calls later, still no response.  We have also put Jayna into counseling for issues including low self esteem/low self confidence, much of which stems from being so much behind academically in comparison to her classmates/friends.  We had Jayna tested at Sylvan Learning Center.  They found her to be on a 1st grade reading level.  They saw ALL the issues we saw with her.  For about $5,500 they THINK they can get her caught up.  But there is no real guarantee.  This costs $50/hour and it isn't guaranteed and it is with 2-3 other students, not even one on one for that price tag!  My older brother agreed to pay for 16 hours of Sylvan.  I was not convinced it would work, but we all agreed if it was going to work, we should be able to tell a NOTICEABLE difference after 16 hours ($700plus).  The day after they agreed to pay for this, we scheduled a meeting at Desmond T Doss Christian Academy after hearing from a church friend that they help children with learning disabilities.

Now a Desmond Doss Patriot

The Meeting:  We met on Friday August 9th at 10am with Mrs. Jeannie at Desmond T Doss School.  I anticipated 30mins of yammering.  I had already found out at least Jayna has Mrs. Carroll again as requested, and had already come to terms of 2nd Grade 2.0 Sheffield Edition.  I was surprised how thorough Mrs. Jeannie was.

• Jayna will be in a mixed class of 1st and 2nd graders.  This is good for her because she can be both a leader and follower.  She can both teach and be taught.  She won't be a noticeable sore thumb.
• Jayna will be in a class of 11 (she makes #12, so far)
• Jayna's teacher actually has a special education major
• The Tutor Program is a 1 on 1 (free) program because the school noticed "A few of our students exhibited signs and symptoms to warrant the use of a research-based program for dyslexia called Barton Reading and Spelling System.".
•  An additional program just for Phonics where she can start on the first lesson and catch up to grade level and be successful.
• A fun writing course which is great for a kiddo who loves to write, but can't write a sentence.
• She may or may not have spelling words based on her dyslexia abilities
• Although not required, Mrs.Jeannie creates an IEP for every single student.

And how about some fun stuff about the school!

• They have classroom pets!  Radar is a lion-headed Rabbit.  Tootie is a cockatoo bird.
• They have lots of fun field trips
•  They have a great playground and every grade has outside time!
• They have gymnastics team (free!)
• Once they hit 3rd grade they have ski club.
• Great fun reading spots for independent reading as well as obviously leveled books by color coded dots
• The have a small school band and 2nd graders can do keyboarding!
• Fridays are 3/4 day and they get out at 2 not 3:30

Beth's Loyalty:  I am not easy to sell.  My goal in life was to buy a house at 18. I was never ever moving again.  My kids were never going to move so they would never ever have to change schools.  I went into that meeting with NO intentions of attending.  I was listening to another schpill of ideas that I doubted would work for Jayna.  I was sold before I left and had to sell it to my husband.  He wasn't too hard to sell. Partially because he knew we were running out of ideas and partially because he KNOWS Beth and for me to EVER change my mind there had to have been a very seriously real reason.

Closing:  And so this gigantically long blog to say.  Yesterday I was burned out on what to do for Jayna.  Chasing doctors and specialists and school people.  No answers and more questions.  Now I have hope.  I am not dreading the school year but looking forward to it.  My only set back is so wishing we could afford to send Anthony as well.  I do love his school, Sheffield, but I think he too has mild dyslexia.  I am hopeful he doesn't fall further behind.  

 

IF YOUR CHILD IS HAVING TROUBLE READING, COULD THEY BE DYSLEXIC?

GO TO http://www.dys-add.com/ and read the warning signs and about it.
OR
there is a series of videos instead of reading and they are FANTASTIC
Go TO www.susanbarton.com