No Child Left Behind...

I am going t get a bit serious, and maybe even a bit controversial, for a minute. I know what your thinking..."YOU...Serious?!...HA!". But even I can get serious sometimes. Especially when it comes to my children. More specifically...my special needs child. Zachary has had a really rough week that began last Wednesday. He has been even more impulsive, agitated and aggressive than normal. He has an overload of energy and spends his evenings running around, jumping on furniture and making loud firetruck noises. He has begun biting at himself, chewing on his clothes, swatting at his teacher and aid at school. He is experiencing more difficulty during transistions and disrupting class with his loud vocalizations. His medications haven't changed and, as far as I know, neither has anything else. He has told me that he doesn't love me, he has thrown things at me and even grabbed my legs with both hands in an attempt to pinch me. He goes up and then down. One minute he is drawing a photo of he and I holding hands and smiling with the words, "I love you mommy and I miss you when you are far" written above them. The next minute he has drawn a big x through it and rewritten, "I don't love you mommy, you're mean!". It hurts my heart so bad that I spent Friday morning at work, crying my eyes out. He is so angry and so upset but I can't figure out why. I have tried everything to comfort him and calm him down, but it only seems to make things worse. I checked with the school and they verified that the behaviors are happening there too.
So I made him an appointment with his Neurologist. I just wanted to make sure that something else wasn't going on. After all, they told me that his chances of developing epilepsy are extremely high according to his EEG. Maybe he is on the verge of his first seizure. I am grasping at straws probably, but I just can't understand why he changed so drastically and so suddenly. After talking to his doctor, I had more understanding of what was going on. He said, "imagine that he is a car and he is having issue after issue. You know he needs a major overhaul but you keep taking him to local mechanics to fix this or that. Knowing the entire time that the dealership is the only place that can truly fix it with a major overhaul." He says it is due to the fact that Zachy is getting older and stronger and he has never had the much needed behavioral training he needs. He concluded that without this training from a trained Autism provider, it is only going to get worse. He said, "taking him to a regular teacher in a mainstream class is a bit like taking your car to 7-11 for repair in hopes that the cashier knows something about cars". WOW! I never really thought about it like that.
So now I am on a mission to get my son what he truly needs. Not that I haven't been on that mission all along. I was just not as well equipped prior to my conversation with the Neurologist. See, he hooked me up with a paper that contained this statement...
Education is the fostering of acquisition of skills or knowledge...including not only academic learning, but also socialization, adaptive skills, language and communication, and reduction of behavior problems - to assist a child to develop independence and personal responsibility.
At the beginning of the year, I attempted to get Zach placed into a special classroom taught by teachers with experience in dealing with special needs kids. This school does not have an Autism class and the County I live in is in great need of Autism teachers. So they convinced me that since he is doing great academically, we could just place him in a mainstream class with the assistance of a full time aide. I admit, he is doing great academically, with lots of prompting and constant reminders to stay on task. However, he is not doing great in all other areas. He has made attempts at socialization but is incredibly awkward in his socializing. Eventually, this will lead to teasing and being shunned by classmates. I was always led to believe that the school was only responsible for his academics. Now that I know they are responsible for more, I am pushing it forward. I have already been in touch with an advocate to speak on our behalf at the IEP meetings and I sent an email to the school letting them know what I want for my son. They stated that we will have an eligibility meeting next week to see what he qualifies for and what label to put on his IEP. After all, he has "outgrown" the developmentally delayed label they previously gave him. Even though my son has the diagnosis of Autism from 2 very highly respected child developmental doctors, the school feels they need to test him. They apparently think they know more than these professionals. I say they just don't want to have to provide the therapies required by the Autism label. No Child Left Behind has no funding behind it and therefore the schools are scrambling to care for these children. But this is not Zachy's fault. He deserves what he needs in order to lead a "normal" life someday. So I begin my fight! I WILL win! For my son, I will do what it takes to see him get what he needs. My child will not be left behind!