The beauty of living in Oregon

Strawberry Picking

Ana discovered she could eat the strawberries

And eat the strawberries, she did...along with stems, leaves, and dirt. This girl doesn't discriminate. 

We bought 16 lbs of strawberries, but I'm pretty sure we left with another 10lbs in Ana's belly.

All for nothing

It appears that my celebration over my loophole was premature. I was informed today that because the "private school" we are claiming resides in a different school district we must be serviced by that district. No big deal. Except that I call that district to inform them of our service plan and they tell me that they are not offering speech as an option to private school children this year. Instead they are offering math, reading, and writing. Again, I am told my options are to place him in school or to walk away with nothing. Feels like defeat. And it stinks!

I love loopholes!

And the winner is...mama bear! I have been back and forth with the school district lately trying desperately to get speech services for Alex next year. There is a lot of bureaucracy that gets in the way of homeschooled children getting special ed. services once they reach school age. Most parents are forced to walk away with nothing and then pay out of pocket for various therapies. Or they are persuaded to enroll their children in the school, because they are made to believe they cannot possibly provide everything their child needs at home. I have spent a lot of time researching the law (the federally mandated IDEA and also Oregon state law). This is something I would recommend to any parent with a special needs child. Whether you intend to utilize the public school, a private school, or homeschool, you need to know what your child is entitled to. There are so many gray areas in the IDEA law that every school district interprets it differently. The biggest of these gray areas is called FAPE. The law states that each child is entitled to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE). Problem: "appropriate" is not defined. I believe that a parent should be allowed to have input in what "appropriate" means. After all, who knows a child best? The biggest roadblock that I faced was that our district interpreted the law to mean that if a child has needs in more than one area (as determined by that child's educational plan - IEP) then they are obligated to meet all of those needs through enrollment in the public school. Or, the parent can waive their rights to any services and simply go it alone. However, children who are parentally placed in a private school can still get things like speech therapy through the public school. Does that make sense to anyone?

For Alex we were specifically seeking speech therapy. We were not asking for any other services. It isn't that he couldn't benefit from some occupational and/or physically therapy, but those are not things that are offered individually through the school even if he was enrolled there. Essentially, their plan was to place him in a self-contained classroom and he would get some separate speech therapy. So my question was what could they do in that classroom that I could not offer one-on-one at home with the exception of the speech? However, they still refused to see my point in favor of their interpretation of the law. So, I found a loophole instead. Because our homeschool co-op qualifies under the states definition of a "private school" Alex will be considered a parentally enrolled private school student for the next 2 years. During that time he will receive speech therapy from the public school. Once he turns 7, the law requires that he be registered as a homeschooled student, at which time any private school involvement is nullified. But, the major victory is that we got what we wanted, how we wanted it for now, and we bought ourselves 2 years to find another loophole ;)

So many people told me to "know the law" as it related to my children's education. Before this I figured I had a decent grasp. I knew about IDEA. The problem was that I knew why IDEA existed, but not all of the nuances of the actual law. My gut went after the spirit of the law. For those unfamiliar, the law came about in the '70s as a result of special needs children being turned away from public schools, hence the phrase that all children are entitled to a free and appropriate public education. Instead of the spirit of the law carrying forth it has been bound in red tape to the point that most parents (homeschooling or not) have to fight for what their child is entitled to, and there is even a market for advocates to help parents fight the battles for their child's education. Anyway, that's my rant for now ;)

IN OTHER NEWS...

Most pregnant woman have their first ultrasound around 8 weeks of pregnancy, and they leave the doctor's office with a cute little ultrasound picture of a strange looking blob that the ultrasound tech has assured them is their baby. Those pictures are amazing (I do have a few of those myself that I am rather proud of ;) But, this time around I didn't have an ultrasound until 11 weeks. Let me tell you, something amazing happens between 8 and 11 weeks...that blob becomes a baby! So, we now have adorable pictures of our baby.

This one is my favorite. It is a shot from above. You can see the baby's head and legs.

EI has ended for the little ones for the school year, so they are enjoying more time at home. And I am enjoying not having to drag all of my kids out of the house for those 2 mornings a week :)

This was my last note home for Ana for the school year. I thought it was funny :) BTW that means she went on the potty.

Co-op has ended for Trey. I know he is sad about that. We had a great last day of co-op! I went with Trey and his class to see a play. We saw A Year with Frog and Toad, and Lukey got to come too. After that we picked up A & A from the sitter and headed back to co-op for an end of the year pizza party! We got our yearbook, which was so beautifully done it made me cry (okay maybe there were some pregnancy hormones mixed in there).

We are keeping busy for the summer and I cannot believe how quickly the time is going already! We will be spending next week at VBS, which I know Trey is excited about. The kids are doing the summer reading program at the library, and Trey is also filling out his Barnes and Noble reading journal in order to earn a free book. The kids are growing so fast and saying some very surprising and silly things. Can't say we aren't blessed :)

The kids had free bowling passes from the library. Score!