Now What?

Ever feel like you work so hard at something and that it's just too late? You spend all this time researching, planning, implementing and revising and still, nothing has worked.

Holland is now in the 5th grade. Physically, he's 5th grade. Academically, he's about 1st grade. Do you know how frustrating that is? To not be able to teach him so he can learn something? After feeling like I hit a brick wall when he was in 2nd grade and enrolling him in a special education class through our district, only to pull him out the following year, it feels like I'm on a moving walkway that is going nowhere. I have tried so many different reading programs with him. He's on an IEP that would seem to indicate he would get the help he needs to manage those deficits. It hasn't made one smack of difference. The only assistance he's received is speech and that's shoddy. We'd get better speech services if we paid for it ourselves. But that's not something we can afford right now. I had to cut out Occupational Therapy and his counseling he was receiving because of our reduced income.

His three year evaluation for his IEP is coming up and there are certain tests I want done to determine if he is dyslexic. Guess what? The school district does not test for dyslexia because they don't recognize it as a learning disability. The school district is only required to do testing to determine eligibility for IEP services. The method that I've found online that will help a dyslexic child is very expensive. Holland's struggles match almost exactly to the warning signs listed on the Bright Solutions for Dyslexia website. One of the things that scared me is the emphasis on early intervention. That children who struggle to read and write shouldn't be dismissed as "late bloomers" or that they will outgrow the struggle to decode. If a child doesn't have intervention by 3rd or 4th grade, it will be 4x's harder to overcome those delays.

The charter school we are involved with doesn't have a resource room available. They don't even have an on-site teacher to help with reading or writing issues. Then the school he would attend if we were doing public school says that it's the charter school's responsibility to provide accommodations. So I can't get the district to admit that he's (probably) dyslexic and I can't get the schools to provide any services. See? Brick wall.