So. We have not had our IEP meeting yet, but the principal and I have been working informally off the info from the first meeting and things were progressing or so we both thought.

DGS7 asked to go to his calm down room, but after a short talk with the principal whom he likes and respects, he went back to his classroom and had a good afternoon Wednesday, after a rough start to the week.

Then we get to today. The only service our school can provide DGS at this point is counseling. His classroom teacher will only let him go during the only recess of the day, which is late in the afternoon. If there is no PE he doesn't get any "wiggle" time until 2 p.m. Today, for reasons he would not tell me, he had to take a five-minute timeout during recess. The coach doing recess left him there a lot more than five minutes and he wasn't allowed to go with the counselor. He had FIVE MINUTES counseling this entire week! He is supposed to have 30 minutes twice a week. Counselor was out on his other scheduled day.

The principal has spoken with the counselor and the teacher and they are supposed to have found another time for him to meet her. I know that will take time, but I feel like DGS was punished twice today, once in the timeout and the other by losing his counseling time. BTW, the counselor is the main reason he wants to remain in public school, and my main reason for keeping him there. When they have the time together, his anxiety level is really lowered and we don't have the meltdowns at home. Tonight's meltdown lasted more than an hour, even though my DH and I took extra time with him all evening.

He was so stressed out, he said he didn't want to go with his other GF who drove 10 hours down here for his birthday. He LOVES to go with him most of the the time, but not tonight. After rocking with him on my lap outside for 30 minutes, he was finally able to gain some control.

I am trying so hard not to give up on school, and thought we had reached an okay place, not perfect, but good enough place for the present, but days like this make me want to pull my hair out and pull him out of school.

Thanks for letting me rant. BTW, he is not going to school tomorrow. Mostly, because his out-of-town GF is here, but after the meltdown, I probably wouldn't send him anyway. Experience has shown us, painfully, that everyone would suffer, especially DGS.

leahchris