Thanks MoN and Quantum. We are pushing for Assistive Technology being the best thing for her. Yesterday I made the point that voice-to-text would be the best bet to get her independent immediately with a goal of building keyboarding skills. As of now they have done nothing. Nada. Zilch in terms of trying to get her independent. Neurotypical kids in other districts receive technology instruction starting in kindergarten as part of their regular curriculum. We have been raising holy he!! for a kid that desperately n-e-e-d-s it and have gotten nowhere. It would be way, way less expensive to get her up to speed on these skills than to hire a para but they have chosen not to. DD would do great with one-to-one instruction but I cannot believe they would try to argue that this verbally gifted, extremely social child should be placed in special ed classroom set up for the most low functioning children in the school. No way could they argue that was the least restrictive environment. Could they really?
We met with the folks at a 2E school recently who seem to think that they can meet her needs. I think she would be the 6th kid in her classroom (max of 10) with 2 teachers - a gifted teacher and a special ed teacher. All math done by the math specialist, all reading by the reading specialist. OT/PT/SLP/Psychs on staff. Very, very individualized. All kids are issues an iPad starting in kindergarten. That is the placement we will be asking for when all is said and done. We will have to see what the district offers.
Needless to say DD's situation is very, very challenging for all concerned. Having a teacher who doesn't get it, and doesn't even get that she doesn't get it, along with a principal who it totally unqualified for her job and has gone out of her way to make a difficult situation even worse changes the game. The gloves come off.
