We noticed that the principal wanted us out of that other teacher's classroom as quickly as possible and seemed very uncomfortable that she happened to be there as we came by. Then last night I got a message from another parent saying that we do not want this teacher under any circumstance and the parent used 7 exclamation points to make her point. I take that as pretty emphatic. (Something about her son having been bullied in that classroom last year and the teacher being totally ineffective in addressing it.)
Of the other options 1 is new to the school and the principal is very uncomfortable putting DD with a teacher that she can't vouch for. The last option is a young teacher who has been there only 1 year. She is quite young and uses a cute color chart with a bee theme (i.e. each child is a bee and the colors are in the shapes of hives but at least the focal point is the green hive - much larger and in front. The red hive is the smallest and is behind the other 2.) When we tried to talk to her she just smiled and said "Oh yes, I use color charts" "Uh-huh, I use color charts."
The 2E expert says that unless we can use the portion of our IEP that requires positive reinforcement to convince the teacher to alter her approach we are basically stuck. She couldn't think of any way around it except to help DD get over it.
I am desperately afraid to try to desensitize her ourselves - she has been having such a relaxed, anxiety free summer I just don't have the heart to get her all stressed out again. The private will likely mean less LD help than she needs. Not a great solution but if she is paralyzed by anxiety at the public she won't be learning much anyway, right? Of course if they have been made aware that this is a trigger and we have requested an accommodation for it I can only assume they would be held responsible if she reacts. That won�t be much consolation while dealing with a panicked 6 year old though�
