I have advocated until I am blue in the face and know that it has been effective. I just don't know if that is enough. At this point our district has thrown literally everything they have at her - AT is the last piece of the puzzle. DD now has a para, tons of pull-out and support for her anxiety. They paid for her neuropsych and psych evals and even for the evaluators to come to an IEP meeting to educate the team on her needs. There is nothing more they can do to support her - in terms of services anyway. We are doing all of this with a principal who has been antagonistic, a teacher (hand picked by that principal) who just doesn't get it and who has made clear that she will not alter *anything* in her classroom without being directly ordered to do so and a district that, in the words of our consultant, is "scared s***less" of me. She has twice daily enrichment breaks which is the only real support for her giftedness, and no it is not enough. She is listening to high school level texts twice a day but is in a first grade level reading group. No one discusses her high level texts with her and people continue to comment on how amazing her insights are. In other words the giftedness is being totally overshadowed by the disabilities. Totally.
My gut tells me that if done correctly the AT part could conceivable make this work. I am totally non tech savvy so I don't know enough about it to be able to really know how it should work, what to advocate for or to know if they are supporting her appropriately. The classroom teacher is basically useless - when left to her own interpretation she doesn't modify, accommodate or support DD in any way. When the para was out sick she totally held DD out to dry. She drew attention to her disabilities in front of the class, triggered her school anxiety and totally set her up to fail by using "whole class instruction" without modifying tasks in any way to make them accessible for DD. If the AT can be done correctly I am hoping that DD can develop a level of independence that will mean that "luck of the draw" won't be a part of this. I am just not feeling all that confident about that right now.
This has been a long and difficult road and I don't know how much more I can advocate for. No one has given me any reason to believe her problems aren't overwhelming and that takes a toll. The most positive statements I have received have been the former Director of Special Services saying "She WILL learn to decode eventually - it will take longer than other kids but she will get there." The neuropsych saying "Her dysgraphia isn't the worst I've seen" and the AT evaluator saying "She has a lot of challenges but she is so lucky to be born now when we have so much technology to help." Her psychologist has said that Harvard and Yale are filled with kids like DD but no one else has said anything to indicate that they believe her strength will win out. I really don't know if the district can meet her needs. I think they want to but they have not seen this before. With the actions of the teacher and the principal I just don't know how this can work.
My gut tells me that the 2E school I found in New York may be necessary even if it means totally disrupting our family. I really need to hear from people who have had their situations work out in their home districts. I know advocacy is key and so is a commitment from the district. I am just not sure if that will be enough though...
