I'm very glad ABQMom started this post - thanks!
Like ultramarina, my heart just sank when I first read "socially awkward" and all that, and that his mom "tried homeschooling for a while", and that people "didn't really know her" etc. How heart-wrenching. My DD is so gregarious, friendly, has many successes outside of school, does get mad at home but mostly snarly/arguing things. It runs in the family - some ethnicities are more "reactive" than others!! Nothing out of control though. She feels things very deeply. But at school is it different. She's so much more awkward and nervous. Is is the institutionalize environment? She's in a smaller private school now with a tougher curriculum but it doesn't fix everything, and socially quite frankly she doesn't really fit in that great. So so. We don't fit in as adults but the kids are from all over so it's not a big deal...to me. She has to learn something at school and she's doing that more now.
I'm not looking forward to this week after a couple of e-mails I got about their "concerns" (which offer no details). I am going to pay for private counseling now though for us both because of some of the things she's gone through that are obviously sticking to her and I'm out of ideas for how to talk to her/help her. I'm very optomistic about the woman I found, will start soon. Not looking forward to this week but looking forward to vacation so very, very much!! Anyway thanks guys I feel better reading everyone's posts.
