My son is 16 years old. After eight years of requesting an evaluation, the school finally did it this past July. This showed my son is ADHD deficit in three areas of Auditory processing and has the age equivalency of an eight year old in speech.
I don’t even know where to start with him. He’s getting resource room and is repeating the ninth grade. I don’t really know where he is at academically or where to begin. I filed complaints with the state education department and they found in my favor on ten findings. This child has been denied FAPE for eight years. How or who can help him?
He is very angry and is seeing someone for this. He says that suicide is not an option, because he loves his family, but it scares me. The first time he was seen by someone they said he was angry, which is something that I always suspected.
I really don’t know what I can do to help him. He is meeting with success this year and feels good about it. He talks of summer school so he can join his peers in the eleventh grade. I’m not sure if he’s ready for all of this. Your advice and help would be greatly appreciated.
Mary
Your story is a sad one. It is because of such stories that I try so hard to educate parents on what to look for and how to address a school system that is not seeing what the parents are seeing. Your legal victory supports that your school let you and your son down.
The real problem now is how to save him. The more he can stay with his friends and age group the better. Please get an outside educational consultant to advise you on what the school must do and what you may have to do privately. He might need psychotherapy to deal with his feelings of frustration and anger as well as the impact the past years has had on his self-esteem. Don’t give up. He sounds like a good kid. Work on undoing the damage done over the past years.
Topic
Special Education