that was just...brutal

I was really surprised at just how tense and brutal Alex's IEP meeting ended up being this past Thursday. I mean, I know IEP meetings are no walk in the park, but we had our lawyer with us. Last time we had her with us, there the district put up no fight whatsoever. I mean, we'd never heard so many "yeses" as we did that day. This time around, we were dealing with a very arrogant, condescending ESD supervisor. I knew he was this way from the first time I spoke with him on the phone. I just thought a lawyer being present would have taken some puff out of his sail. No way! He fought to the bitter end, even after he knew he lost. We were in there two hours, and it wasn't until the clock struck 5pm that he finally relented. I seriously was starting to think we'd have to file for due process. And the kicker, he didn't even have a leg to stand on. The reason why Alex couldn't attend a full day of school had nothing to do with Alex being able to tolerate it...it was because they didn't have the staff. Early on, our lawyer told him that he couldn't use that excuse. The district would just have to hire more staff...they can't limit a child's education for that reason.

He still persisted! He moved on to how at this point in time (7 days into the new school year), during his 2.5 hour day, he was only doing 27 minutes a day of "real work". What would happen if he went a full day, he asked us. Ummmmm...probably a lot more than 27 minutes. What the heck? Anyway, I can't possibly begin to relate every lame excuse that was given to us. Their thoughts, going in to the meeting, was to increase Alex's day by one hour a month...that would put him at a full day some time before winter break. They wanted to collect data during this time, to make sure Alex could handle the increase. Our lawyer let them know that Alex does NOT need to prove he can handle anything. If a full day isn't working for him for some reason, we reconvene and add/change things around until we find something that works. Never does it include limiting his day (unless he were to sleep most of the school day, or something like that).

Finally, at the stroke of five, we agreed that the teacher would get about two weeks to hire and train some extra staff. Alex will start full days October 3rd. Phew. I am SO glad we had our lawyer present. I can't see that we would have gotten anywhere if she weren't there.