Question: Secondary Special Ed

[Dawn Sardes <Dmsardes@AOL.COM>]

Greetings,

This request is of a personal nature, so delete now if you're not interested.
 I have recently moved to Fayetteville, NC and begun my new job as a teen
services librarian in the public library.  The libraries in this system are
beautiful & inviting, the staff wonderful, and the public the nicest people I
have had the pleasure to meet.

My "problem" is with the local school district.  My daughter (age 15, 10th
grade)is LD (aphasia, a language processing disorder) and behaves socially at
a age level of perhaps an 11-12 yr old. She is not, and has never been, a
behavioral problem in the classroom.  Upon moving here, I enrolled her in a
year-round program at one of the district's "Schools of Choice."  Today I met
with the teachers and principal.
It seems that this "School of Choice" is "curriculum driven" (whatever that
means-aren't ALL schools "curriculum-driven?) and designed for academic,
college track students and has no special ed services, and I had to withdraw
her.

Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but coming from NY (as both a teacher and
parent), I have never heard of a school that does not meet the needs of
special ed students.

I, unfortunately, moved to a neighborhood where my daughter will have to go
to what has been described to me by many as the worst school in the district.
 I can't get out of my lease until Dec 31, or I would just move tomorrow.
Anyway, I even agreed to try her out in this school, and went there after the
meeting with a special ed coordinator to register her, just to be told that
"I will need an appointment to register her," by a very rude woman who can't
seem to utter any other sentence than that.
It takes about 2 weeks to get an "appointment," so Niki will start out
behind--that's just great with her learning problems. Now, school starts
Monday.  It will be starting without my daughter because I turned around and
stormed out of that school before I really hurt that individual in the office.

I am no longer willing to send her to this school because the woman showed by
her attitude that she and that school have as much interest in my daughter's
education as a wart hog does for fine French wine.

My choices, at this point, seem to be:

1.  Home school Niki until December when I get into a new apartment, then
send her to that school.

2.  Get a lawyer and institute a lawsuit forcing them to provide an
"appropriate education" in the school she has been attending for the past
month.  I would win, because I won a similar suit in NY (actually, I didn't
win, but the school magically decided to provide an "appropriate placement"
before it got to court).

3.  Send her back  to Buffalo to stay with my dad & son in our old house,
letting her continue at her old school, until I can move.

So, what does the collective wisdom of the List think?  Has anyone ever heard
of a school which does not provide special ed services?  My apologies to the
list, but I am extremely upset.  I had to come home and tell my Niki that she
could no longer go to a school where she had believed that she was settling
in well at.  She began crying and asked,"It's because I'm stupid, isn't It
Mom?"  She cried herself to sleep tonight.

Dawn Sardes
YA Librarian
Cumberland County Public Library
North Regional Branch
Dmsardes@aol.com

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