I haven't been posting much because not much is going on here on our end right now. Supposedly the translation of the dossier was to be completed, and it submitted yesterday, but we haven't heard anything to finalize that.
It will be interesting to watch how the political situation in K's country right now impacts the timing of the processing of the dossier and our approval to go visit. This whole adventure as far back as I can think (I'm sitting here going, "since last fall, no wait - since last spring! No wait - at least as far back as fall 2010 with Reu's diagnosis when I was just pregnant with Rin) and likely even further, has been so obviously intimately coordinated that I can't help but believe that this interesting twist has a very specific purpose as well.
Anyway, the title of this post relates to one of my concerns for the fall. We home school our children, and one reason we choose to do this is because home schooling allows each child to have an "IEP" (Individualized Education Program - something that the public school system offers for children with special needs who will not be well served by a "normal" classroom environment. Of course, I never thought about it in those terms, but tailoring education to the needs/strengths/weaknesses of each child is one large draw of home schooling for us.) This, to me, makes home schooling an ideal situation for a child with special needs. Say Reuben has a night with a bunch of seizures and he's wiped out the next day. In a "normal" setting, he would miss a day of school. In a home school setting, he can just lay low, maybe read a few books with me, and then continue on the next day, or for an hour in the afternoon that same day, or whatever. Appointments for various medical care can fit into the routine of school, and he is free to work at his own pace of learning based on his own strengths and weaknesses. This is very much what I'm hoping for K, too. My best understanding of where he's at is that especially for the first year he's home, one of the most important things he needs to learn is what it is to have a mom and dad and brothers and sisters, what it means to be a son and brother himself - what it means to be loved! And in that environment, he will learn so many other things he needs to learn, much like an infant learns. What he doesn't need is to be sent to school all day long. No matter how good their therapies are, what he needs most are those things learned in the context of the family that he's been missing for so long. He's had enough "institution" in his life to last for a good long while! ;)
But in MN, there are compulsory attendance laws, as I'm sure there are in most states, and for K, being over the age of 7 when he gets home, he needs to be in school. For Owen (and the others as they get older), I have to send in a letter to the school superintendent on a yearly basis informing them of our decision to homeschool, and also informing them of which standardized test I will administer. I am not required to report the scores of the testing, but I AM required to do additional evaluation if any child scores in the bottom 30% of their age/grade.
Hm. How do you think K will do? Even if you put aside the fact that he's not going to have a very good grasp of English, his cognitive impairments are not going to make for a good score. I thought I was going to be stuck dealing with a whole rigamarole of issues right in the fall right when he's coming home to make sure we didn't get in trouble for having a truant child!
But I've been emailing with the MACHE (a MN homeschool association) special needs coordinator, and after a few back and forths found out that not only is this not going to be the big issue I thought, but that instead it's a very simple thing - in fact, the "additional evaluation" only has to be done ONCE for the child. Not even once per year, but once total! (Not that I don't want to have him evaluated, as I'm sure we'll be in touch with people who are working with him and us regularly, but to not have to have that added as a "one more thing" every year is a wonderful thing!) And like the standardized testing scores, I also don't have to report anything to the school district of the results of the evaluation - it is purely for my benefit as his teacher to help me do what will best serve K as he grows and learns!
This may not seem like much, but it is a beautiful thing to know that this, too, is not something I need to worry about. Over and over we've seen that "worry" does not have a place in the changes that this year is bringing. Obedience removes the need to worry. :) "Therefore do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7 I love that word "guard." Not worrying is a means of protection for our hearts and our minds. Wow.
How interesting about the standardized tests. I suppose it makes sense that MN does things different from WI, I just never thought about it.
ReplyDeleteDoes the address of the "home" matter when homeschooling? :) I've mentioned before my desire to kidnap nieces and nephews for a semester/year abroad when they're older and if they'd like it, and from what I see, I still think this is something that Owen would both enjoy and benefit from quite a bit in high school some time. (And maybe by the time she's older, Leah would like the idea too. And who knows what Rinnah will think?)
I guess now that I have a niece of my own, I should be willing to extend the same offer and let you kidnap Gwen in high school...but we'll think about that when the time comes. :)