School started about two and half weeks ago and C is now in the third grade. He is in upper-elementary. Is he ready? At first, I thought it would be too much for him to handle but now I think he might just be able to follow along even if he has to work a little harder to keep up... He surprised us, hubby and I, when he went and scored within one point of the passing score for his reading test, prompting the school principal to recommend promotion to the next grade when, in fact, hubby and I had already decided to make him repeat second grade. Looking back, however, I think it was probably a good thing that we went along with the principal. Given the many challenges C faces, especially when it comes to language and reading comprehension, I have to admit it was really amazing that he did that well on the reading test. This kid struggles just to get the right words out of his mouth, needs extra time to process language, is often confused when asked a question and yet, manages to pull very close to the passing score. Better yet, whereas in first grade, he did not attempt to complete the test, in second grade, he actually focused, tried and succeeded to a certain level. He showed tremendous growth and his teacher was elated. We were elated. She'd been his teacher since kindergarten and could fully appreciate his progress. I wonder if the change is due to maturity, hard work or a combination of both.
Unfortunately, she is no longer working with him this year and I'm really worried. Just when C was turning a corner, just when that teacher had finally figured out how to get him to work and use his brain, she was given a different assignment. She's still at the school, C still gets to see her occasionally but he won't be working with her, Darn it! There is no more varying exceptionalities at the school now. There used to be two VE classrooms with two teachers and now there's none. The other VE teacher who used to work with students in grade 3 to 5 was given an administrator position and is no longer at the school. If she had stayed, she would have been C's teacher maybe and that would have been better still, than dealing with two new teachers. Now, C will be going to a resource room where he will work with two different teachers: one for reading and one for math. Not sure how he's going to do working with two teachers but I'm not happy about the change. This is a big testing year for him. A benchmark year and he has to adjust to two, not one, two new teachers plus a new gen ed teacher?! All sorts of questions are going through my mind: They don't know him. He doesn't know them. Will they be able to work with him? To motivate him to try his best? Will they even understand how to work with him, the impact of his disability on the way he learns and works? Do they have any experience working with students on the spectrum who are also language impaired? How will C respond to them? Will he be able to manage working with two, no, three new teachers? Will this be a good change for him? Does this mean that he will be spending more time in gen ed since he will no longer have an assigned desk with his name and own supplies in another classroom? And if he does spend more time in gen ed, will he benefit from that?
I guess we just have to wait and see how it all unfolds. The only other option would be to transfer him to another school but wouldn't that be even more traumatizing for a kid who relies on familiarity to function? I wish I knew the answers to at least some of these questions but I don't. Not knowing what this school year holds, not being able to even predict just a little bit how it's going to go is truly nerve-racking. I hope and pray that he pulls through. He's a fighter. Let's see what happens this year.
