saw my daughter

Saw my daughter tonight. she looks and sounds so much better than she did on Wednesday. She asked me if I was disappointed with her. We talked about how I am always telling the kids to talk about and be honest about their feelings. I asked her how I could be disappointed in her doing what I have been telling her to do. I am not disappointed in her.

We talked about what is going to happen when she goes back to school and what she wants to happen. We talked about how people were eventually going to find out where she was, and why. We talked about what I needed to do to help our community develop a policy regarding bullying in the schools. I told her that unless she told me I could help her, that I didn't feel free to talk about it. I explained that it is happening to other kids. I explained that the only way we can begin the process of ending bullying is to talk about what is going on. I said, that means naming her. and talking about how she felt.

Before I left, she said: "you can help me."

I am so proud of her. I could just burst.

she didn't hurt herself. she did, however, have a weapon of choice, and a plan of action. which are two of the three pillars upon which suicides happen. I will say it again, I am forever grateful for the people who helped save her by convincing her to talk about how she was feeling.

IEP Meeting

Had an IEP meeting for our son.  Why do we continue to struggle with the school district?  This time, we brought the superintendents name into it.  I had talked to him late last week about the hesitation that we felt from the principal at the elementary school in accepting our son into the school, as well as including staff in meetings about our son.

It just seems crazy to me that what should be common sense when working with a child, they seem to lack.  If a child is in a residential facility for kids with special mental health needs, and the staff there has experience with that child, wouldn't it be beneficial to hear how those people work with the child to ensure that the child is as successful as he can be?  It would seem obvious to me.

So now, we are having a staffing in two weeks for our son, a staffing is a meeting of all of the people who participate in his care, and the school has been invited to participate in that meeting so that they can hear positive things about our son.  Even the staff at the residential facility thinks that would be a good idea.  We will see if they do actually participate.

I find myself excited at the possibilities for our son if his teacher is the person who participated in the meeting today.  She worked with two of our kids previously, and was very good in working with their strengths and weaknesses.

On another note, the plan is to bring our son into a public school in the city for an hour a day to see how he does in that setting.  If he is successful, the time will gradually increase. This will be communicated to his parents and the school district so that they can see how he is fairing.  A staff member from the residential facility will be touring the school that our son will go to after discharge, this will enable the staff to make recommendations about how they should do things when our son comes back.

Still not happy with the school district, seems to be unnecessary posturing on their part, but time will tell.