Praying for you and your son!

No, not at all, Cat. I just wanted to explain my paranoia! ;) No worries.

I think I will try to remove my daughter from the house while the boys are evaluated and then remove them when she is evaluated. That may solve the problem. However, I'm guessing that she will refuse to be evaluated, so we will see what they do with that problem.

FYI, the lady asking to come over now is coming to see the twins, not my FASDer. I'm sure the request will soon come from the other school's counselor to come by for her as well. I don't mean to sound paranoid, really I don't...but if you've never met a kid like mine, it's hard to understand. Her anxiety level is ridiculously high when people are in the house. Frankly, her anxiety is out of control most of the time. She can completely flip out complete with violent behavior when she has a panic attack. Cursing, yelling, hitting.... It's just a mess. The other three are special needs (one is also gifted) and they do fine. The dynamics will not follow them into the classroom, as they are unique to my disabled child. Don't think they will get what they want through the observation...in fact, what they get could open my family up to some risks because if she flips, it will be likely be like nothing they've ever seen before. I'm gonna have to suck it up and do this, though, as if our current plans (got several things in the works) do not help DD, the boys will have to go back to school in order for their education not to be adversely affected. That, or she might have to go to residential treatment. Just wanted to put my concerns into a better context. It's a difficult situation.

This evaluation was instigated by the school when I asked what services would be available IF I enrolled. I made it plain that I had NOT decided to enroll, though I certainly get what you are saying. (BTW, HSLDA actually is aware of the situation, as I called them before I agreed to the evals.) Perhaps that is part of why I am nervous...a simple request for information has morphed into a full eval of my four kids and I feel sucked into the vortex! ;)

I went back to the lady and told her about my FASDer. Mentioned how disruptive it would be to have her in the home...she suggested having the eval in her office instead. Like someone mentioned, I don't think she will get what she needs out of that, but I will do it. I have a nice, clean house with a dedicated classroom...not afraid for her to see anything, but my FASDer is the issue. I am having my older two evaluated as well, so now I know that they will be asking to observe her as well. Ick.

Thank you for this. Somehow, it really comforted me! ;)

I like the "not at my house" ideas...sounds far less threatening to me. I never know what that one child is going to do and it really adds an unwanted element!

I am the adoptive parent of four special needs kids, one of whom regularly flips out and calls the police on herself during panic attacks. FASD brings a lot of outside scrutiny to our home. I'm paranoid and don't want anymore. I'm concerned about a CPS referral, for concrete reasons. It may be irrational, but HSLDA has previously told me that I am in a high risk category for CPS troubles because so many problem stories in homeschooling begin with, "So I adopted these special needs kids and..." We simply come under a higher degree of suspicion than the average family, and I've seen definitely seen that happen personally.

Last semester, I asked the public school system about what kind of services they could offer my special needs kids if I enrolled them in the district. They could not tell me until they evaluated the kids, did the whole IEP thing, had mounds of paperwork, etc. Today, I brought my twins in for the speech portion of the eval and found out that the school counselor is required to do "classroom observation" in my home. She says it's just a form she has to fill out for the government and it is no big deal. Well, it is to me. Not sure what I should do here. The evaluations are important to me but not 100% necessary. I have one child so severely affected by FASD that she is interfering with the others' education, thus the inquiry. It may be necessary to enroll the others because of her...long story. So, I guess I don't want to burn any bridges, but I feel that this is an unnecessary intrusion. Thinking of calling HSLDA to discuss, but again, don't want to start anything adversary at this point. Thoughts?

I'm using One Year Bible Online with my church. One Old Testament reading, one New Testament reading, one Psalms and one Proverbs a day. http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/oneyearweekly.php

Praying!!

Prayers for you and your son!

Praying!! Oops, double post...but you can never have too much prayer! ;)

Praying!!

My 14 year old loves number 1! She says she doesn't like the other ones.

I'm so glad your son is okay! You were the mom in this case and you knew your son best. The rest of 'em can lump it, IMHO. Your son sounds like he is just fine.

Me, my kids and a friend are out in front of our house, having a little convo next to her truck. Weirds me out every time I look at it!

We do it for my disabled BIL, who keeps managing to make a mess of his accounts despite our best efforts. We manage a trust for him, pay his bills, keep up his medical insurance and track him through the mental health system whenever needed. He's in the hospital now. He doesn't like it and keeps going back to Social Security and changing addresses or something that we have to go fix. Uggh. Unpaid, definitely a labor of love. We don't need the money, though. I can see asking for it if we did...it is time consuming.

We have that clock! DS picked it out for himself a while back. It's not exactly polite, but I've never felt particularly offended by it before. The boys think it is hysterical. Only problem we have had with it is when the twins sneak into DS's room while he is sleeping and set it off to freak him out!

Yeah, I'm from Dallas and I'm used to prices being much higher than they are here. The special needs schools I looked at down there are easily 20k or more and we paid 10k for one regular Ed kiddo to go to private school. Obviously, we can't do that anymore...:(

FYI...private schools around here are generally less expensive than in a larger city. For example, I think the most I've seen charged per year for a regular education private school is between $3,500-$4,000 per kid. The highest in town is a special needs private school that runs $7,000 a year per kid, but that's the only one out of that range.

Yes, she's certified. She used to run a Brain Works tutoring center. She offered me $25 an hour down from her usual $35 since we are friends and there are two of them. We live in a small town, so I'm sure she'd ask more in a larger city.

See, I think her services are worth far more than I can pay. Truthfully, we were talking about cutting tutoring as a way to pay off some medical bills. From a financial standpoint, I should send them to public school and call it good, but I really don't see them doing well there...too many special needs but not enough to qualify for adequate services. Before I can even begin to offer her a number, I just told her I must have her give me a range first. This was actually her idea, not mine, and I don't want to insult her with a low ball number. I'd rather just say thanks for the generous offer but we can't afford it and move on. This is a hard decision either way, but we have to do something. Things are just not working the way they are at the moment. Edited to add...we are talking about 3-4 hours a day here rather than a full 8 hours, if that makes a difference. If they need more, I'd probably pick it up at home.

My family has been pretty chaotic lately due to the needs of my eldest, who has FASD. We have been under so much stress that I've not been able to even nearly meet my educational goals with my twins, who also have special needs. My fourth child is gifted and is hanging in there, but also needs more attention. I'm stressed, getting sick, DH is stressed, too and our home isn't at all peaceful at the moment. As a result, we are seriously considering sending some or all of the kids back to school. :( Hating it, but it seems the best option for now. We have an Orton Gillingham tutor for the twins who is a friend and a neighbor. As an alternative to sending them to school (or, perhaps to get them ready for school), she has offered to school them full time for me, possibly until the end of the school year so I can settle things down and reevaluate for the future. She would use all my materials (I have a nice, semi-classical plan set up that I've been unable to implement), supplement if she thought they needed it, and do their HearBuilders computer program for auditory processing with them. She's also offering field trips and to take them to homeschooling events I can't manage with DD. This would free me up to get the other two kids straightened out, help DD with her issues, get my head together and try to stabilize things around the house. So, yep, the service would be priceless. She has offered to do it for whatever I can afford. I have NO idea what to offer her. Her tutoring services have been at $25 an hour...no way can I even begin to pay that for full time school. There is a benefit to her in that she is trying to stay home with her littles, who are in preschool half day but who preclude her from tutoring in the afternoons. So, she needs to work tutoring from home but doesn't have any other students with whom she can work during the day. She needs the money. I want to pay her well, but don't have much, either and am already giving her $450 a month. Thoughts? She's not even giving me a ballpark here, though I've asked her for one. DH is suggesting $800 a month as something we could afford temporarily. Would love any thoughts on the matter...want to be fair but financial stresses due to medical needs are part of the issue at home.