Friday, 3-21-08

Tyasfree,

     Hi -  My name is Heather and I'm a single parent with a 9 year old son named Kaleb who has ADHD and a lot of the behavioral and aggression issues w/ADHD, I was diagnosed w/ADD myself last fall in 2007.  I know what you are going thru with the school your son goes to, even thought I never had problems like that with the school my son goes to, they are very supportive, work well with children w/ADD or ADHD (and their parents), and all the teachers are really great.  My son goes to a small school, he is one of 24 kids in his whole grade and there is only one class for his grade level (3rd grade), my son does not go to any special classes for his daily school lessons he stays in the same classes as all of his classmates.  When my son does have an outburst or is disruptive in class, he goes to the elem. spec. ed teachers' classroom for a chill out time or when my son feels he needs to be alone for awhile he is able to go to her classroom and have a chill out time if he wants or needs it.  We do have an IEP set up at school for his behavioral and aggression issues and we have it setup so he is able to leave class if he has to for being disruptive or he feels he needs to leave class cause he frustrated and needs to be alone.  When my son does go to her classroom she is usually there or another teacher is there w/my son, sometimes the spec. ed coordinator, the speech and language teacher, middle school spec. ed teacher and someimes the early childhood teacher (she sshares the same room w/the elem. spe. ed teacher) is there w/him if the orginal spec. ed teacher is busy and can't be there w/him.  I talk w/my sons teachers anytime I want to either by email or by phone and I also get weekly behavior reports on how his behavior was at school that week   When you do get an IEP set up for your son I hope that his school is supportive and will accept your son for who he is and not go by how you and your  husband were when you went there, cause ever person has their own personalities and good qualities along w/the bad ones.  Good Luck on everything and keep us posted on your progress and just take everything day by day, that's what my son and I do.     Take Care, Heather