Today I met with my sons Autism Specialist. It was a meeting long overdue but not because of his lack of effort. Honestly, it was depressing. He is a wonderful communicator and once I contacted him was very quick to respond. However, no matter what his effort is he is only one person! Connor came into high school from the junior high next door. WOW what a difference a bridge makes. Connor was on the A honor roll last year, recognized as a school leader and was a peer leader! He did not do this alone. He did it with the support of the school, his IEP team, and me his parent.
THis year he started school with no locker, no guidance counselor or special needs discussion and he is still doing ok! However, my son is autistic, very high functioning but autistic! SO, because of his grades he is in IB level classes! No one looked at his IEP, adjusted his schedule or even contacted me with this change. It was Connor and I who said, I love a challenge but I do not understand why I am in some of these classes...without an aide. SO at the highschool there are not enough aides! Funny how there are people looking for work, dedicated people and because the schools are going through "changes" my child and I am sure others like him are suffering. And they wonder why they have so many kids of color dropping out of high school and why Minnesota has the largest achievement gap in the country between white students and African American males?" My sons history class is 45 kids! High school kids. He says it is so loud in there he can hardly think.
Who is being held accountable for the failure of the public schools to serve children, the children most in need of guidance. I know I sound like Republican (god forbid) but while everyone is fighting each other, our kids are getting lost. I am going to start attending public school board meetings and join the parents group at school, even though I am a single parent, with a demanding job and a child with special needs because I am concerned about the future of this class, the class who will graduate this year and everything in between and before and after. My son cannot go to private school, even if I had the money...he is special needs. SO, wake up America, you are waisting another generation of young men and from what I can tell...we know we have problem but we are not willing or able to find a solution!
