VENT!

[Guest guest]

Hi, all. I was going to wait and post this when I was more familiar

withe group, since I'm new. But I'm so frustrated with our situation

with my son's school. They are not making sure my son's Cued Speech

transliterator is qualified, that she follows the appropriate role, or

even responding to my phone calls, e-mails, and letters. Now I have

initiated mediation, because we asked that it be put in our son's IEP

that his transliterator be certified, and they refused. I talked to the

NAD Law Center before we asked for this, to make sure it was appropriate.

Then I talked to Georgia Advocacy, a group that helps support parents.

I talked to an attorney who works there. He read the Cued Speech

transliterator Code of Conduct (describes role and correct way to do it)

and said it was appropriate to make part of our son's IEP. So, we

thought that would be a compromise instead of requiring certification. I

sent a letter bringing that up as a solution and giving them a deadline

to tell me their decision. I said that if we couldn't reach agreement on

THAT (and this after the special ed. director told me my husband and I

were being " nitpicky " by requiring the transliterator to follow the

correct standard and role, even though this school has no knowledge about

Cued Speech, or, really, deafness in general) that I wanted mediation to

begin. The deadline was yesterday, and I never even heard if they

received my letter. Luckily, I sent it so that I'd get delivery

confirmation and know they received it. So, I started mediation myself.

I haven't heard whether or not they've agreed to it.

If anyone has any advice on this sort of thing, please share. It looks

like my son might not have any transliterator, because we're probably

going to ask that his present one be removed. She hasn't shown any

willingness to go to training, even though one of them was free and my

husband offered to pay for the flight (he works for Delta); she hasn't

taken the most basic of tests to show she can even cue, although she's

had all summer and knows how important it is to us; and she came to us at

the beginning of last year saying she was going to be certified that

summer and wasn't. We didn't complain about that ALL year and I feel

we've been more than reasonable. But she goes out of the role and

disciplines my son and the other kids to the point that she's not

providing access to what the teacher is saying as she's saying it, which

IS the job.

I'm very frustrated, as you can tell, and I'm just looking for an

opportunity to vent to other parents who may have struggled with their

school and to get some feedback that may help us. Sorry this is so long!

I could have made it even longer, believe me! Ha ha

Darla

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