Re: Why are schools for the deaf/hard of hearing good for apraxic ki

November 25, 2008

Elena (and others)-

I really feel for you and sympathize with everything that you said. We've

lived in 2 different school districts and have fought both districts tooth

and nail and it has gone nowhere. Our son is enrolled in a private Catholic

school for the deaf. It's extremely costly and rightfully so, the amount of

services they provide and the number of adults in the classroom combine to

make it justifiable. He is officially not enrolled and is on visitor status

at the moment until we get things ironed out with our district. Many of the

kids in the school come from various school districts that have agreed that

the deaf school is the LRE for that child, including hearing children in the

apraxia program. We were about to file an appeal and then go into mediation

with our district when it became clear that we were moving yet again. So now

we'll be entering into a new conversation with a new district, one that has

a reputation of being very supportive in sending children to the deaf

school.

Our deaf school has a history of never turning away a deaf child for lack of

money, and since our son is also deaf, I'm confident that we can work with

them to find a payment plan that is doable based on our income. I believe

that they do this with the hearing children who go there as well.

I do feel unbelievably lucky. My husband and I left our home of 20 years and

he closed down our family business in order to move here and make this

possible for our son. We had no idea if we would be able to make it work and

yet somehow we've been blessed at every turn. We realize now that we could

live anywhere in the country (we work from home), but we're set on staying

here because we feel that this program is just that good and likely pretty

rare.

Any chance you can move to Ohio? (just kidding, sort of)

Best to you....if you are interested in seeing our letter of appeal to the

school based on the LRE, I've got a huge letter that took me forever to

write and I'd be happy to share it.

-

November 25, 2008

Hi ,

Yes, the sacrifices we make for our children are well worth it, we know that, we

just need to see a clear path sometimes or at least not so many obstacles.

Unfortunately we cannot move, we're sort of stuck in a mortgage bind and would

lose a LOT of money we no longer have, plus my husband's career is pretty

limitted to this high tech area.

We've thought of it too, and later we may have to find a better alternative, but

for now we're battling the school district for reimbursement and hoping we won't

have both the tuition and the lawyer's fees in the end. We're also looking at

Montessori since it is more hands on and visual, not lecture type, and there is

public Montessori school nearby, but accepts children based on lottery system,

and I'm not even sure they would want a child with an IEP there, we'll need to

see what the future brings.

But thank you for the encouraging words, it really does make me feel like there

is hope when i see other kids with apraxia find a path that works well for them.

And YES, please I would be very interested in that letter of appeal, there's so

much to learn from each other, even if the situations are never the same, just

framing the request can make a huge difference.

Thank you and whenever you have time, please e-mail me a copy.

All the best,

Elena

From: Innis <heather@...>

Subject: [ ] Re: Why are schools for the deaf/hard of hearing

good for apraxic ki

Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 10:43 PM