Is Your Special Needs Child Getting The Right Education?
Is your special needs child getting the education you think they are? Public school for special needs children isn’t always easy or clear water to trek through, and sometimes things get left below the murky surface. As parents, it’s difficult enough to navigate through the preverbial swamps of the education system, but when you start throwing in IEP’s, MET meetings, and special labeling, make sure you are watching for special downfalls to the system.
Mike and I have had to make hard choices for Lizzie in the past regarding her schooling and education. The first difficult choice of course was to remove her from traditional public school and put her into a special education program at Phoenix Day School for the Deaf & Blind. At the time she was still struggling with her implant, and we were still dillusional about her ability to learn speech and blend in with the hearing kids. We realized our first day on campus, surrounded by people speaking a language we didn’t comprehend quickly or easily, and realized how she must have felt in a school surrounded by hearing children. It moved us, and we decided to take the leap and place her in their school.
I don’t want to say that I regret that choice, I don’t, but I wish I had more information when I made it. You see, there was something about PDSD that never once got brought up, and after finding out about it, when we searched we found the information in very small print, in vague wording on a legality page of their website. We were very disappointed to find out last week that the children who ‘graduate’ from their school do not receive a high school diploma, despite them being a public school. These children only receive a certificate of completion of their program.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I know in the right circumstances a certificate can go just as far (in some cases further!) than a high school diploma will get you. We’ve learned all about them as we’ve decided to homeschool our youngest daughter. But this is not one of those cases, this is a certificate from a special education program. And now that she’s got her cognitive abilities in question, there is doubt in the air if she will even receive that and no one can say yes or no. Our daughter could very well work her butt off all the way through 12 grades and have nothing tangible to show for it in the end.
I’m sorry for getting emotional, but that’s so unfair. Why didn’t they tell us? I had been working with many of these women since my daughter was an infant, and to have this information misguided away from my line of sight I just can’t help but feel a bit…lied to. I’ve got a lot of conflicting emotions about this subject, and although I’ll always appreciate the staff at PDSD, I can’t help but feel they need to be more upfront and honest with this matter to parents right from the START. It’s vital information when making a decision about your child’s future, and parents deserve to know that information!
I can’t hold the school responsible for me not knowing, I just can’t help but feel deceived since I viewed many of these women as a friend. I should have researched this myself, and I didn’t. I was the one who stupidly assumed my daughter would get a diploma by attending a public school for the deaf. Now I know my daughter would be getting the equivellent to me homeschooling her myself, my decisions for her education will likely take a different path.
However, what I can do is share this information and experience with other parents. I’m just now finding this out at the tail end of 4th grade, but if we had found out sooner, perhaps we would have pulled her sooner and begun her homeschooling path at a younger age. Who knows the difference it could have made? We’re seeing now how research has shown special needs children flourish in the homeschooled environment, and we’re beginning to wonder if we have what it takes. We already prepare planned lessons for all of our children, sort of a supplement to their education, but that doesn’t change the fact that taking her education completely onto my own shoulders is a TALL order. Can I do it? I don’t know. Should I do it? Probably.
At any rate, I wanted to share this information so other parents could begin to consider it. Look into it, and make sure your special education (and regular education) children are actually getting what you are expecting from their school. Ask questions, no matter how silly they sound. You will feel more silly later when you didn’t ask, trust me.
