Bringing it on home

I just got back from Nick's school. For the third time in a week. He isn't doing well. He's just not...functioning. I'm so fucking frustrated, I want to pull my hair out. Seriously. It's that bad.

Last year was maybe the ONLY decent school year Nick has ever had. It was the only year that I didn't pull Nick out of school to homeschool him for at least part of the year, since the third grade. He spent half his day in the autism class, and that worked. He didn't go to PE, and that worked. He was allowed to bring his Gameboy to school and it was used as a reward for doing work, good behavior, etc. That worked.

This year, nothing is working. No more autism class. No more Gameboy. He's in regular PE (I will NEVER understand how they can justify sending a kid who can't function in a regular, calm class to PE with 90 students and one teacher. Gah.) He has a new teacher, no aide at all, new admistration. In other words, he has no continuity. At all.

Did I mention wanting to pull my hair out?

I had what turned into an IEP meeting last Friday, with the dean, Nick's teacher, the special education facilitator, and the school psychologist and her boss. They're going to test Nick to see if he's autistic.

Fantastic.

The kid is in the seventh grade. Does someone want to explain to me why WHY WHY he wasn't tested previously? Why someone didn't say, "Hey, let's test him" when he was thriving in the autism classroom last year?

"Well, Mrs. Lamare, who knows. But we're testing him now. We have to look forward, looking back doesn't accomplish anything."

"My name is Mrs. Alburger."

Sigh.

So, I'm back to the homeschool drawing board. He's miserable there. And when I try to explain that to the teacher or the dean or whoever, they say "No he's not."

What the fuck? They're arguing with me? I'm the one who has to force Nick to go to school everyday. I'm the one who has to stop everything to go to the school or talk Nick down on the phone two or three times a week. The kid hates school. He hates being there. He doesn't understand the social rules and he processes information so differently from other people that not only does he not know how to fit in, he doesn't even see the need to.

Any homeschool mom's out there?