"There is nothing wrong with your kid."

Erin came home from school yesterday and told me that her speech teacher told her she no longer needs to be in speech.  Dude... What is this woman smoking? Anyone who has spent more than five minute around Erin knows she needs to be in speech.  No, she doesn't have a lisp or a stutter, and she can pronounce every sound, but there is a lot of stuff that she still messes up.  She puts a D sound on the end of pretty much every word.  Her syntax is worse than her 3-year-old brother's.  She mixes up words all the time.  The kid needs speech.  She's improving, sure, but she will do better given more time in speech.  I was shocked when I heard that her speech teacher didn't think she needed to be in speech.  Now, of course, she didn't send anything home about that, so maybe Erin just misunderstood what she said, but if they're thinking of taking Erin out of speech, they're crazy.

Of course, everyone remembers the infamous phone call from last week, from Erin's teacher, saying that she can't possibly be dyslexic because she doesn't write things backward, that instead, she's slow, and possibly has ADD.  Yeah... That was nice.  Take that into consideration along with the speech thing, and I'm starting to notice a trend here.

I really wonder what they're trying to accomplish here.  These public school teachers don't even want to help the kids, it seems.  I don't get it.  At Erin's old school, sure, they were hesitant to put things on paper, but she could have help all day long.  Nobody ever denied that she needed services, and she got what she needed.  I eventually did get them to put it all on paper, in the form of Erin's IEP, but even that doesn't do a lot in the face of this crazy school. 

Now, before anyone irately tells me how I need to take the place by storm and demand heads on sticks, I'll just tell you that I'm not going to do that.  The main reason why is because we only have a few weeks left in the school year, and Erin won't be going back to this school next year since it only goes through second grade.  I really don't care much what this school does, because honestly, it doesn't affect us in a few weeks anyway, and they're going to continue giving her services through the end of the year. (Even if they weren't, I wouldn't push it at this point.  It's three weeks.)  Now, if the school she goes to next year tries this same stuff, I will ask that she be retested, so they can see that she needs these services, and if they deny them, well, heads will roll.

You know, it's crazy.  People are really quick to point out that public schools are generally good, and to get really defensive when I say that we haven't had success with them for Erin.  The thing is, though, it seems to be proving itself true again.  This county has one of the best school systems in the state of Georgia, which has one of the best school systems in the nation.  This place is pretty much the best case scenario for public school, and I'll be honest.  I see disaster potential right now.  One thing is for sure.  We are getting out of Pembroke as soon as we can.  When we buy our place, we will be going nearer to Savannah or Statesboro, and attempting to find a suitable charter school for Erin, something close to what she had in El Paso.  We are giving Bryan County public schools one more try next year.  It wasn't as big a disaster as the El Paso public schools were.  She's not being bullied, and the quality of instruction is generally good, and at least it's in English.  We'll be giving it one last try next year, and if it doesn't pan out, then I think it'll be safe to say public school just isn't for her.  I don't see a single reason Orren wouldn't thrive in that environment, but Erin needs more, and if they won't give it to her, well, we'll have to find somewhere else.