Transitioning Back into Public School

In the past week, Boy the Second has come home most days with a new "how I horrified my teacher today" tale to share...

Monday:

You know, I was talking to my teacher and SHE SAYS that it was against the law for dad to let me drive the car around in the old Home Depot parking lot...

Wednesday:

You know what MY TEACHER SAID? She said that I'm not allowed to sell my toys at lunch time to the other kids, and she made me give back the money I got for my Pokemon pencil sharpener. I mean...it was a fair deal and the other kid seemed really happy with the sharpener. I'm not sure what she was so upset about...

Friday:

So I asked my teacher if she thought that (can I say it? the 'h' word?) hell was the worst curse word in existence, because I didn't think it was but some of the other kids were thinking that it WAS THE WORST CURSE WORD IN EXISTENCE...because I'm thinking that the three 'D' words are at least as bad...

"Waitaminnit," says the husband, looking to me for confirmation. There are three 'D' words?

"Um?" I reply helpfully.

"Well, there's, damn," the firstborn offers helpfully. "And you know, THE GUY ONE..."

"Do you need me to say it?" Boy II offers.

"No, no, we get it," their dad and I say quickly.

"...And?"

"Well, the one that ends in -bag," Son II explains.

"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight," I nod. "Please. PLEASE TELL ME that you DID NOT USE THIS WORD IN FRONT OF YOUR TEACHER."

"No, just hell. She says that her kids are 23 and 19 and THEY don't use that word. Do you think that's true?"

I Love Web 2.0 (The Update)

Yet another reason to madly covet the iPhone (you will be mine, most gorgeous piece of technology! I do not care if AT&T regularly drops calls on Long Island!) is iPhone apps: little programs that one can purchase to customize the iPhone experience...little apps that may be built upon creative commons-licensed bits of data, for instance.

Enter: Schmap! An app that maps your destination for you AND provides you with pictures of top points of interest. A very nice representative from Schmap apparently did a flickr search for Fort Myers and came upon some of my older son's pictures from our trip last winter, and requested permission to use them.

How cool is that? To be twelve and to be able to say, "Yeah, this company asked my permission to use some of my pictures in their map software."

Well...in certain extremely nerdy but lovable circles, it would be considered cool...

Do You See What I'm Up Against?

Photo Title: The Secret Life of Boys

In the younger son's science textbook:

Question: In your own words, explain the reason why the teacher added food coloring to the glass of water.

Answer: Yoxp fxou Pplm Oooooommpa.

Says the boy: Well, it says "in my own words..."

With All Due Respect to Rudolf Steiner

There are many, many things that I find compelling about Rudolf Steiner's ideas on development and pedagogy--mostly because Steiner believed in allowing children to fully inhabit their childhoods. Ideally, Waldorf-educated children are allowed to unfold, not forced to leap from phase to phase of development as though they were being chased by wolves...

But where Steiner and I have always parted ways...is over the use of technology in youth. Although, since Steiner was born in 1861--well before Gates or Jobs or Case--I guess I mean "those who interpret Steiner today." The views of his apostles, as it were. These followers of Steiner's pedagogical philosophy, anthroposophy, emphasize personal experience over technology:

A central aim of Waldorf Education is to stimulate the healthy development of the child's own imagination. Waldorf teachers are concerned that electronic media hampers the development of the child's imagination. They are concerned about the physical effects of the medium on the developing child as well as the content of much of the programming.

And, while I absolutely get this idea--I regularly limit my children's use of screens-- anthroposophy as it is currently interpreted still flies in the face of an idea I strongly support: the concept of Universal Design for Learning, or UDL. UDL is a theory of learning that says that the teacher can foster necessary analytical skills in students with learning differences, when necessary, by circumnavigating the disability through the use of appropriate assistive technology:

• The dyslexic child can use technology to circumnavigate literacy issues;
• The fine-motor-impaired child can use technology to assist with, for instance, writing;
• The visually-impaired child uses technology to assist with visual issues...

Etc., etc.

Because: there is a point where the learning style and differences of the atypical child must be acknowledged: political correctness (the "handicapable" mind-set) and dogma (adherence to a philosophy at the expense of an individual's development) can both become a barrier to learning instead of a support. A teacher's responsibility under these circumstances is to provide a developing mind with the tools it requires to fully flower...tools that may even require electricity...LED screens...

Too: sometimes technology can just be fun--in the best, most child-like sense--like these Pivot animations the boys have created and that Ben has uploaded to his Flickr page...



(Note to self: show the first-born the sound-editing software that comes with his laptop.)

A Call to the Community

Read through to the bottom to find out how you can help!

Review:

In January of 2008, as a result of a new, narrow interpretation of IDEA (federal special education law), the New York State Education Department sent a memo to all state school districts informing them that special education services to homeschooled special education students would have to be terminated no later than mid-March, 2008. Essentially: because IDEA 2004 does not specifically identify homeschooled students as possible recipients of IDEA funds and only identifies "public" and "private" students as eligible for these federal funds, transmission of services to homeschooled students (who are considered "other schooled" in the state of New York) could possibly put New York "out of compliance" with IDEA and could possibly jeopardize New York's continued ability to receive federal monies under IDEA.

This act was done despite:

1. The fact that these services had previously been budgeted for the year and had already been guaranteed to these students.
2. The fact that the families involved were provided with little notice or recourse to due process.

In response, a group of parents from around the state who were affected by this decision joined together to create a task force to reinstate services. They were joined in this effort by, among others, John Munson of NYHEN, Attorney Bridgit Burke from Albany Law School and Attorney TJ Schmidt from the Home School Legal Defense Association. The task force has convened weekly via conference call these past two months to strategize.

The task force was set up with two aims:

1. To re-instate transmission of services to homeschooled special education children.
2. To achieve goal number one in such a way that the homeschooling community at-large is impacted as little as possible.
   

Big News:

The Task Force to Re-Instate Services to Special Ed. Homeschooled Students has obtained a meeting with Dr. Rebecca Cort, Deputy Commissioner, Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID), scheduled for this Friday. Dr. Cort is a high-ranking member of the State Education Department (SED) and it is the hope of the task force that this meeting will result in a "meeting of the minds" regarding the language to be used in an upcoming "program" bill. The task force has been advised that a "program bill" (a bill that is generated from within the state government infrastructure) would be our best hope for a successful outcome, as these bills are nearly automatic in their passage.

1. If this meeting goes successfully, we could be well on the road to reinstating services.
2. Dr. Cort has already made it clear to the task force that she is unwilling to accept either of the two bill-proposals previously generated by the task force. This means that the task force's best hope for success lies in respectfully tweaking the SED-generated proposal.
   

This is a point the task force feels the homeschooling community should be fully cognizant of: based on the realities of this situation, of the personally-held philosophies on homeschooling held by Dr. Cort and other members of the State Education Department, if we do not hew as closely as possible to the language previously proposed by the State Education Department, the task force has very little chance of achieving its primary mission. We have been invited as guests to the decision-making table. We are not, as it were, the hosts throwing the party.


The task force has three objections to the language of the SED bill to reinstate services to homeschooled special education students. They are:

1. Location of Services

• Dr. Cort's office wants to make sure that the language of the bill does not guarantee that services for homeschooled students take place in the home, but only that they may take place in the home, at the discretion of the district.

• The task force believes that the language in this part of the bill should be made more explicit. Additionally, the task force would prefer that the decision for location of services take place at the "Committee for Special Education" level and not at the district level, as the CSE would have specific knowledge regarding the needs and situation of the individual child. This issue is particularly worrisome for parents of medically fragile children and parents within the New York City school system (who often must receive services at home because the city schools do not have the space or time to accommodate homeschooled students).
  

2. The IHIP

• Dr. Cort's office wants to make sure that homeschooled students do not receive special education services unless they are in compliance with state law, so no child can receive services until an IHIP has been filed with the district.

• The task force is concerned that the language of this section of the bill will lead districts to believe that they have a "perceived duty" to more-closely scrutinize the IHIPs of special education students, and would like to add clarifying language to the bill to avoid that possible interpretation. Additionally, the task force is concerned that provision of services will be delayed until an IHIP is approved, as many districts do not review IHIPs over the summer when the majority of the staff may be on vacation.

3. Use of the term 'Homeschooled'

• Since the term 'homeschooled' is not defined elsewhere in the legislation, the task force is concerned that confusion might ensue between students that are homeschooled (most often by their families) and students that are home-educated (due to health issues, rule infractions, etc. and who are educated by the district). The task force would like to explore the use of other terms already established within the legislation.

What You Can Do:

Members of the task force have also been in touch with the media on this subject. For instance, a piece recently aired on ABC News (or copy and paste this hard link: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/education&id=6071194). By April 20, we should have posted a link on NY-Alert to a story in the New York Times on this issue as well. We encourage members of the homeschool community to visit these links and offer commentary in the discussion section of the story and also then ask that they encourage their friends and family to do the same. This will be one way that the State Education Department will see that ours is a relevant cause that is being followed by the public and that special education homeschooled students are not a vulnerable subset standing alone within the homeschooling community.

So, please, visit the ABC link and make a comment. Additionally, check NY-Alert next week for the Times link, as well!

On behalf of the the task force: Thank you!
Andrea Stolz

Methinks that Something Indeed Be Rotten In the State of Denmark...

From my perspective, the most important part of this story is that I did not get to sleep until 5:00 this morning. But I get ahead of myself...

Yesterday was drama class with the home school kids--we're re-interpreting the myth of Perseus and Medusa. Many important life lessons to be learned via a trot across the boards: the supporting cast member can oft be a rewarding role...when individuals come together to create, the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts...if your mom has just married your uncle two brief months after your dad's untimely death, maybe cut the crazy schtick long enough to send your girl friend a card and a bouquet of violets...

Scene: car ride to drama class. Mother explaining to son the younger that he needs to stick to the script and not spend quite so much time ad-libbing because it disrupts the rhythm of his scenes, and, in certain circles, is known as "hogging the stage."

mother:
Quit the ad-libbing. Stick to the script. Nobody likes a stage hog. Yadda yadda.

son:
But I want to make people LAUGH! [eyes tear up]

mother:
I get that! But you're best bet is still to STICK TO THE SCRIPT. Use a funny voice! Do something funny with your body. Look, the Oracle of Delphi is a GREAT PART. You're spooky! You tell the FUTURE because you sit in a cloud of hypnotizing gas all day long! People think the GODS talk through YOU! This is really. good. stuff!

son:
[to himself] I SHOULD be able to do something with hypnotizing gas...[looks at his older brother, waits a beat, mutters] hmmmph, you'd think HE'D be able to tell the future...



In keeping with this foray into the dramatic, as a family, we watched The Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare last evening--because, really, what better way to instruct on the magic of dramatic theatre (pronounced: THEE-uh-tah) than via the Bard, himself?

The upshot being that Ben laughed so much...and with such...tectonic force...that I think he made himself nauseous. (Now in theatrical release: You'll LAUGH! You'll CRY! You'll...BLOOOOUH! BLOUUOOGH-BLUH-BLUHHHHHHH!). Later that night, (BLUHHH!) the husband and I heard him moaning volubly (stoicism apparently being THE ONE RECESSIVE GENE NOT DANGLING PRODIGIOUSLY FROM OUR COLLECTIVE FAMILY TREE).

So I'm gonna 'workshop' this next scene with you. I, a mere mortal woman, am with my children ALL DAY. And then, because they by the grace of God actually seem to require LESS SLEEP than I, am also with them ALL NIGHT. I love and adore my children. But sometimes? At the end of the day? I just. don't. have. words. left. Any. I like to think of this not so much as complete mental and physical exhaustion, or, as it might justifiably be called in some lesser social circles, sheer orneriness...so much as SATISFACTION IN A JOB WELL DONE.

Energy and for that matter, compassion, were apparently at ebb tide. Because I greeted the sound of moaning misery emanating at 2:30 in the morning from the boys' room with an incredibly dismissive, "Gohd! He'll be fine!" This aimed at the husband, who was fussing about as if SOMEBODY should get up and check on the child. I mean: what can you do? You can't vomit FOR the kid, right? And I was just finding out how Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza first meet, after looking longingly at Love in the Time of Cholera on my nightstand for the last three months...

Anyway--OF COURSE--these words, in a just world to be inscribed on my headstone once I pass on, were of course immediately followed by the distinctive peripatetic patter of the eldest son dashing to the bathroom before erupting with what I now like to think of as "THE SPLOOSH HEARD ROUND THE WORLD."

"Wow!" I told him, honestly impressed. "Not only did you make it to the toilet--you threw your retainers in the sink first before you got sick. You're awesome!"

And thus, another day ends. Adieu! Adieu!

Curtain close.

4th Iteration of Email to Gov. Spitzer: Getting Close to Done

I am a native Long Islander with two sons--an 11 year old dually-diagnosed with PDD-NOS (autistic spectrum disorder) and anxiety, and an 8 year old dually- diagnosed with ADHD and an autoimmune disorder called Hyper IgE Syndrome. I also happen to be a straight-A graduate student at Long Island University's School of Education, four classes short of a degree in elementary and special education.

I began home schooling both children last year after my younger son (whose diagnoses, according to research appearing in peer-reviewed scientific journals, is prone to both bullying [ADHD] and long-bone breakage [Hyper IgE]) was physically attacked two days consecutively by another student. These attacks ultimately resulted in bruising around the neck and the small of the back.

While the school's nurse called me both days to report what had transpired, the elementary school's principal would not return my concerned phone calls until days after I had subsequently placed a phone call with the superintendant of the P-M School District. Even after I explained to the school secretary that I would not be sending my children back to school until I had a verbal guarantee on my child's physical safety, the principal initially continued to ignore my calls. When she ultimately deigned to call, the principal opened our conversation by stating that she "could not GUARANTEE that my child would always be safe."

I am not paraphrasing that last quote.

At this point, my crisis of confidence in the public system was enough to overcome any concerns I might have had about home schooling. I will add: since we've begun home schooling, my older son has made great strides toward overcoming his severe math anxiety and my younger son has graduated to reading chapter books independently. What is more, both children are learning how to overcome the executive-functioning deficits that accompany their respective disabilities--due in large part to the extra one-on-one attention they are receiving.

This year, as home schoolers, both of my children were receiving social skills classes in their respective public schools, in accordance with their IEPs. Now, however, this service is about to abruptly end, due to a new, extremely-narrow interpretation of the federal IDEA legislation from the Board of Regents and NYS Ed. Dept. This new interpretation states that IDEA funds can only be used on public and privately schooled students, not on home schooled students.

My feeling is that the public school system, as it now exists, is not capable of providing my children with the level of care, attention and pedagogical scrutiny they require.

I am not a zealot. I am a concerned parent, who at great personal and financial sacrifice, is trying to provide her two exceptional children with the tools needed to become life-long learners and independent, creative problem-solvers capable of living their lives to the fullest their capabilities allow. I am of the belief that the state simply cannot provide services to all of the children who, with the recent rise in accurate disability-diagnostics, deserve them--not without making sweeping changes to how it collects and spends its funds.

This act by the NYS Ed. Dept. (revoking services to home schooled IEP kids) feels like a slap in the face for families whose financial and emotional resources are already spread thin to breaking. I would like to see Mr. Spitzer introduce legislation to protect the rights of special- education home-schooled students here in New York.

With regards to special education services received by home schoolers, this could be done in two ways:

1. By revising the current interpretation of the 2004 IDEA legislation (IDEA does not STATE that New York CANNOT provide services to home schoolers, it simply does not address home schoolers in New York at all, because New York does not legally identify home schooled children as "privately schooled," as is the case in many other states, including California). This option would require no further legal action on the state's part.

2. Alternatively, Mr. Spitzer could introduce legislation (that, given the political clout of the teacher's union, may or may not pass, but would at least open a forum for discussion on the topic) legally identifying home schooled children in New York as "privately schooled."

Personally? I'm hoping for option number 2!

Thank you for your time.
Andrea Sz

Picture #1: Home schooled kids at a "Wagons West" presentation at Stony Brook's Long Island Museum that gave students a "first-hand," "hands-on" lesson on the rigors endured by 19th century American pioneers.

Picture #2: Drama class with other home schoolers--reinterpretation of the myth of "Perseus and Medusa."

Picture #3: "What Have I Read Lately?" class with other home schoolers.