I really did think I’d have a quiet, relaxing weekend after a week of “fighting the dragons” (LuLu’s term) in court last week. But alas, the phone kept ringing.

There were numerous well-wishers calling to check on our trial status. One was the mother of a kindergartener, adopted internationally. Once I gave her the update on us, I asked how her son was doing. Not good…

Her son is having some major problems at school, especially with the red light-yellow light-green light system for tracking behaviors. Her son has been on red or yellow... more

Part 1

Despite leaving a message for the building administrator to call her ASAP, this mom heard nothing from the school all day, yesterday. When she called them again close to the end of the day, the secretary reported that the school administrator was there, but could not come to the phone due to meetings and that she would have to “collect information” and get back with the mom. When this mom said she needed to speak to the administrator now, or at the latest by Monday... more

Our trial ended yesterday, after five straight days of hearing (and 8 more prior to that scattered over 6 months). If anything I was looking forward to being able to put down the advocacy mantle for a bit. You know, take a load off, so to speak.

I dropped my dear friend, Christa, at the airport nearly too late to catch her flight (but that’s another story). Meanwhile, SuperDad was dropping both LuLu and KayKay at a friend’s house for LuLu’s first sleepover not at a relative’s house. The occasion was LuLu’s upcoming birthday on Tues.

So,... more

Today, both sides have rested on this round of our due process hearing...

So now we wait...

And I get to apply my newly obtained knowledge of procedural safeguards and due process hearings in many ways...

More on that later...

But for now...we DANCE!

Here I am, sling in hand – hoping that one stone in one shot will do the trick. It’s funny that I should find an article in this week’s Time Magazine that refers to due process hearings as “David and Goliath situations”. Because that was just the imagery I had as I traveled into court for day # 12 today. We’ve had court every day this week, and supposedly tomorrow will be the last day….for this round.

Then the judge hands down a decision. And each party decided whether to accept or appeal... more

And then it hit me that perhaps the reason the school is fighting this isn't about LuLu, or us, or about making us go away, or even about the cost of educating such a complex disordered child. This could be about egos. Professionals egos. My daughter's complex problems are more than they can figure out, more than they can "solve" with their typical approaches. And I am not the "typical" parent either -- in that I come with my own research and ideas in hand, and perhaps don't defer to their "wisdom" as much as they would like.

I heard it this weekend as I listened to... more

Our battle with the school district has entered the realm of utterly ridiculous. Today I received a nearly 50-page IEP concocted last week from a meeting that we did not attend. The meeting was held, at our request, to go over the MANY evaluations LuLu has received since we began this process of "due process" and requested evaluations at the IEP that started the whole melee last February.

We did not attend the IEP meeting BECAUSE the IEP team refused to invite the speech therapist who had evaluated our daughter or the independent neuropsychologist, who the school system... more

I feel like I've been living in an alternative universe...the universe of a due process hearing courtroom. It has been extremely frustrating, tiring, exciting, boring, aggravating, interesting, curious, odd, unbelievable and most of all overwhelming. It will be fodder for this blog for years to come.

What I truly thought would be a 1-2 day process has now gone on for four days, with five (count 'em...five) more court dates scheduled. Most people I tell that to are astonished. I am as well!

People then inevitably asked me "So how is it going?" I... more

Well...gang...this is it. Tomorrow I head into what is predicted to be 3-4 full days of court for LuLu's due process hearing. Not really the way I wanted to spend the rest of this week. But it will be nice not to have these proceedings hanging over our heads any longer.

Yesterday was spent organizing and re-organizing my files, calling everyone on the planet to testify, and figuring out what we need to settle, should the school decide to come to their senses today or during the hearing.

In many ways it's been a blessing that this has drug on like it has.... more

Do you remember Mr. Toad's Wild Ride? The one at Disney World? The one where you crash into a train and go to hell? (Not too politically correct these days, but a fun little ride.) Well, this is a bit what it feels like to go to due process, so far.

In the overall scheme of things it's not as bad as a mammogram but worse than a root canal. (I judge all painful experiences by medical procedures.) Except it seems to go on MUCH longer than both.

Yesterday we did 8 hours and are scheduled for up to THREE MORE 8-hour days. The problem is in the scheduling.... more