Back-to-school season tends to cause me a bit of anxiety as I worry about all the things that aren't fully in my control, like whether Teddy will be to/from school safely, how he'll adjust to his teacher, if he'll get to integrate as much as we'd like, the calls from nurses when things go wrong, etc. This year should have been a breeze compared to past years as he has the exact same teacher who was amazing last year, and he's consistently had the same fantastic bus driver. By all means, it should have been our easiest school transition yet as it would be the first time he's in the same school with the same teacher.
But, there's still a global pandemic. Our school district released it's final plan today, although we were required to enroll our children in the virtual academy before this month started if that was our choice. The timing of that didn't make much sense to me, so I've spent several hours on the phone with various people within the school district the last two weeks. I've talked to the director of pupil services or something similar, the director of special education and Teddy's teacher. All were extremely good at listening to my concerns and questions, as we all recognize there are more questions than answers right now.
At this point, the district's plan is for either 100% in-person learning or 100% virtual learning for elementary students. If you pick the virtual option, you're committed for the entire school year. If you pick the in-person option, you may have periods of virtual learning depending on the phase the school goes through, or the classroom, as the year unfolds with COVID.
Unfortunately, to protect Teddy, we feel we have no choice but to enroll AJ in virtual learning for the year. Although the school has a decent plan for in-person learning on paper, we are too skeptical (or realistic) to expect that everyone will do their part to keep schools safe. And, we realize that with how COVID spreads, there's still risk of contracting it even if everyone does their best.
It's not so simple for Teddy. He cannot do virtual learning. He doesn't have the focus, the ability not to steal the technology and swipe to his heart's content nor the aptitude to do the virtual academy, which is a true 2nd grade curriculum. That definitely won't work.
Although the school is willing to accommodate Teddy's inability to wear a mask, physically distance from others and follow basic hygiene principles like not licking things and washing his hands well, they also will need to make similar accommodations for others in his classroom. That means Teddy will be in an environment where he's fully absorbing the risk of others, which we cannot have with his health condition and likelihood of serious seizures. We need him in a controlled environment where he's interacting with as few people as possible who are doing all they can to minimize their risk, since he'll still get some risk from exposure to them.
It appears, through multiple calls, that the person responsible for leading the charge to safely educate Teddy is his teacher. I don't envy that position, but he's the one who's apparently responsible to find the accommodations needed to safely educate and support Teddy, with the help of Teddy's IEP team. That same IEP team can't meet until the week before school starts because they're not technically working until then. His teacher knows Teddy well enough to recognize that he cannot be safely supported at school and that virtual learning isn't an option. So where does that leave us?
The best idea I've heard yet is homebound education, where an educator comes to our home a limited period of time, such as 2 hours twice a week. The challenge is that this appears to be the safest option for Teddy because it's a single person who'd be wearing PPE, yet it's an option the district's insurance policy and the public health department are saying is too risky at this point because that educator has been in other school settings and the element of unknown risk in going into multiple homes. So, it's not safe for us to have a single person with PPE come to Teddy, but it's safe for us to send him to a school with hundreds of other kids when Teddy won't wear a mask and invades personal space like it's nobody's business? Not to mention that he wouldn't be able to integrate at all because that's not allowed, so he won't reap the benefits of watching his age group peers to learn appropriately with them.
At this point, we're still going to push for some type of homebound education in person for Teddy. We feel like we can piece together just about everything aside from the actual educational component. Our plan is to use outpatient therapy for OT, PT and speech. We've been doing those services through Children's Hospital through the summer months, and we're comfortable with their safety practices and the controlled, sanitary environment. That covers all those areas without the school needing to find a safe solution, which would be virtual therapy, which is not realistic for Teddy. We're also working to add back in music therapy, which again is a controlled environment 1:1 with someone who will be taking all the safety precautions. This therapy is something Teddy enjoys, will cover the music piece he's missing and encompasses really all his therapy goals at once. So all we need to figure out is a plan for the educational piece.
Oh yeah, don't forget childcare. We need someone to be in our home with the boys while we work (a combination of working from home and at our offices) full time. That person needs to be someone we trust to be safe both here and outside of work to protect Teddy. That person needs to take Teddy to all those appointments I just mentioned each week and likely facilitate a few aspects of learning for Teddy. That person also needs to support AJ as needed through the day, troubleshoot any virtual learning pieces for him and help him stay on track with his learning because the 2-3 hours in the evening before bedtime aren't going to be enough for us to work through an entire day's worth of learning.
On the bright side, after this year, any return to school in the fall should be a breeze, right? There's no easy decisions this year, and my thoughts and prayers are with all navigating these uncertain times.
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