Fuming, Fuming, Fuming

I try to be patient. I try to put myself in their shoes. I try to be understanding. But this has gone too far. Jayen was absent for school on Monday because of his neurosurgeon appointment. Tuesday when he came back for school there was no para waiting for Jayen at the gate as we had previously planned. Mrs. Mullins, the kindergarten teacher, was able to locate Mrs. Lake, the special education teacher, to see if someone was available. She didn't have anyone for Jayen so he was forced to leave the playground and go sit in Mrs. Lake's classroom until a para was available. He lost out on such an important time building friendships with his peers. I left upset and went to the front office to talk to Mr. Frazier, the principal. He was at a principal meeting and wasn't available so we waited around to talk to Mrs. McKnight, the vice-principal. She said she would head there right away and be with him. This didn't really solve the problem, but I was confident enough that if she was stuck with him that they would have to find someone to relieve her at least. I went home and tried to wait patiently until lunch time when I would go in and be able to see if someone was with him. Thankfully there was someone with him and she was actually pretty good. She is a social butterfly, so keeping her focused on Jayen will be a bit of a challenge. She is also one of the crossing guards, so I knew she would have to leave him early. I was going to let it play out and see what they figured out.

Today when we went to drop him off, once again there was no one waiting. I knew this wasn't going to end well so Matt took him back to see if someone was waiting near the playground. There was no para nor his safety backpack in sight. Mrs. Mullins tried to knock on Mrs. Lake door and there was no answer. Matt was forced to stay with Jayen until someone became available. He stayed on the playground then had to follow the class inside as there was still no one nor his safety backpack around. On the way into the classroom Mrs. Mullins sent Jayen to Mrs. Lake's classroom and Matt had to follow. In Mrs. Lake classroom, Matt said there was still no one available for Jayen. He was impressed with Jayen sitting down and working amid the chaos in the classroom. The learning environment is not an adequate place for Jayen to learn. Students were running all around the classroom and even running out of the room. Matt looked at the teacher to see what she was going to do. Was she going to run after him? Was she going to call the office for assistance? He looked at her and she said, "Someone will get him." Since no one was doing anything, Matt volunteered to go after the student. While looking for the missing student, Matt ran into Mrs. McKnight. After returning to the classroom with the missing student and Mrs. McKnight, Mrs. McKnight sat with Jayen. Eventually, the para that was with him yesterday arrived and took over. At this point Matt finally left the school. 

I just keep thinking that I need to call an IEP meeting and request a different placement. I've sent an email to the principal asking what other placements are available. I haven't heard back from him yet. I hope we can work together to figure this out.