After Cathy’s problems getting straight information last Thursday, we were a little leery when we went to the meeting on Friday. We were pleased to see Maria’s teacher, two special ed teachers, two paraprofessionals, the PT and one other therapist (I can’t remember what her specialty was). We weren’t sure how many were going to be able to make it.
They were all very nice. They asked a lot of questions and seemed very interested in giving Maria the help she needs. We are afraid we will someday get the teacher who doesn’t think kids like Maria should be in her class, but we’ll face that when it happens. Things went well and we feel better about her starting school – hey, that’s today isn’t it.
The only little wrinkle was Cathy mentioned offhandedly that we wanted Maria to take the bus home. She was told that’s a change to the IEP and we’d have to have a formal meeting over it. I realize it’s all part of the bureaucracy, but geez! It’s not an educational issue; it’s an administrative one. They said it would be easy but it means for the first week or so, Cathy will have to pick her up after all. We don’t want Sue picking her up since she’s still recovering from her heart attack.
Maria’s walking continues to improve. She has been fighting me when I try to work with her, but Friday she was doing great. She took lots of steps with just occasional nudges at her feet. Her record with me was 50 in a row and it was only 50 because I got tired. She also did several clusters of quick steps with no prompting at all. It’s nice to see her getting interested in walking again. I dreamed last night that she got out of her chair and walked 2-3 steps to get to me. Let’s hope that’s a prediction.