Let's celebrate!

Today was S's IEP meeting and this year we did a full evaluation because I just wouldn't leave them alone about it :p  Back when he had his first eval three years ago, the school psychologist ruled out learning disabilities.  One of his private therapists did some evaluations with him that showed him with a probable learning disability and the therapist also had some questions about the evals the school psych did since the results did not seem consistent with no learning disabilities.  The therapist recommended we try to get another set of academic evaluations through the school but they were not very willing to do it and stated that he was already receiving the top level of services so an LD diagnosis wouldn't change that.  That particular year, there was a new school psychologist and she kept saying she'd reviewed the previous psych's testing and it was very thorough blah blah blah.

Well, I don't give up easily and we had yet another private evaluation with the neuropsychologist which showed, wait for it, learning disabilities.  So I brought yet another set of results to them this year and hey, whattya know, yet another new school psychologist this year.  However, he listened, took my concerns seriously, did full and thorough evaluations, and now S has an official school diagnosis of multiple learning disabilities and his services at school are increasing to help him develop learning strategies and skills.  He tests extremely high in intelligence so he has the capability, he just has problems getting his abilities there because he's just not processing the new material very well.

LET'S CELEBRATE!!!!!!

I do find it so very sad, though, that getting a struggling student help is such a hard and long battle that when you finally get the confirmation of a learning disability, you want to celebrate instead of be sad about it.  I hate that this is one more hurdle he has in life, that it is another struggle he'll have, but at the same time, I'm so very happy that it is now recognized and it won't be just me trying to help him via trial and error--he'll have the professionally trained special education professionals working with him on all of his LD areas instead of just the reading help he's been getting.  He's already in fourth grade and has lost several years he could have been receiving extra services--I just hope we have enough time to get him caught up before middle school when things get a whole lot harder :/