Mom vs School; Mom 2, School 1

Anyone who has a school age child with a disability knows about the doldrums of Individual Education Plans, team meetings, mid year meetings, the virtual fight with the school. It's no wonder so many parents give in to the system, it really is an uphill battle. Parents who are their child's biggest ally and cheerleader face endless, frustrating, hours of fighting, compromising and signing on the line.

Today I fought such a battle. I'm not new to this, I knew what to expect. I have dreaded this all week. If it were so easy to say, "My child bled into his brain, yes he seems very functional, we are very lucky, but brain bleeds have a way of (pardon my curse here) fucking shit up. No I am not making this up, please bring your documents to the meeting." Unfortunately these meetings usually seem to be more about a show of power between the resource teacher and the parent. For those of you with no experience in this field, I am not making that up either.

When I was new to this (as we all are once) I naively thought the school administration would want nothing more to talk with me, a clearly involved parent, about ways to help my child succeed. This could not be further from reality. Disclaimer alert *not all administrators and teachers fall into this category, I've met several good ones.* Usually, I face resource teachers that want nothing more than to be rid of me, and place the blame on my child who has real documentation from real doctors that his stuff is messed up and yes (shocker) NEEDS accommodation. Today I fought such a battle. While two of the school officials were willing to come to any reasonable terms necessary for the success of my child, one was not. In fact she found every way around accommodating us and came to the meeting we have had scheduled for over a week without any paperwork, or his I.E.P. Yes, I became rude, bordered on (cover the children's eyes again) bitchy. This is my DUTY to my child. He deserves the same access to education as any child in that school.

I know that this battle will continue for the remainder of the school year, he will not be accommodated. I will eventually have to go around her and above her to achieve education accommodations. I have done all of this before and no worries, will do it again. This is her job. If we all performed as mediocre as her, what kind of world would we live in, she is an educator, a person that shapes the world of the next generation.

Despite it all, I do it for him.