The day the kids and I got back from Southern California, I attended an IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting with Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Since Anellah was turning three, her physical therapy and speech therapy were going to end unless I could get something through the school district. I honestly expected to leave the meeting without being offered any services but I had a slight hope she would at least receive speech therapy services at our local elementary school meaning I could take her to speech therapy weekly. Getting physical therapy was my primary concern because her balance is poor and it's a safety issue but my hopes weren't high she would be "delayed" enough to qualify.
I was blown away by the end of the IEP meeting. Not only did OUSD offer speech therapy AND physical therapy, they offered a preschool class 5 days/week in the mornings. The classroom will include up to 20 children, 14 of whom are mainstream students and 6 of whom have IEP's meaning they have some sort of delay or need varying degrees of support. The therapy services would be provided during Anellah's time at school with additional "homework" given to the classroom staff for them to work on meeting her speech and physical development goals. In addition, the school district is going to provide a nurse to be with Anellah the entire time she is at school in order to operate her insulin pump and provide diabetes management. And the icing on the cake: a bus will pick her up at home and drop her off at daycare every day. And the cherry on top: I've talked to her classroom teacher on the phone a few times and she sounds amazing, completely proactive and very kind.
Of course there are a lot of logistics that I am working to figure out now including enrollment paperwork, diabetes training, childcare for Capper while I attend the first few days of school with her, phone calls with the teacher and school nurse, discontinuing her enrollment at Early Head Start, setting up the bus transportation (a little nervous about my little girl on a bus...), etc. But in the end I believe this will be an excellent fit for Anellah and is proving to be far easier than enrolling her in any other program has been. I really feel that we found favor somehow and I am really excited for her to start!
As I mentioned, she will not continue to attend Early Head Start because both preschools are at the same time but in the fall she may attend preschool in the morning and Head Start in the afternoons if we feel like it would be good for her and feel like she could handle that long of a day. We'll see!
I promise, more posts with photos will come soon.
