Great, I have the Kindergarden Slapster

Number one mortifying experience to date: Sadie hits principle of her school in the face during kindergarten orientation. Yes this really just happened not 40 minutes ago. Sadie didn't want to leave and so to reassure her that she would be back after summer, the Principal bent down to be eye level only to get her glasses knocked off by a disgruntled four year old. All I wanted to do was retreat to a deep dark cave were I've found my computer to blog about it. To get the scope of my mortification let me give you the back story. On Monday we had Sadie's transition IEP to decide weather she will attend a special needs class for kindergarten or a general ed class. Our goal was to get her in a general ed class with a one on one aid to keep her safe and help her when she's getting frustrated or distracted. This goal we kept hearing would be impossible because school districts don't want to fork out money for aids, it's just easier to lump all the kids into a special needs class. We hired an advocate (a person very familiar with special ed law) to attend the meeting with us. The meeting started off with Sadie's teacher doing a slide show presentation about Sadie with pictures and her achievements so that the team from her new school could get to know Sadie. It was so great, I just love her preschool teacher Ms.Audi! The team from the school Sadie will be attending for elementary consisted of a Gen Ed teacher, a Special Ed teacher, a speech pathologist and the soon to be slapped Principle. It was first offered that Sadie go into a special needs class with some time spent each day in the general ed class. Then our advocate spoke up and brought to everyone's attention that Sadie was academically above her typical peers and only had her physical disability, some mild behaviors(hitting) and some social goals which should not keep her out of a regular kindergarten class. The law is that the districts must consider the least restrictive environment and then place all the supports the child may need to succeed in that place. Micah and I kept emphasizing her safety and the new principle seemed just as concerned and wanted to do everything she could to make sure Sadie would be safe in whatever class the team decided. After it was decided that Sadie should be in a General ed kindergarten class, this ever so nice principle offered to hire an aid just for Sadie. We ended up getting just what we wanted for Sadie in part thanks to our advocate and to this principle. Afterwords the principle invited us to Kindergarten orientation and you know the rest of the story. Don't worry I did email her a apology before I started blogging. I realize it was probably unnecessary, she seemed very understanding (I hope). Anyhow one mortified mom right here, however I am so excited that Sadie is doing well enough to try a regular kindergarten class. Our hopes are that being around more typical children will help her socially but I'm still not ready to face the fact that she is old enough to go to kindergarten let alone smack the glasses of a principle.