Color me stunned

Today we had a school conference for the T man to review his IEP now that they've had time to observe and unofficially evaluate him. We were in a small conference room with our two ankle biters, the principal, the school district special education director, the occupational therapist, the speech pathologist, and the two teachers T spends his half day with.

I wasn't sure what to expect, I feared they would tell me that they think T has ADD/ADHD versus sensory issues and they think he should be put on medication. That seemed to be the direction his old school was heading with all the ADD/ADHD paperwork they sent home. Sigh... And honestly, if he is ADHD then I'd certainly rather know now than later.

That is so not what happened. T is doing so well that they committee wanted our okay to reclass him from 'developmental delay' to simply 'needing speech and language services'. The amount of time for speech therapy is being reduced as well. This is all extremely positive because it indicates that the teachers and the committee think that T will do extremely well in mainstreamed pre school which indicates an easier transition to kindergarten next year. The only downside is that now he doesn't qualify for the bus service and I know it's going to upset him. Me too, in a way, because it's nice not to have the morning get into the car struggle. But, this way I'll get to meet more of the parents and perhaps we can set up some play dates or something. Oh wait, that requires me to be social on a regular basis. Never mind.

The biggest shocker for R and I was that neither of T's teachers have had any problems with him regarding conflict. In fact, they informed us, T was one of the happy, helping kids and they actually said this sentence, "he's such a pleasure to have in class".

SAY WHAT? Where is the part of the meeting where the committee exchanges significant looks and then tries to tell me without actually saying the words that T is hard to handle? In his last IEP review, the common comment was that while T is a sweet child, his aggressive behaviors and lack of observance of personal space are 'impacting him socially in a negative way'. Which means that my kid is the troublemaker/bully. But none of that behavior has shown up here in over a month. R and I both went "WHAT?!?" at the same time. The whole table laughed because we were so stunned and because they had all read the IEP and associated comments.

Oh! During this hour long meeting our children - the ones who gained fame and notoriety in stores halfway across the world - were quietly playing TOGETHER on the floor in that tiny little room. While adults were TALKING. What the heck is happening here? Did we move to Stepfordville? Can we please, please, please, please stay here, like forever and ever?!?!