What school transition should mean
Yesterday we met with Quincy’s IEP team to discuss her transition from elementary school to high school. This is a difficult process for children and their families because it means a whole new school, new staff, new schedule…this is scary for all children, but particularly scary for children who have developmental disabilities. What I was struck by during our meeting, is how thefolks from the school administrations seemed interested in making the transition process smooth for their staff and for Rob and I. Transistion should not be so much about making new staff members comfortable or even parents, as much as it should be about Quincy. This is her experience and everything that can possibly be done to make her feel safe and comfortable is what the focus should be. Don’t get me wrong, these are good people with good intentions. But, they just don’t seem to “get it”…they just don’t seem to be able to wrap their brains around what should be done for Quincy. Rob and I do our best to articulate this, but so often you feel as if the message is lost in a world of rules, regulations, goals and objectives, etc… The first day of high school for Quincy should be exciting and new and safe and as stress-free as possible. She should be familiar with the building, equipment and adaptive supplies should be available and ready for her to use, there should be trained staff to greet her who know who she is and what she can and cannot do. I do not expect this to be a stress-free experience, but it should be one that at least provides her a feeling of safety and security as she learns to adapt to a new environment with new people. Transition is not about my comfort…I am never comfortable trusting Quincy’s care to other people, no matter how well-qualified they may be. Parent’s raising children who are fully dependent on others for all their needs will never be comfortable sharing that responsibility with anyone else. What we need is for our children to be comfortable with other’s doing their care-giving. That is a very, very big difference and one that teachers and administrators should do a better job of trying to understand.
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