Bearer of Bad News

I had a PPT where I had to tell the parents that their son has significant issues and needs to attend a program in another school. Fortunately, the son was previously identified. It's hard being the bearer of bad news. Most parents don't take that kind of news too well, and who can blame them? There is no way around it, but as a member of the PPT I have to give the information as honest as possible. I think that some people find it easier to sugarcoat their news, or downplay the seriousness of their information. Unfortunately, the parents leave these meetings not understanding how limited their children are.

My most recent case involved a student that if he was a year younger (4 years old) he would have qualified under the disability of Developmental Delay. But since he was already 5 years old, no one wanted to revisit this case in less than a year to give him a new label. He entered my school as a kindergartner with a disability of Speech (Language) Impairment. Obviously to us he had more issues. These issues came to light during our evaluation. The good news was that the mother was aware that he had some limitations. n her words, she "hoped the news would have been better." The good part of the job is that we usually offer great recommendations to help the child. In this case, the child needed to be placed in a different school with a smaller, more intense kindergarten program. The parents agreed that it was a good recommendation and he entered the program today.

BBC