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

Whose Child Is This?

Second day of school. Everyone is still learning the ropes. Kids are still learning the rules. Teachers are still learning who the students are, which is critical for what happened today.

Mid-morning an older woman comes into school looking for her granddaughter. Apparently her grandson put the granddaughter on the wrong bus. The little girl was supposed to go to another school in our town, but she got on the bus that came to my school. When the grandmother asked us, it seemed odd because we figured that it could not have happened because the teachers take attendance and someone would have noticed an extra student. The little girl was a kindergartner so my principal and the grandmother walked to the kindergarten wing. They asked the teachers and no one had heard of the girl. Luckily the student teacher was listening and told the principal that a student with the same name told her that she was in first grade, so she walked her down to the first grade wing. So principal and grandmother walked down to first grade and there was the little girl, walking beside the teacher, learning the rules of the classroom. When she saw her grandmother, she ran to her and hugged her. The teacher was bewildered and didn't understand what was happening. Apparently, when the little girl said her name, the teacher misheard her and thought she said a name that was similar sounding. The teacher thought she was a student that was not present on the first day of school. Being in first grade, the teacher did not have a true idea what the girl looked like, and assumed she was the missing student. The funny thing is, the little girl is actually in kindergarten but decided to tell the student teacher that she was in first grade. In the end, the grandmother was happy that her granddaughter was safe and sound, and took her to the correct school. It was truly an odd story that had a happy ending.

BBC