It's been 10 days since Alice was seen by her neurologist for the first time. He confirmed her diagnosis from China and is recommending an MRI to possibly learn more about cause and extent of area affected. He also thinks Alice would benefit from speech, physical and occupational therapy. I sent that information to Alice's guidance counselor the next day and then waited several days to find out she was still trying to get answers about how to proceed. I contacted Alice's teacher with my concerns, who forwarded them to the principal. Then I called the school system's special education department and finally spoke with someone who could give me some concrete advice.
First, she explained that even if Alice has medical disabilities, that does not guarantee her services through the school system. She will need to be evaluated to determine if her disabilities affect her education. If they determine that she has educational disabilities, then she will receive support services. She recommended I contact the principal to get things started. I sent an email to the principal outlining my attempts to understand the process and frustration with connecting with people who could give me answers. Within 45 minutes I had a response that the special education teacher at Alice's school was preparing a letter to set up an IEP meeting for Alice.
The next day (yesterday) I was contacted by the special education teacher from Alice's school letting me know she was sending home a letter requesting permission to evaluate Alice for language dominance. They need to do a formal evaluation to determine if English or Mandarin is her dominant language(!) REALLY!?!? A Chinese girl who has been in the US for 3 whole months and already tested into level one ESL (newcomer status). This is the first step in the evaluation process. I can't wait to see what comes next.
I also finally heard back from the middle school and have an appointment the day after we get back from our trip to visit DH's family. We are going in for Alice to get a tour of the school and discuss her class selection for fall. I am going to ask (insist?) that she be allowed to take Chinese. The head of the ESOL department for the school system agreed with me that Alice could begin to lose her first language faster than she acquires English. It is called subtractive language learning and is not ideal. He suggested she take Chinese if it's offered at her middle school. Hers is one of a handful that does offer Chinese.
Normally, sixth graders all take an exploratory class where they are exposed to French, Spanish and a third language (Chinese, at her school) in a one quarter course. Seventh graders can take a world language (they don't call them foreign languages anymore, who knew) every other day and eigth graders can take world language class every day. Based on the scheduling, it may not be possible for Alice to take Chinese just because of the wacky system they have in our local middle schools. Where else are some courses taught everyday (some for the entire year, some for only a quarter of the year), some courses taught every other day and still others every third day.
Alice has been selected for the summer ESOL program. I attended an informational meeting last week. While there are good points to the program (FREE; runs Mon-Thurs for 5 weeks; focuses on science, specifically studying oceans), I am not thrilled that she will be spending only 2.5 of the 4 hours "at school" actually doing academics. Because the program is funded with grants, they are required to feed the students. Alice will spend the first 30 minutes having breakfast, (insert 2.5 hours instruction), then another 30 minutes having lunch and a final 30 minutes set aside for "dismissal". Alice already thinks that American students get a lot of "play" time compared to Chinese students. The summer schedule isn't going to alter her impression. I keep trying to tell her that middle school will be different, but until she gets there and it really is work I'm not sure she will believe that American schools are serious about education. My impression isn't much different than hers so far.
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