I’ve been advised that moving forward, a school administrator will be present at all future meetings. This leaves me questioning the intent behind this decision. Is this truly an effort to drive meaningful change, to ensure that Nora gets the supports she needs, or is it another tactic to create additional layers of bureaucracy, more roadblocks for us to navigate?
As a parent of a child with special needs, I am not unfamiliar with how asking critical questions can sometimes be perceived as “being difficult.” But these are not frivolous inquiries. I do my research, I want to know the reasoning behind decisions, and I want to see the data that backs them up. This is not about making things harder for anyone—it’s about accountability. These children don’t live in a vacuum. The choices made during their school day have a ripple effect on their entire lives, far beyond the classroom.
Take, for example, Nora’s recent struggles with toileting. For years, she had been fully potty trained, but now she is facing a significant regression, urinating outside the toilet. The impact of this on her daily life is huge. It limits where we can go, what she can experience, and how she engages with the world. The gravity of this is not something I take lightly, and neither should the school.
It’s easy to get caught up in the academic and procedural aspects of these meetings, but we cannot forget that these are real children, living real lives, with families who are affected by every decision. I am their voice, their advocate, and I have an obligation to ask the hard questions because they cannot. And until I’m confident that every decision is made with Nora’s best interest in mind, I’ll keep asking.
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