A new beginning, a new school year

Hi. I'm Cheryl. I have a 7 year old daughter named Brittani, who has Asperger's Syndrome. If you don't know what this is, I encourage you to click the link for an explanation. Don't worry, I'll wait.

Brittani went to a public school for Kindergarten, before we really understood why she was different. This did not go well, as she was always "in trouble" with her teacher because she didn't want to transition activities, didn't understand non-verbal cues (aka body language), and didn't understand personal space. After Kindergarten, myself and her step-daddy Sterling got very tired of going to school meetings with her teacher and principal. We started looking for other alternative places for her to go. We found one in a charter school with a smaller class size, that was willing to work with us. At the beginning of the year, Brittani was evaluated by their school psychologist and we were able to receive an educational diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome. We were in luck. Her First Grade teacher had been specially trained as a Special Education teacher, and did most of her experience that way. Things started to look up, and after entering First Grade at a Kindergarten level, she exited it at about the same level the rest of her class was at halfway through the school year.

Things took a turn for the worse, however, when this wonderful charter school had a change in management. They let go 17 out of 20 of their experienced teachers to hire all new first year teachers, including Brittani's wonderful First Grade teacher, and her Resource Room teacher, they narrowed down what used to be 2 Second Grade classrooms to only one, and there were 42 graduating First Grade students. Needless to say, this is no longer the place for her.

I started researching my options. We found the Montessori school we had tried to get her into last year, but we were wait-listed. We found a spectacular private school especially for children with learning disabilities like Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD, Dyslexia, etc. However, it is insanely cost-prohibitive to send her there. All of the places we looked at were either out of our budget, or out of our age group. And then someone on a message board mentioned homeschooling. I started researching it. And I researched it some more. I realized that I could piece curriculum together for her, and her grandma and I could teach her at HER pace.

So this is where we stand. All that's waiting is for us to be able to go up and get her from her bio-dad's house in Northern California.