I don't understand why this should be so hard

I know I said to head over to my other blog for tales of things like Special Needs Kids, but this one has a spot in both places.

But, being that this is all about tech and learning and all of that, I think this tale has to be told.

My son, otherwise known as Shrimper, has special needs. He's a kid who gets resource, speech, PT and OT. Since writing is the bane of his existence (hand tremor...just so stressed writing and trying to be good..he shakes.), I've been screaming for him to get some sort of technology, like a laptop, keyboard or something so he can type his work and get the ideas out of his head.

Now, this shouldn't be so hard. The kiddle has trouble writing. It's pretty significant. I didn't ask them to abandon handwriting with him, I just asked for something to help him in his day to day operations in the classroom, so he didn't have to burn through stickers, stamps and nearly sob when he had to pick up a pencil and write more than a few letters. I don't think I asked much.

I first asked about this upon entering Kindergarten. I was told that they wanted to give handwriting a shot and he was just too young.

I let that slide.

As the spring IEP showed up, I asked again for technology. I wrote letters, called the head OT, and was given the largest line ever-he was too young and still needed "pre-handwriting" skills.

If we are at this point, why aren't we looking at tech? I nearly went off the rails.

I asked what age they considered old enough.

Their response?

End of 2nd grade.

Yeah, that's not going to fly here. I teach 3 year olds how to manipulate the computer and keyboard. There's no reason that the OT can't train that, as he sees her in a 1:1 situation.

I kept pestering and even bucked the whole set of concerns up to the district office. I was shot down. I was told that there was a protocol, and the OT was correct in the age restriction.

Really?

I explained over and over and over again that I wasn't against working on handwriting, but we needed a way to level the playing field and if I had to send in a laptop, I would.

I festered the whole summer hoping that we'd get SOMEONE to see the light.

I kept quiet, but kept raising the question to the OT.

Then, it happened.

The OT finally saw the light. She came to me in early October and asked if I would sign the forms for the tech eval.

I asked her what she had been waiting for.

Then, everything stalled.

From the time I signed the paperwork, it took until just before Christmas to get the tech specialist in and then we began the waiting game.

I had heard nothing. I bugged the poor OT-knowing full well this was NOT her fault and let her know this in no uncertain terms.

My son hadn't gotten any of his assigned tech since the evaluation. We were in February by this point.

It was then I decided to corner the head of the Special Education department at the end of a meeting to see where the heck in heaven's name my child's technology was. When I pulled this one, we were in March, with the blessing of both the OT and the Resource teacher.

Enter May and June, and although we had the device (Inellikeys), why was my son not being trained to use them? He was not working with them in OT, he wasn't using them in either resource or the classroom.

Why?

Because the tech person couldn't make it over to train the teachers in the use of this device.

Now, here comes the question.

Why did my child suffer all year being frustrated in writing when we started asking for this stuff in October? Why did I have to take it all the way to the district to get any movement or response from the technology person? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Here we are, loading our classrooms with technology-laptops, IWBs and other things, yet we can't get one student something that will level the playing field for him without a parent kicking and screaming to the high heavens and taking things all the way to the top.

Although we do need to teach students where they are with the terminology and the technology, why are we not moving faster to put those with special needs on an equal footing with those without?

We are taught and have differentiated instruction slammed into our heads, but why, in this case, wasn' t it happening?

I was told over and over and over again by my friends this year that it was a good thing that I knew what I was doing and talking about or I may not have gotten the Shrimp what he needed.

That bothers me.

It should not be this hard to get a child what they need to be a success in the classroom.