JUST CRAP

There is so much crap going on in my life this last week, it's just draining to even really get into the whole nitty gritty of it all. First though, I'll answer the previous question about the business everyone wants to know about.

I am looking to start a business in home design, specifically children rooms and nurseries. I have my first "client" coming next Wednesday to discuss ideas... she has two rooms for me to do. I'm excited about it, unfortunately crap this week is really put a damper on that excitement.

On Tuesday I got a call from the girl's school saying there was an issue for funding for Kierra's educational needs for the next school year. They said that the Board of Education (BE) would only give funding if the girls were at their designated school (which is in a crap part of town, no thank-you!). This is why we had them released from this school, so they could register at this one. In fact, Karis is also registered to attend Kindergarten this Fall. The principal wants me to drive to the school every day to monitor Kierra during the lunch hour, and volunteer every day. So essentially sit at school all day and babysit my child. I told her I have Karis still at home (half days, she's registered for Kindergarten this Fall there), and that I can't be at the school. She suggested I hire a nanny to watch Karis... and then said I could hire a nanny to volunteer at the school instead. SAY WHAT? I asked if this could be solved by us hiring our own aide, to which she said no, we can't do that. The school can only hire aides, but it's not in their budget to do so.

The next day I get another call saying I have to withdraw all three of my children from this school because they will not use their budget for Kierra's needs. I needed to register them at their designated school. First off, why are you kicking out all three? Second, why on earth did this just become an issue now? They KNEW this obviously beforehand. The BE did their own eval last spring for Kierra, determined she could be intergrated into a normal school, and that she could attend this school. Now they don't want to fund her education? She had provincial PUF funding, but that ends at six years old (this June). They never told us that there would't be funding after Kindergarten. In fact I didn't even know of this little tidbit until AFTER she kicked my kids out. I know that she had her mind made up the day before, she was just called me as a guise so it didn't totally come out of left field. She prattled on and on, and I told her I had to go, because I was upset and couldn't finish this conversation right then. Hung up and basically bawled my face off.

Needless to say I've been a wreck. I can't sleep, I'm stressed to the point I'm physically ill, and losing weight (this isn't actually a bad thing). As of this morning, we sent a letter to the school, asking for all these facts to be responded to by writing, sent a copy to the Trustee of the Board of Education, two MLA's, the Superintendant of the school, and the Director. If this doesn't work, we'll be going to the press and contacting the Canadian Society for Autism.

We want to know why they would accept a child out of their designated area, with full disclosure of her autism diagnosis if they weren't prepared to take care of her educational needs? It's not like they didn't know. We want to know why they won't transfer this funding (or if she even asked if it could be done)? We want to know why the other two are being asked to leave, and if other children that are not part of this district are being asked to leave as well? I know they aren't because our neighbor's son goes to the same school. In fact, they opened their doors to other undesignated districts because of low enrollment rates, and that they were at risky for being shut down. I want to know how they can use a loophole to basically turn my child away from a school she loves and excels at? If any of you can answer this, I'd love to hear it. But honestly, anyone that could rationalize this to me is basically as ignorant as the people I'm dealing with right now.