We finally had our meeting with the school district since we disagreed with their initial evaluation of our son. They didn’t feel he qualifies for services. It didn’t go as planned. We intended to go in (my husband and me and Buki’s speech therapist) and request that the school pay for an outside evaluation.

First off, our speech therapist couldn’t make it, but we went ahead with it anyway, since time is really of the essence here (we’re moving in a few months.) It was a little daunting walking into the meeting, because there were about six school attendees and we were expecting only two.

And I was scared. I’m not a “speak up” type person, but I knew I needed to take the lead – my husband was there to be backup. So I boldly stated that we didn’t agree with their evaluation, the reasons we didn’t agree, and that we were asking for an outside evaluation. I felt awesome.

Of course, they shot us down immediately, stating that they can’t provide an outside eval until he turns three. The eval was the whole purpose of meeting with them, so I honestly stopped listening very hard after that. Blah, blah, blah, and then the meeting was over.

They gave us a few tips; things we can do to help our son. But the bottom line is that they do not care to do anything until he is three. And by then, we’ll hopefully be in a school district that actually cares and will help us. Barring that, we’ll at least have decent insurance, so we can finally get him tested on our own or get him private occupational therapy.

We’re moving to Chicago in August, when Buki turns three, so we’re now going to turn our energies toward figuring out services in Chicago. That’s going to be quite the adventure, I’m sure. I’m not looking forward to all the phone calls, but I am looking forward. We are ready to move on from our current city and ready for what comes next.