Sunday, February 1, 2015

More changes

I'm cautiously hopeful about some upcoming changes for Marcus and our family. As you can read in another blog of mine, my university will be running a local high school and I am working on placing Marcus there. I know it will be an amazing place and Marcus deserves amazing.

We went on a tour this past week so Marcus could get a sense of the place. We picked a day when there would be few students present due to Regents testing. The principal arranged for the district's director of special education to join us so he could help us get what we need to support this huge transition. One thing that happened really struck me. I'm not sure whether it's sad or moving or what I felt, but here's what happened.

The principal opened a typical classroom door so we could see what they look like. Marcus walked in, paused and said, "Oh, so this is what a classroom looks like."  I gasped and all the adults looked at each other. The last time he was in a general ed classroom was in kindergarten and all he remembers about that year was being in a closet with a para. While on one hand it's a sad statement, it also gives me some hope about the possibilities of re-integration.

I also realized I might be the person the most worried. How will Marcus handle so many kids? We are planning on starting him in smaller classrooms but there will still be the hallway and the cafeteria. A key support will be having my husband as the official 1:1 aide. The director of special ed agreed it would be good and is going to help us get that set up. I realize having the "dad" there has its own challenges, but keeping Marcus from exploding overrides those for me. We have two goals: keeping Marcus out of jail and getting him a high school diploma. I can't see meeting the first goal if Morris isn't there, at least at the beginning.