Last week Jeremy and I toured another school (we'll call it School X). This school is where AJ would go if we choose to attend in our home school district. While we had already toured our school of choice in January, we wanted to explore all educational possibilities for AJ.
School X is located about 10 minutes from our house. We were able to observe the early education classroom, as well as see the playground, gym, cafeteria, and PT/OT room. It was very important to see/experience how long of a distance (among other things) it would be for AJ to walk from the classroom to the above destinations.
What we liked:
The classroom had multiple activity centers
The classroom utliizes a Smart Board.
(AWESOME! Please check out the link and see what this thing can do!)
PT/OT room were well organized and functional
What we didn't like:
NONE of the staff have experience with Deaf/Hard of Hearing children (D/HOH)
None of the staff have training or experience with cochlear implants
Sign language is not used at all
None of the children have any type of hearing loss
Mode of communication
Program is fewer days per week than we'd like
Classroom is not treated to reduce noise and noise sources are not minimized
Distance from classroom to other areas AJ would be
Audiologist and TOD are not readily available
You can tell which list is longer. Let's keep it simple and say there was a big difference between School X and our school of choice for AJ.
His IEP Meeting has been scheduled for early June. We look forward to bringing our the fruits of our labor to the table and showing our district that our choice of school is the right school for AJ.