My second post that irritates locals and confuses everyone else –
Knoxville Adaptive Education Center should be closed. The school itself feels too much like Taft Youth Detention Center. The students are there because the school system has no idea how to really help them. It is a dumping ground that until recently had almost no textbooks and no academic advancement program (meaning the students there can’t graduate). KAEC needs to become a school for students on long-term suspensions from their home school. Instead of throwing away entire school years over zero tolerance infractions, students could go to KAEC and keep up with their classes.
It’s better now … and worse. Hopefully, in three months, we will be done with KAEC.
Better … more focus on the academics. True, they are last in line for learning tools. The computer (singular!) in the high school section is running Windows 95. I would imagine it is no more than a 150mHz CPU. But they have up to date text books now, and they push the kids to achieve as much as possible. Or they are motivated to. Lots of apathy there. Those kids have been kicked around for years by many systems. They don’t care.
My son was able to pass all three of the Gateways with scores in the 90s. He will graduate early, this December, if he can keep himself together. This despite having totally lost his freshman and sophomore years to his bipolar disorder. He is planning to go to Pellissippi and get a computer degree. His IEP will go with him. I got him on SSI, not for the money, but for the services. He could go to Voc-rehab if he wants. He also got his TennCare back. I didn’t even have to re-apply.
On the worse … the level of tolerance has plummeted at KAEC, due to pressure from the community and the juvenile court system. There are many who think that kids with mental health issues should not be disciplined any different than kids who are willfully misbehaving, and should get no special accomodations.
Majorly worse … they are bypassing the due process and manifestation determinations mandated by IDEA and letting the courts mete out the discipline. We got caught up in that mess, and we’re still trying to get through it. Fortunately, we have a PD who understands this stuff, he had a son with ADHD and in SpEd himself.
We have yet another IEP meeting Monday. I tried to get TPaA involved but I can’t get a line of communication established. We are also starting the post-grad planning, with a Voc-rehab rep due to be there. I just love these things.
Not.
There has to be a better answer for these kids … one big problem is that they feed off each other’s issues, and they have no “normal” kids to peer-model. Having mental disorders becomes “normal” … and they have trouble relating to “normal” kids.
Yes, I know … “normal” is just a setting on the dryer and has no application to real people.
Dang this is getting long …
They have always ignored manifestation and skated under the law because they know few parents have the physical or emotional resources to fight them. I have too many personal and professional bad memories of KAEC. There are a few caring teachers but the administration squashes their dreams of helping children. Children should not be punished for their disabilities.