504 Meeting

I guess this is a way to document a meeting I had at my 17 year old son's school a few weeks ago.  Maybe I can get some advise from someone or help someone.  My son was diagnosed with ADHD the summer after he was in kindergarten.  He went to a private kindergarten which was very affluent and probably somewhere we should not have been.  We had the money to send him but not the social connections.  There was a senator's child in the class and some other major company CEO's.  Those names really got all the attention and the school was not a good fit for our family.  I didn't even realize I was sitting with nanny's the first few soccer games I attended.  But I digress.  The kindergarten teachers were just nasty.  My little guy sat out in the hall most of the year.  At their urging we had him tested and based on the forms they filled out he got an ADHD diagnosis.  So he was on meds from kindegarten until he was 16.  

When he turned 16 he had a very bad experience with some bullies at his private, Catholic, prep school.  He got very depressed, quit doing his school work and became very withdrawn.  Our neurologist kept switching his medicine which just made it worse.  Finally, we got him off all the medicine and at his request he switched to the public school over the summer.

At the prep school he got extended time for exams just because we asked and he had an ADHD diagnosis.  The public school makes you jump through hoops.  We did private testing and had a meeting to get extended time.  They were so reluctant.  The testing shows he is super super bright (we already knew) but that his reading rate is about half that of other juniors and he gets the info out slowly.  Seemed to me like he needs extra time.  All his teachers, the principal and the school counselor came to the meeting.  Two the teachers (science and math) where he has the most aptitude were so hostile.  The counselor had to nudge the math teacher to get her to stop being so mean.   His other teachers liked him.  Thankfully the principal agreed with me and the scientific evidence so he is getting the extra time but gosh it was so stressful.  I paid her a big compliment before the meeting so maybe that helped.  I thought it might seem a little over the top but for my children I will do anything.  

More on all this later ...  I'm still worked up by some of the comments from his teachers.  I guess they really don't have to please parents since it is a public school and there is nothing in it for them to find one nice thing to say about your child.