Wednesday, February 3rd

Snow this morning but not enough to delay an opening much less close the school. Oddly enough I'm happy about this because a closing would just screw up my time tables.

I get into work and meet makes some last minute preparation for my field trip to an out of district school for my two annual reviews. I also arrange for transportation for an interview at another out of district placement next week. Now I just have to contact the parent.

Following my preparations, I take a look at my list of evaluations, currently a total of 8 due within the next two months. Two re-evaluations and six initial referrals. Ugh. And it will only get worse before the end of the year. I gather and organize the protocols and make good intentions to test some folks tomorrow. And we all know where good intentions lead.

Now its 10am and time to go on my outing. I bringing a coworker with me. She is new to the whole child study team thing, so I brought her so she could see this particular school.

We get to the school right on time but the students aren't. An investigation leads us to discover that the town that the out of district school is in had a 2 hour delayed opening. So the contracted bus company follows some sort of personal guideline that if it isn't safe for the town's buses to drive in, it isn't safe for them. We do get word from the mother of my second appointment that she is on her way with the student. I also know for a fact that the guardian of my first meeting isn't going to come.

My first student has emotional problems and is cognitively limited. The guardian has just signed rights to DYFS and the student may be moving out of the district to a foster placement. This student hasn't been doing well this year because of the instability in the student's home life. It is a rather sad case.

The second meeting is a much happier affair. A year ago, this student was having aggressive outbursts in another out of district school. This year, the student hasn't had many of these outbursts and is much happier and doing school work. This meeting also involves transition since the student will turn 14 within the time of this IEP. I meet the student and discuss education and work goals for after graduation. Overall the meeting goes quite well and is somewhat inspiring.

It is now 12:30pm and time for lunch. Following lunch, I get back to the office and find out the whole world has been looking for me, if the world consisted of the two supervisors and the AT coordinator. I manage to catch up with two of the three and it isn't anything earth shattering.

I finish out the day with a conversation with my office mate, who, sadly, will be leaving in March for what is hoped to be greener pastures. After that, I head for home.