"You gotta fight, For your right, To paaaar-ty"

O.K., not to "party" in this case, more like to get the appropriate services/school environment for your child (but it just didn't sound as good w/ the original lyrics). I'm back on my song as title kick. Trey has been going to a wonderful private school that was created to teach deaf/HOH children to be verbal. It is one of several of its kind across the United States, and we are fortunate to live about 20-25 minutes away. Emily was able to attend this school as well when we moved here, but we paid for her to attend. It was well-worth it but also somewhat costly. The school district refused to even consider helping us, as they felt that they had a comprable alternative.

Since then we have moved to a different school district that does not have a deaf/HOH program. All they can offer Trey is placement in their early intervention preschool (which is where Jake currently goes). It has been a good choice for Jake, since he only has a mild-moderate loss. In fact, he is thriving there. Trey is in a much different place than Jake. Trey is still barely putting together 2 - 3 words at a time. That said, he has made huge strides, but I think those huge strides are largely due to the intervention he is getting in the school environment (as well as at home). In fact, the director of the school pulled me to the side yesterday to ask if I would help start a conversation with our district, and mentioned that Trey is the only of the four deaf children who gets pulled out daily for speech, *daily*. He would not get this in the public school- especially not pull out to work with a speech therapist trained in the AVT method. So- for the first time, we are going to have to fight for the district to provide the proper placement for one of our kids. I was trained as a parent advocate back in Utah, but really never had to utilize any of the training. We've been very fortunate with what our school districts have provided, and I'm hopeful that our district now will come through. But just in case, I'd love to hear how any of you dealt with this issue. And, wish us luck!