Time to start the back to school fight...

This is what it is like having a child in the school system with special needs. The schools really don't want to deal with these kids, they do it because they have to, and they are always an after thought.
We had Carli's IEP meeting, which is her education plan meeting, back in May. She is moving up to middle school this year, which is something I have been dreading for a long time. Middle school is difficult for most girls, especially if you are a little different. Girls can be so mean . We have worried about so many things for Carli, changing classes, PE, everything. Not to mention, she will no longer be at our home school, so she won't even see familiar faces at school like she does now. The kids in our neighborhood have always been so good to Carli. She is not going to have that safety net anymore-everything is changing. She really won't understand it until the first day of school. So I let everyone know how uneasy we were feeling about this. When we had the meeting in May, one of the teachers came from Robius Middle, the new school,and explained how carefully they plan the kids school year-how they do PE seperately and-one of the best parts-they take the kids swimming at the same pool where Carli did her Special Olympics swimming every other week! They were so excited to be getting another girl in their class and were very welcoming. We felt so much better after that. We signed the IEP and relaxed a bit. Then, the very last week of school, we get a strange message on our answering machine-Carli's teacher is telling us it looks like they are opening a new program at a different school - Bailey Bridge Middle School-and Carli may have to go there. She said she does'nt have any information but she will let me know as soon as she finds something out. She never calls back or responds to my notes. I ran into the school principal one day and ask her about it-she says she knows nothing about it. As far as she knows, we are still following the IEP we signed. We are thinking, maybe it is just a rumor and Carli's teacher got a little ahead of herself repeating it to us. Then Tuesday night I get one of those pre-recorded messages from the principal welcoming us back to the school year, and letting us know what the dress code is. Guess where he is from? Bailey Bridge Middle School. We don't know anything about this program. We have gotten no letters from the school board, no notification at all that things are changing. The office at the school is not open yet. This is how we are treated by the school system. They think they can just jerk these kids around, and we should be grateful for it, because they are providing the education that is required. I think at some point, maybe when Courtney is in college and Carli is early in high school we have no choice but to move north, where the programs for kids and special needs adults are so, so much better. They make you so mad, you have to constantly be advocating for your child or they just get lost in the shuffle, and then when you finally snap and yell at someone, you are labeled as a difficult parent. It's all so frustrating.