It took two years of virtual public school during COVID to open my eyes to the fact that we needed a different education plan for our son, Micah. Special education has a high turnover rate. Even with virtual school, there were many changes in staff and schedules. Just like in his earlier years in public school, every new teacher and therapist had to start over with Micah to assess where to begin.
As I watched him during the online lessons, I realized how little progress he had made. Prior to 2020, he had received stellar grade reports, and the homework that came home was indeed in his handwriting, but it was far beyond what I could get him to replicate at home. His after-school speech therapist said his reading comprehension was at a first-grade level. The school’s reports claimed it was at a fourth-grade level. A difference of three grade levels? I couldn’t understand how that was possible.
During virtual school, he was assigned a high school geometry textbook. I returned it in brand-new condition at the end of the year. Geometry? He was only at a second-grade math level as a sophomore in high school. His high school-level English book was also returned untouched at year’s end.
I spent two years of virtual school fighting for more services and support. Our advocate kept encouraging me to look into school choice. It was a difficult decision. I had been told that if we chose the IEA program, our child would lose FAPE rights and all services forever. That was a terrifying thought, and completely untrue, as I later found out.
My only regret with school choice is that we didn’t start earlier. But I had never even heard of it until our advocate mentioned it. Even then, fear of making a mistake and losing services left me with so much decision fatigue that it took over a year for me to say, “Okay, he isn’t progressing like he needs to in public school. What he really needs is an Annie Sullivan. What he has is me. I need to be his Annie.”
It took some trial and error to find the best curriculum for him, which turned out to be a combination of text and video. We utilize spiral learning, revisiting concepts as needed. This isn’t something a student can typically do in public school, but it’s what he needs to keep progressing. We also introduce new concepts in bite-sized pieces. I was shocked last week when I left him with his math homework, I told him to complete two problems and then take a break. It was tough math; we were just getting into four-digit long division. But instead of doing two problems, he completed all 20 problems plus the two story problems on the page. He had never completed a story problem on his own before! But as his reading comprehension has improved, it’s enhanced his math comprehension as well.
Currently, we are in our third year of the program. He is now working through fifth-grade vocabulary, fifth-grade math, and is at a “true” third-grade reading comprehension level.
We are incredibly fortunate to have school choice options in Tennessee. I’m grateful every day that we can teach him in a way that fits his unique learning style. He is making great strides.
We also have the peace of mind that, should we choose to return to public school, he would have access to the services he needs. We’re not anti-public school. We’re pro-school choice because we are pro-Micah.
