For a lifetime

ARD stands for Admission, Review, and Dismissal. It's as simple acronym that doesn't begin to convey the importance of the event. Parents of children with special needs do not typically look forward to an ARD, and I don't believe teachers do either. In our school district there is an unspoken, yet very present tension between parents and teachers during the ARD process. Teachers know that parents will be asking for things that the school district does not have the money to implement, and parents are feeling that the school district should live up to their expectations of providing an adequate education in the least restrictive environment for their child with special needs. Through a parents eyes: the school district has received money to educate a child with special needs, and when parents ask for services for their children, the powers that be, water down speech therapy, by having it in group sessions, dilute Occupational Therapy by authorizing only an OT consult, and expect the teacher to provide the Occupational Therapy as needed during the course of the day. The teachers have enough to do, please, with all the extra discipline problems that children with special needs have, they're never going to get around to helping a kid, on the one-on-one basis that is needed for a child to improve in any of these critical areas. Deep down you know that these educated people realize this simple fact, they are not providing services in quantities needed to help children in the special ed system. The children that continue to improve and do well, are the children who's parents bridge the gap with services that they pay for privately, out of their own pocket, because they know their child needs the help. While many good and well meaning teachers work hard to do their very best for their students, it is the parents who have the most at stake. Teachers only have these special kids for a time, parents have them for a lifetime.