How much???

[bugsmom]

I need your advise on how to go about letting Josh's new school know what his issues are.

In some ways I want them to know all his struggles with his ADD and anxiety, yet on the other hand I don't want him to be labeled before he even gets his foot in the door.

He has never attended public school before, (this school is actually a charter), and he's never had an IEP or 504 in place because his private school was so accommedating in any area we asked. Now I'm thinking that maybe that wasn't such a great idea and we should have done an IEP years ago.

Should I let them know right off the bat with what his main issues are, or just let things progress on thier own? I so want him to have a fresh start...new school, new friends, new teachers...no one to judge him. On the application I did put down he had ADHD, but I just left it at that. I plan on talking to the principle within the next couple weeks, but I don't know what to say.

Any suggestions?

[misty]

I've always been a full disclosure kind of person. Since Shannon has been dx'ed every school she's attended has known her medical history, even before she had an official IEP. Even though she's "labeled" as ADHD & LD, she's never had any problems stemming from being labeled. The school knows of course & in her case most of the kids knew since she was in the resource room pretty often when she attended public school. She still had lots of friends & has never been teased or ostracized. I think its probably in the kid's best interest to have the school aware so that they can deal with any problems that arise in the right way.

[bugsmom]

I agree with you Misty, but I've found with some teachers, the more info they have, they start calling him out on every little issue. I'm actually not too worried about the ADHD stuff, he's come a loooooong way with that. It's his anxiety that is really the big issue now. I want them to be really aware that any kind of negitivity will jump start his anxiety in a second, and that's hard to talk about without them making judgements.

It's such a fine line to walk. I want them to get to know how wonderful, caring, and sensitive my boy is, without a label. This is going to be an interesting year to say the least...lol.

[jill]

I have found my girls teachers to being decent and I have open communication with them. So I would be maybe wait and see a week then have a talk with the teacher.