I'm brand new here so this may be a LONG post. I have a 12 year old daughter who was diagnosed with OCD in the first grade. While throughout these past few years she has had many flare-ups and complete meltdowns she has had no extra help accedemically or otherwise from the school. I asked more than a few times for her to be tested for a learning disability and testing was never done until this year. She had a servere meltdown around Nov.- Dec. and We went back to the dr. at the schools request. Again she was diagnosed with OCD and now ADD. She has been taking Prozac since her first visit. Her doctor The school finally tested her and let me know she did not have any learning disabillity, only very manipulative and she seeks attention. SHE"S ON PROZAC and she's twelve! Asked for a meeting with teachers to see if atleast she would be eligible for a 504 or some other help. By the way three of her classes have been modified since the start of the school year and she gets A's in them her three other classes are regular classes and she failling. Because of lack of effort on her part according to them. One teacher ecspecially likes to call her out on all her missteps and whatever else she feels my child is doing wrong. I have tried to be the bigger person and listen to everything they have to say, but at the meeting it was pretty obvious they were trying to intimidate me. They had not only the school psyciatrist but the counsler,all 4 6th gade teachers, ( one of which has nothing to do with my child), the nurse, and the principle. I went there in hopes of a program or extra help for my child and was told it was just her bad attitude, lack of effort, bad choice in friends that was holding her back. What do I do now? They all had smiles on thier faces and were very nice the whole time. I have never dealt with anything like this. Any input would help so much.
Thanks,
Christy

Hi Christy,

I just read your post. I don't know if anyone has replied to you directly, but I've noticed that there just aren't that many replies to posts on the message board. It's too bad because this could be a great forum. I think part of the reason may be that most parents join the listserv and post there. I would suggest doing that because I am certain that you will find someone who has gone through something similar.

Cathy

I have a son who is 13 and was diagnosed with ADHD in the 3rd grade. They put him on a point sheet.
I thought everything was going okay until fall of 2007 when he was in 7th grade and they said that he needed to be switched to a different grade school that had more resources, smaller classroom and a teacher who would help him with his ADHD and give him the help to work with it.
The switch was made and I found out 3 months later, that the class he was in, was for children with severe behavior problems and learning disabilities. She told me she didn't have time to teach all the courses She wasn't teaching him any science or social studies. Which at his other school he was getting b's in.
WE had the meeting with all the people that you described you had for your daughter. I demanded that he get the education he deserves. They put him in a main stream science class, and things seemed to be getting better, but once again the school deceived me.
This fall he is in the same classroom and I have found out that he gets no positive feedback. Everytime I talk to the women she has nothing nice to say. She is not educated in teaching children with ADHD. She reminds of the nurse from the movie One Flew Over the Cookoos Nest.
I also found out today from my son, when he goes to mainstream science with 2 of his classmated from the BD class, that they are made to sit in the back of the classroom and get very little attention from the teacher. They are left to do whatever they want as long as they don't disrupt the class. This is the schools way of making me think that they are giving my son the education that he needs.
Most schools don't have the resources to teach our children, so they just label them as bad. This is not good for our childrens self esteem. They are not bad they just need someone who is educated in teaching these children.
I am looking into getting a child advocate, because my son is smart, he just has ADHD and can be disruptive in a classroom. He is not violent or anything like that, but he is very impulsive.

You have to talk to everyone you can. I have a few resources I just received today. I am going to make calls tomorrow. I know they can be pretty expensive, but I am not sure how much they are.
If you are interested, let me know.
Hang in there if we all keep pushing, maybe we can a difference and get our children the education and help that they need.
God Bless You