raising twins,momo twins,monoamniotic,premature,identical,multiples The good, bad & the ugly...real life!: One Grumpy, but Grateful Mama

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

One Grumpy, but Grateful Mama


My little Hudson is developmentally delayed.  In our state children with developmental delays receive services through a non profit agency until they turn three and then turned over to the local school district where they are required to start preschool on their Birthday or the first school day following their Birthday.  He recently turned three, which means that he also started preschool.  I usually comply with the things that I am asked to, as I have with this preschool thing, but I have not been all together happy with it for a couple of reasons. (1) There are only three weeks of school before summer break.  Why not just wait until school starts in the fall? (2) The program is 1/2 special needs and 1/2 "normal" kids.  I really like that idea, but the Federal Government has recently lifted the 15 person per class cap and there are now 25 kids in his class 25, 25!!!!  Not only is that an insane amount of children in the class room, but the class is full of three year olds with special needs.  Since the class is so big that means there is not room for his twin brother because they are only allowing the special needs kids that they are required to by law.  Even though I have been a little grumpy about it I have done what I am supposed to and taken my little guy, all by himself to preschool.  I have actually been enjoying the one on one time with Nick, Hudson has adjusted well and I have been very impressed with his teacher and the program.

This morning things have been a little different.  About an hour after I dropped Hudson off at preschool I received a call from his teacher informing me that he had "gotten away from them".  She said that he had gotten from the classroom, which is in a separate building behind the school, through the parking lot and across the street.  That is not even the worst part.  Someone found him (not sure if it was someone that stopped their car to keep from hitting him or someone came out of their house and just happened to notice him).  Whomever found him had enough time to go around to three or four daycare center/preschools nearby to see if he belonged at any of them and called the police all BEFORE the school noticed that he was missing.  His teacher said he had been missing for about 20 minutes  20 minutes!!!!  There is a busy highway less than 100 feet from the school where the speed limit is 50 mph, which could have been deadly, not to mention if the person that found him could have been a kidnapping pervert, he could have been attacked by a dog, etc...  As you can tell my mind has gone crazy with this one.  My husband was very skeptical of him ever even going to preschool in the first place.  He is young and does not talk well enough to tell us if someone is doing something to him that they shouldn't be or to even know if someone is doing something they shouldn't for that matter.  I assured my husband that the preschool is done through the school district, regulated, background check checks are in place, etc, etc..  It's pretty much as safe as we are going to get and I feel like we need to get our little boy all the help we possibly can.  With that in mind I convinced him that our little boy was going to be safe and we sent him off to preschool.  He was not a happy camper when I called him with the news this morning.  He made the drive from his office to the school in record time where we "hashed things out" with the principal and his teacher.   As for now we came up with a plan of items that are going to be done in order to prevent this type of thing from happening in the future and they are going to let us know when they are all taken care of, we will check it all out and then take him back to preschool.  I really don't blame the teacher.  I think she is doing things as well as she possibly can with the class size that she has.  I would really like to share my concerns with the state or federal government somehow without getting the teacher in trouble.  In the meantime we are very thankful that the situation turned out the way that it did and are certain that he was being watched over.

UPDATE:
I received the incident report from the teacher stating that I dropped him off at 9:00 AM and they discovered that he was missing at 9:40 AM.  They are assuming that he "escaped" shortly after I dropped him off as other parents were bringing their children into the classroom.  The 20 minutes just went to 40.  Not settling so well with me.  I also spoke with the police officer who said that a man driving by saw him and stopped his car.  I'm not sure if he had to stop suddenly to keep from hitting him or if they just noticed him wandering.  I will be forever grateful for this man.  Not only was he not texting or distracted in some other way while he was driving and actually saw my little boy rather than hitting him or just driving past him, but he took the time to get out of his car and take care of my helpless little boy.  I also have no doubt that my baby was being watched over from above.  I think we will be taking a break from preschool while we wrap our minds around this situation.

4 comments:

  1. That's horrible, I would have been furious! Hope everything gets resolved. New follower from the blog hop, look forward to your future posts!

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  2. So overwhelming to read about this! I can't even imagine the fury you must be feeling. I'm glad for the man who stopped, too, knowing things could have turned out much worse. :(

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  3. Oh! This is shocking, to say the least. So let me understand: you cannot get benefits for your child IF he is not enrolled in the public preschool? That hardly seems fair, if that's the case. Three is still so young! And a three year old special needs child is even more vulnerable. I am the mother of a special needs child - well, she just turned 18 in January, but I'm still not used to calling her an adult, LOL. - and I homeschooled her up to the 4th grade. We homeschooled her through a public charter school and she was able to receive all the benefits/special programs that the public school would offer (because it was a public charter school it was funded by the state just as the local public school was). When she reached the 5th grade I felt she could communicate well enough and was mature enough to handle her peers, so it was then that she went to our neighborhood public school. She is just now finishing up the 11th grade and is doing well.

    I realize homeschooling isn't for everyone, but I just thought I'd mention it. It might be another route to go if you have any more incidences like the last one. I just can't imagine having a 3-year-old child in a classroom of 25 other three year olds, especially if half of them had special needs. Like I said, three is so young! Allowing a three year old to wander off down the street is inexcusable. I would have been furious. I am so glad to read that he was not harmed. I really hope they do not let that happen again, to your son or anyone else's child.

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  4. After reading I was still in shock that this could happen. To think of what could have happened just makes me sick. I hope you find out who the nice guy was that found him.
    I'm becoming more and more a fan of homeschooling.

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