Preschool Update

This post has raised a lot of eyebrows, not to mention blood pressure, so I decided to give you all an update on the situation.  Hudson finished out last two weeks of the school year at the preschool where he escaped.  I can't say that it went great or even good, but it was ok.  It was a bit unsettling dropping him off each day and I would hold my breath and say a lot of prayers until I picked him up. Every time I would drive close to the school I would see another hazardous scenario that could have happened when he escaped.  I have some serious doubts about him going back to the same preschool in the fall.  Not only is the safety issue a big factor, but a couple of other issues have come up:

1. If he stays at this preschool it is not likely that he will be in the same class as his brother.  The teacher informed me that the principal has some very strong feelings against twins being in the same class and if they do allow Nick to go to that preschool they boys will be there on alternating days.  I have very strong feelings about keeping them together, as does the school psychologist.  At some point I am sure that they will need or want to be in separate classes, but I am not about to start them out that way as three year olds because the principal had a bad experience with a set of twins being in the same class 25 years ago.

2. I have discovered that the same type of preschool that neighbors the boundries of the preschool that Hudson has been going to has an average of seven students each day. Occasionally there are ten students in the class with one teacher and two aides, but most days they have six or seven students.  Much better than 27 students with one teacher and three aides.

With all factors involved I am going to be doing a little bit of homework over the summer involving the school district and/or the state or federal department of Special Education and hopefully getting things ironed out before school starts in August.

All of these pictures were taken on the same block as the school where my little boy 

was wandering around by himself and missing for 40 minutes before it was noticed that he was gone.

Construction Site-when he escaped it was just a foundation that went down approx. 15 feet.

Creek #1-running very high & fast

Creek #2

Creek #3

Highway-Not real busy when this was taken.  The speed limit is

 50mph and it is a main thoroughfair into the city.

The school is the building toward the back.

Creepy looking trailer park

Another stream in the trees

Abandoned house

Behind the school

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.