REALLY! It's Come To This! Please Help!
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Hello everyone!
Imagine your child had been in a private school in a general education class since they were 3. Imagine your child was thriving, happy, had friends and was learning so much! Imagine at 4 ½ your public school tells you they are going to sue you unless you put your child in their special needs class. Imagine your child ages out of the private school at 6 years old, your child just turned 6 and you are left with the school district who has sued you without your child’s best interest in mind. What would you do? Would you fight? What if fighting cost thousands and there was no guarantees you would win. What if you found a nearby city that may offer what your child needs? Would you move? Well, I left out one detail, imagine your child has Down syndrome and inclusion is not the norm where you live. This has been our journey with our child thus far. Would you have put your child in a placement where they didn't belong? Why should we? To protect our son and continue on the educational path we knew best for him, we waived our rights to special education and homeschooled while looking for another district (our son is reading & approaching writing!) and yes, we moved. It was not easy though, after 15 years of staying home and raising our other son with Autism & ADHD, we have little to no savings and were not sure how we were going to move. We were turned down for 5 houses in the city & school district we needed to move to & it seemed hopeless with our income, credit and lack of savings. However, when all seemed lost, we got a call that we had been accepted to a house, a beautiful house but the rent was $1000 OVER what we were paying. Could we? Should we? In the best interest of our son we went for it. We moved, settled, and after long assessments, IEP’s, an Advocate, our son will be fully included in first grade the next school year! All seemed well except we were struggling so severely financially, it was too stressful for me to enjoy much! Then we found out the owners were planning on moving back by the end of our lease, the house never felt like ours again. The process seemed daunting; finding another home, now IN THE SAME SCHOOL ZONE, for less rent, and with not perfect credit, I am mentally & physically exhausted. However, as fate may have it a house suddenly came up for rent two doors down AND the rent is $600 less a month! I went out on a limb and called, filled out the application, met owners and after an approval process, they accepted us! It seems like a miracle! With one exception, we don’t have the $2000 deposit. We tried negotiating, speaking to our current owner and searching for ways to work it out but none successful yet. The benefit of the new home is the owners are kind, we can work on having some savings, pay down debt, remain in the home long term and our sons attend school where they are both getting what they need but MORE than that the stress level will be greatly reduced to be in a home we can now afford! I should mention our older son is currently mainstreamed from an Autistic class, we chose different journeys for each as an individual.
A little about us; My husband is a hardworking man who has been employed for many years, works many hours to keep us afloat and is a wonderful Dad. I am a stay at home Mom with our two boys mentioned above. I am a local Parent Mentor, have started & facilitated support groups in our area as well as online (CAPODS Facebook group), was on the Executive Board of Up For Down DSALA and have volunteered many hours in my special needs community. I may not be in a position to pay anyone back since I gave up my career to be home with my boys who need me but pay kindness forward daily and through my volunteer work with a community that I love so dearly.
The new owners have given us until July 21st to raise the deposit, they are holding the house for us! We are embarrassed, to say the least to be in a position to ask for help. However we realize there are some times when you just have to ask for help and this is certainly one of those times! Thank you in advance for your help, we will always remain grateful!
Imagine your child had been in a private school in a general education class since they were 3. Imagine your child was thriving, happy, had friends and was learning so much! Imagine at 4 ½ your public school tells you they are going to sue you unless you put your child in their special needs class. Imagine your child ages out of the private school at 6 years old, your child just turned 6 and you are left with the school district who has sued you without your child’s best interest in mind. What would you do? Would you fight? What if fighting cost thousands and there was no guarantees you would win. What if you found a nearby city that may offer what your child needs? Would you move? Well, I left out one detail, imagine your child has Down syndrome and inclusion is not the norm where you live. This has been our journey with our child thus far. Would you have put your child in a placement where they didn't belong? Why should we? To protect our son and continue on the educational path we knew best for him, we waived our rights to special education and homeschooled while looking for another district (our son is reading & approaching writing!) and yes, we moved. It was not easy though, after 15 years of staying home and raising our other son with Autism & ADHD, we have little to no savings and were not sure how we were going to move. We were turned down for 5 houses in the city & school district we needed to move to & it seemed hopeless with our income, credit and lack of savings. However, when all seemed lost, we got a call that we had been accepted to a house, a beautiful house but the rent was $1000 OVER what we were paying. Could we? Should we? In the best interest of our son we went for it. We moved, settled, and after long assessments, IEP’s, an Advocate, our son will be fully included in first grade the next school year! All seemed well except we were struggling so severely financially, it was too stressful for me to enjoy much! Then we found out the owners were planning on moving back by the end of our lease, the house never felt like ours again. The process seemed daunting; finding another home, now IN THE SAME SCHOOL ZONE, for less rent, and with not perfect credit, I am mentally & physically exhausted. However, as fate may have it a house suddenly came up for rent two doors down AND the rent is $600 less a month! I went out on a limb and called, filled out the application, met owners and after an approval process, they accepted us! It seems like a miracle! With one exception, we don’t have the $2000 deposit. We tried negotiating, speaking to our current owner and searching for ways to work it out but none successful yet. The benefit of the new home is the owners are kind, we can work on having some savings, pay down debt, remain in the home long term and our sons attend school where they are both getting what they need but MORE than that the stress level will be greatly reduced to be in a home we can now afford! I should mention our older son is currently mainstreamed from an Autistic class, we chose different journeys for each as an individual.
A little about us; My husband is a hardworking man who has been employed for many years, works many hours to keep us afloat and is a wonderful Dad. I am a stay at home Mom with our two boys mentioned above. I am a local Parent Mentor, have started & facilitated support groups in our area as well as online (CAPODS Facebook group), was on the Executive Board of Up For Down DSALA and have volunteered many hours in my special needs community. I may not be in a position to pay anyone back since I gave up my career to be home with my boys who need me but pay kindness forward daily and through my volunteer work with a community that I love so dearly.
The new owners have given us until July 21st to raise the deposit, they are holding the house for us! We are embarrassed, to say the least to be in a position to ask for help. However we realize there are some times when you just have to ask for help and this is certainly one of those times! Thank you in advance for your help, we will always remain grateful!
Organizer
Monica Marie Mcfadden
Organizer
