Public School for Smalls: should be free but isn't
Donation protected
Hi! I’m Jennifer, mama llama to Smalls (8 years old).
Here’s Smalls: 
Smalls. Is. Awesome.
He says things like, “Here dad, you can have my hot dog. As you know, I had a tremendous breakfast this morning.”
And, upon waking in the morning, “Mom. In the 1960s and 1980s, were television remotes square?”
One time he told me all about how trees talk to each other underground by way of mushrooms. He said when mushrooms popped up that’s how you could tell the trees were having a chat.
He’s built epic box forts. 
He’s a Fortnite nerd and has the flossing skills to prove it.
When I try to play Minecraft with him he builds a swimming pool and tells me to just go swimming while he does all the work.
He’s always walking around with his nose in a book, but somehow manages to avoid stepping on the Lego pieces all over the floor.
He does math for fun (sometimes with markers on the bathroom mirror) and connects numbers in ways I can’t wrap my head around. 
He loves loves loves our doggo, Panda: 
Panda’s pretty smart – he alerts to when Smalls is heading for a meltdown and sometimes intervenes by licking Smalls’ face and just plain old being a cute dog. 
Smalls is a twice exceptional (2E) child – he’s high IQ and a creative thinker, and he also has ADHD and ASD.
Right now our school district is crushing his potential. Not just his potential, but his confidence in himself. He feels like nobody wants him around.
When I think about how much he’s been through in this school district, going all the way back to kindergarten, I want to scream. My little buddy has had such a hard time, and much of it was avoidable.
This Go Fund Me is for legal fees – scraping together a $5,000 retainer so we can hire an attorney can help Smalls (and us) so much. This school year has been really hard. I’m on unpaid intermittent leave from work so that I can be available for symptom flares and therapy/doctor visits (at one point we had 4-6 appointments every week). We did all the fancy math and money for a lawyer is just not there.
Smalls and school is a very long story. The *short* long story is right here if you’d like to read all the twists and turns. If you’re a parent/guardian of a neurodiverse child, a lot of it will probably sound familiar.
We have a couple of big issues:
· On December 3, Smalls had a meltdown and was directed to not return to school. He was immediately “placed on homebound instruction” without due process, or was expelled without due process. The district won’t commit to either and didn’t follow the law with regard to either circumstance. On top of that, the district falsified a functional behavioral assessment date in an attempt to cover for the fact that they didn’t follow the law.
· Smalls is not and has not been placed in his least restrictive environment since October, when he was successful in a self-contained classroom. The district is making it impossible for us to have him move to anything that resembles his least restrictive environment.
· Because of his intellectual abilities, Smalls needs a modified curriculum to meet those needs. I’ve been asking the district to work on that since he was in first grade. Right now he’s doing language arts and social studies with middle schoolers and is a grade level ahead in math. He is capable of doing science and who even knows what else beyond his grade level. Being forced to work at a slower pace is frustrating for him and makes it difficult for him to maintain emotional equilibrium.
· Smalls was expelled from the district-provided aftercare program. They denied our requests for services under his IEP because they maintain that the aftercare program is separate from the district, despite documents and facts that demonstrate the opposite.
· Smalls was bullied in the aftercare program. I brought it to the attention of staff, teachers, his case manager, the principal, and the district’s anti-bullying coordinator (who also happens to be the director of special education services). That bullying went unaddressed and led to Smalls getting expelled from the aftercare program.
We’re beyond the point where I can help Smalls on my own. Nothing this district does makes sense or even attempts to comply with special education law. Our district is notoriously awful when it comes to special education. When I share my story with therapists and people who work in other schools they sigh, nod, and say, “Yeah, it’s Deptford. That explains everything.”
Just last month, the principal where Smalls went to kindergarten was asking for help with the dramatic uptick in students who need services.
The principal characterized a student as “having anger issues” who “screamed at the top of her lungs when things didn’t go her way.” Another was “refusing to take part in lessons.”
The district’s solution, as highlighted in the article above, is typically to send students to private out-of-district schools. This mischaracterization of and misunderstanding about neurodiverse children and how they're treated by our educators makes my blood boil.
By helping Smalls have a bigger voice in changing his circumstances, you’ll also be helping all the other kiddos in our district who also aren’t getting what they need.
Homebound instruction and out-of-district placements aren’t solutions, and too many of our parents are forced to accept them because the services the district should be providing in-house are woefully inadequate.
Smalls can be successful in any school with very minor interventions. He needs a small class size; consistent, non-disruptive schedule; clear rules (Whoa is he rule oriented - he’ll challenge their interpretation better than any lawyer I’ve known. If there’s a loophole, your rule is toast.); a quiet space to calm down when he has sensory overload; school work that matches his academic ability; and a teacher who can help him use his coping skills.
Smalls deserves better than how he is being treated by this district. He’s bright and funny and sweet and kind and has so so much potential to do great things, he just needs to get back into the right educational setting with the supports he needs.
I’m determined to get Smalls the help he needs and if that means I need to humble myself and ask for help, I’ll do that too.
This district is not going to respond to anything but a lawyer. I’ve tried so hard to get them to help Smalls. I’ve spent countless hours researching and writing letters and begging the district to do what’s right. I’ve utilized every resource provided to me that we could afford. I’ve reached out to the school board and the superintendent and the county superintendent of schools. I’ve contacted the ACLU (call me back please!).
**************************************
I can’t even begin to tell you how uncomfortable I am asking for help. We’re doing this Go Fund Me at the urging of our friends, with whom I’ve been sharing our story since the beginning (kindergarten, three years ago, when we had to pull Smalls out of school and place him on homebound instruction after his principal injured him by dragging him across the room by his wrists). (Yes, that principal up there in the article.)
I’m stubborn and proud and to be completely honest I can’t even believe we’re in a place where we have to spend thousands of dollars to access a “free” appropriate public school education. It makes me so angry because it would take so little effort to just get Smalls what he needs.
I thought hard about a way to make this less like asking for help and more like earning it, and what I came up with was art. In 30 days Smalls will draw names from the donors and give out 10 pieces of happy art as thank you gifts. I wish I could give art to everyone who donates (and who knows, maybe I’ll get less than 10 donors and have extra art hanging around the house lol) but I’m up to my eyeballs in therapy appointments and school nonsense and working full time when I can so 10 is the number I think is manageable.
Happy art:  
I’ll share progress updates and am in the process of writing up a tutorial so you can make your own happy art which I'll also share!
Thank you so so much for supporting Smalls and our family – it means the world to us.
I hope by doing this Go Fund Me and sharing our story, it shows other parents/guardians that they CAN advocate for their neurodiverse kiddos. You CAN say no and ask for more than is offered and ask questions and move things up the food chain until your child has everything they need and are entitled to have. You don't have to accept "we don't have that here" for an answer.
I’ll be providing regular updates on both the happy art and how Smalls is doing. I’ll also be sharing resources in the updates so that if you’re in NJ you don’t have to learn the hard way how to find help like we did.
If you're not inclined/able to donate no worries, I appreciate your reading all of this and would love it if you shared.
Here’s Smalls: 
Smalls. Is. Awesome.
He says things like, “Here dad, you can have my hot dog. As you know, I had a tremendous breakfast this morning.”
And, upon waking in the morning, “Mom. In the 1960s and 1980s, were television remotes square?”
One time he told me all about how trees talk to each other underground by way of mushrooms. He said when mushrooms popped up that’s how you could tell the trees were having a chat.
He’s built epic box forts. 
He’s a Fortnite nerd and has the flossing skills to prove it.
When I try to play Minecraft with him he builds a swimming pool and tells me to just go swimming while he does all the work.
He’s always walking around with his nose in a book, but somehow manages to avoid stepping on the Lego pieces all over the floor.
He does math for fun (sometimes with markers on the bathroom mirror) and connects numbers in ways I can’t wrap my head around. 
He loves loves loves our doggo, Panda: 
Panda’s pretty smart – he alerts to when Smalls is heading for a meltdown and sometimes intervenes by licking Smalls’ face and just plain old being a cute dog. 
Smalls is a twice exceptional (2E) child – he’s high IQ and a creative thinker, and he also has ADHD and ASD.
Right now our school district is crushing his potential. Not just his potential, but his confidence in himself. He feels like nobody wants him around.
When I think about how much he’s been through in this school district, going all the way back to kindergarten, I want to scream. My little buddy has had such a hard time, and much of it was avoidable.
This Go Fund Me is for legal fees – scraping together a $5,000 retainer so we can hire an attorney can help Smalls (and us) so much. This school year has been really hard. I’m on unpaid intermittent leave from work so that I can be available for symptom flares and therapy/doctor visits (at one point we had 4-6 appointments every week). We did all the fancy math and money for a lawyer is just not there.
Smalls and school is a very long story. The *short* long story is right here if you’d like to read all the twists and turns. If you’re a parent/guardian of a neurodiverse child, a lot of it will probably sound familiar.
We have a couple of big issues:
· On December 3, Smalls had a meltdown and was directed to not return to school. He was immediately “placed on homebound instruction” without due process, or was expelled without due process. The district won’t commit to either and didn’t follow the law with regard to either circumstance. On top of that, the district falsified a functional behavioral assessment date in an attempt to cover for the fact that they didn’t follow the law.
· Smalls is not and has not been placed in his least restrictive environment since October, when he was successful in a self-contained classroom. The district is making it impossible for us to have him move to anything that resembles his least restrictive environment.
· Because of his intellectual abilities, Smalls needs a modified curriculum to meet those needs. I’ve been asking the district to work on that since he was in first grade. Right now he’s doing language arts and social studies with middle schoolers and is a grade level ahead in math. He is capable of doing science and who even knows what else beyond his grade level. Being forced to work at a slower pace is frustrating for him and makes it difficult for him to maintain emotional equilibrium.
· Smalls was expelled from the district-provided aftercare program. They denied our requests for services under his IEP because they maintain that the aftercare program is separate from the district, despite documents and facts that demonstrate the opposite.
· Smalls was bullied in the aftercare program. I brought it to the attention of staff, teachers, his case manager, the principal, and the district’s anti-bullying coordinator (who also happens to be the director of special education services). That bullying went unaddressed and led to Smalls getting expelled from the aftercare program.
We’re beyond the point where I can help Smalls on my own. Nothing this district does makes sense or even attempts to comply with special education law. Our district is notoriously awful when it comes to special education. When I share my story with therapists and people who work in other schools they sigh, nod, and say, “Yeah, it’s Deptford. That explains everything.”
Just last month, the principal where Smalls went to kindergarten was asking for help with the dramatic uptick in students who need services.
The principal characterized a student as “having anger issues” who “screamed at the top of her lungs when things didn’t go her way.” Another was “refusing to take part in lessons.”
The district’s solution, as highlighted in the article above, is typically to send students to private out-of-district schools. This mischaracterization of and misunderstanding about neurodiverse children and how they're treated by our educators makes my blood boil.
By helping Smalls have a bigger voice in changing his circumstances, you’ll also be helping all the other kiddos in our district who also aren’t getting what they need.
Homebound instruction and out-of-district placements aren’t solutions, and too many of our parents are forced to accept them because the services the district should be providing in-house are woefully inadequate.
Smalls can be successful in any school with very minor interventions. He needs a small class size; consistent, non-disruptive schedule; clear rules (Whoa is he rule oriented - he’ll challenge their interpretation better than any lawyer I’ve known. If there’s a loophole, your rule is toast.); a quiet space to calm down when he has sensory overload; school work that matches his academic ability; and a teacher who can help him use his coping skills.
Smalls deserves better than how he is being treated by this district. He’s bright and funny and sweet and kind and has so so much potential to do great things, he just needs to get back into the right educational setting with the supports he needs.
I’m determined to get Smalls the help he needs and if that means I need to humble myself and ask for help, I’ll do that too.
This district is not going to respond to anything but a lawyer. I’ve tried so hard to get them to help Smalls. I’ve spent countless hours researching and writing letters and begging the district to do what’s right. I’ve utilized every resource provided to me that we could afford. I’ve reached out to the school board and the superintendent and the county superintendent of schools. I’ve contacted the ACLU (call me back please!).
**************************************
I can’t even begin to tell you how uncomfortable I am asking for help. We’re doing this Go Fund Me at the urging of our friends, with whom I’ve been sharing our story since the beginning (kindergarten, three years ago, when we had to pull Smalls out of school and place him on homebound instruction after his principal injured him by dragging him across the room by his wrists). (Yes, that principal up there in the article.)
I’m stubborn and proud and to be completely honest I can’t even believe we’re in a place where we have to spend thousands of dollars to access a “free” appropriate public school education. It makes me so angry because it would take so little effort to just get Smalls what he needs.
I thought hard about a way to make this less like asking for help and more like earning it, and what I came up with was art. In 30 days Smalls will draw names from the donors and give out 10 pieces of happy art as thank you gifts. I wish I could give art to everyone who donates (and who knows, maybe I’ll get less than 10 donors and have extra art hanging around the house lol) but I’m up to my eyeballs in therapy appointments and school nonsense and working full time when I can so 10 is the number I think is manageable.
Happy art:  
I’ll share progress updates and am in the process of writing up a tutorial so you can make your own happy art which I'll also share!
Thank you so so much for supporting Smalls and our family – it means the world to us.
I hope by doing this Go Fund Me and sharing our story, it shows other parents/guardians that they CAN advocate for their neurodiverse kiddos. You CAN say no and ask for more than is offered and ask questions and move things up the food chain until your child has everything they need and are entitled to have. You don't have to accept "we don't have that here" for an answer.
I’ll be providing regular updates on both the happy art and how Smalls is doing. I’ll also be sharing resources in the updates so that if you’re in NJ you don’t have to learn the hard way how to find help like we did.
If you're not inclined/able to donate no worries, I appreciate your reading all of this and would love it if you shared.
Organizer
Jennifer Lynn
Organizer
Wenonah, NJ
