My family has moved three times in the last five years for my husband's work. We have been from the East Coast to the mid-west, back to a rental on the East Coast, and finally, last summer, to a house in the same neighborhood as our rental after we sold our mid-west property. My son, now 8, is extremely shy. Every year we ask if he should be evaluated for selective mutism (talking in one setting but not others - an anxiety disorder), but because my son functions and communicates well at school, the teachers just say they will closely monitor his social skills. When we moved back East, our neighborhood school was full, so they sent our son to another school. He has had two wonderful years there! He gets good grades, and his social skills are slowly improving. He absolutely LOVES his school and has a circle of close friends. A letter came today stating that because of budget cuts, my son will lose his transportation. My husband and I both work - we leave at 8:15 after our son gets on his bus. He is not allowed to be at his school until 8:45, so neither one of us can drive him there, because we would be late for work. There is no early arrival child care provided. Has anyone been in this situation before? Is there anything we can do? I would be willing to drive him to a different bus stop, but it sounds like there may not be any available seats for kids who live outside of the attendance area. I know kids are flexible, but after moving around so much, I truly believe that switching schools again would be detrimental to his development.
Our neighborhood school is extremely large (just finshed renovations so now they have space for more kids)and I feel he would be lost there. His current school is much smaller. Thanks for reading all this! Just wanted to add that I work as a teaching assistant in a different school district and have to clock in at 8:30 every morning. Also, all of his friends take the bus, and although a few parents are willing to let my son get dropped off at their house and ride with their children, the bus company will not allow it . Only kids in our school's attendance area can ride the bus.The only schools in our district that offer before school care will no longer be transporting kids to our son's school.
Can you find a sitter than lives within the school's area? What is the school's policy? When I was a kid, we moved within the school district, but we ended up going to a babysitter so my brother could stay at the same elementary school for the remedial reading teacher (I was in middle school so it didn't matter)
Talk to your work and see if you can come in a half hour later and skip your lunches on school days.
My daughter was in a special ed program called BOCES. BOCES rents
out classrooms in various schools. During her elementary years she was
in a different school every year. She did well considering her learning
disabilities and social skills. We worry more than the kids. You do what you have to do. Your son will take his cues from you. If you discuss it
and are upset about it, he will be too. P.S. My daughter is a surgical
tech (scrub nurse) in the OR. an EMT and volunteer firefighter. So as you
can see she did well considering six differnet schools.
I assume you know the parents of your son's classmates. Call around and ask if anyone would be willing to have him show up 30 minutes early and get him to school. You can even offer to pick and drop the other child off at their home.
Do you know anyone that might be willing to drive him? Maybe even 2 or 3 people, so they could rotate?
Could you talk to your boss about coming in later, but staying later?
Good luck!! =o)
Hi Rita:
A mother had a transportation problem
for her child and put out that she needed
transportion to and from the school.
I responded and took her child and her
sister's child to and from the school.
They paid me gas money.
I was not employed and wanted to give back to my
community and also help 2 young children and their
mothers.
I could have babysitted the children but their was no need for
that because the father was disabled and took care of the
child when the mother left for work.
If there are any daycare places where you can put out
information for assistance or even on this site.
If I lived close by, I would gladly help you out.
All the Best.
D.
Find a morning daycare in the district where they take him to school.
Talk to your boss or have hubby talk to his, can one of you work a late shift and come home later?
Moving at 8 is better than moving at 14. If this is the last one then he will be OK, it may take another year or two to get him back to where he is now, but he is still only going into 2nd or 3rd. THere is plenty of time to get adjusted to the new elementary school.
So explain all this to your school administrators. If you don't speak up, they won't know you have a special circumstance. If your school is anything like mine, they are doing the best they can when it comes to budget cuts but there are exceptions to the rule. They may have a form you can fill out to request special services. I say, first thing in the morning, contact your district and find out what you can do. Maybe even get a doctors note explaining the anxiety issue if that is going to help your case. Good luck!
I feel for you and hope that a situation presents itself soon. Maybe you can barter with another parent who is carpooling in the same direction to drop your son off and you can do the pick-up duty, etc. (or some other kind of arrangement whether it's financial... or some other service, etc.. childcare for a date night on the weekend, etc....I barter piano lessons for everything from my baby's crib to babysitting, etc....)
If possible, maybe in the future you can transfer to his school district or even school, so you're already headed in the same direction..
Good luck! I hope everything works out.
is there another parent you could pay? you really should start asking around
I have a friend who when she was a stay at home mom made a bit of extra money by picking up kids and shuttling them to different places when the parents were unable because of work schedules. Try to see if you can find someone like that...or do a carpool with another family with you or your husband picking up. My kids' school has required carpooling and once we get the details worked out it is GREAT and it teaches the kids to be green.
Child care facilities will transport kids to and from school if you get the child there in time for the van. I have driven the van many times after breakfast and took kids to many local schools. Contact the school you like and ask them which child care facilities come to their school. Otherwise you are going to have to find a parent that will let you bring your son to them and them transport him to and from school to their house.
I took a friends daughter to Head Start, 7 miles across town, every day for nearly 2 years. I charged her for gasoline and the hour before school. Her dad got off work the same time school got out so he was there to pick the daughter up shortly after school was out.
