Hi! Baffled
Have you considered homeschooling? Since your son is 15, do you think he may be able to homeschool himself? If so, you should look up http://www.oakmeadowschool.com. The cost of this may well be worth it for you. Also, I do not know much about this but you should look up Wright's law and maybe go to http://www.SchwabLearning.org message board many of the parents on this message board have successfully sued their school districts for private school tuition(the people on the Schwab message board are very knowledgeable in this area).
Hope This Helps!
I know how you feel. I have a 13 year old daughter that has adhd & dealing with the school system at these ages is VERY difficult. I have had to fight for testing, placement, & the rights that I found, not thought, my child was intitled to. We have just moved our daughter to the 3rd school system. We had to move her, this last time, because she spent half the year in ISS (in school suspension). She was put in there with kids who had severe problems with everything from smoking to sexual acts on the school bus because she couldn't stay in her seat & talked to much, but would not participate in class. I was told that all the school was responsible for was providing her with an education & nothing was done when I pointed out exactly the stuff she was learning from their "education" environment. I know how you feel though it's hard to sit in front of a principal, someone who holds the key to what you need, & they don't want to listen to what you have to say. It's easier to label them a problem & ship them off. Good luck with your son. I can't help with the answer but I hope it helps to know your not the only one going through this, your post helped me.
I just joined this forum today, so I'm posting like mad. I can so sympathize with you and wanted to tell you we removed our 13 yo 2 years ago from a special ed school specifically over academics. (He had been there since Kindergarten). We are homeschooling, and you know what? He loves it! AND we have seen improvements in other areas as well. I have had a number of people tell me how much calmer and happier he seems. Also, because he is not expending so much energy into "behaving himself at school" he is willing to work a little harder on social skills at church and in making friends. He is more social and interacts more fairly when we invite kids over. I definitely feel that he is reaching out more and has less stress. My son is very bright and very motivated as a student. Homeschool for us costs between 0 to 00.00 per year. We use a literature based curriculum, but there are many excellent curriculums out there, some even online and all with varying degrees of parental time investment. It was a good move for us. The only drawback has been that we need to work a little harder and a little more "on purpose" to give him social contacts.