Enrollments

I enrolled both boys in elementary school today. It was kindergarten enrollment day, so I got to fill out thirty minutes of paperwork for David to keep attending a school he already goes to. Go figure.
The bigger event of this morning was going to Drew's speech IEP. If you aren't familiar with that term, IEP stands for individual education plan. After working with our school system, videotaping Drew and waiting, I have gotten him speech services.
Today's meeting was to sign off on his speech goals. And fill out the paperwork for him to be an "itinerant" student. I have sat in on tons of IEP's and signed my name by the "classroom teacher" line. This morning, David's teacher signed by that space and I initialed and signed on all the "parent" lines.
I am so thankful for nice people. The guidance counselor, school psychologist and speech pathologist were all wonderful. See, what I didn't realize when I was teaching was that when it comes to your own kid, especially when they are being flagged as having a problem, it's real easy to get emotional. I kept it together, but there were a few times, when I felt my throat get choked up. When the speech pathologist read about Drew being above average academically and on target socially and emotionally I started to feel the sting of tears. Thank goodness he has those tools. And when she read that if left untreated his stuttering may affect his interpersonal relationships I wanted to cry. But I didn't. It pains me to think of my kid who has so much to say unable to say it at times. So much so, that when other people bring up the stuttering I get pretty prickly.
My biggest lesson that I have taken from this is that you don't really know how something feels unless you have gone through it. As a teacher, I would have seen this as very minor. A speed bump. A hiccup. As a parent, this morning was huge. It was the last step in getting Drew help in becoming more fluent in his speech.