Today is Tuesday, August 16th. For the most part, it was a pretty smooth day. I would put a hash mark in the Good Day column. At least until 6 o’clock tonight. Perspective and managing your expectations helps.

Today all my students showed up, on time, healthy. We did some productive work and accomplished most things on my lesson plan. We even finished a fun art project to display for Back To School Night. Whining, crying and complaining were limited (and only to adults). All extra meetings and interruptions were saved for lunch time and the end of the day.

See…a Good Day.

Then I am sitting at home, preparing my agenda and necessary materials for Back To School Night tomorrow night. I am bored of what I have used in the past, and I  have repeat parents for several years (like you tend to in Special Ed), so I just felt motivated to mix things up this year, have fresh handouts and go about sharing classroom news differently.

That’s when the dreaded email chirp sounded. Just like you can tell when you phone rings that it is not good news calling, I just sensed that this particular chirp was NOT GOOD! You know how I find out when I am getting a new student? It typically comes in the form of a call from the front office during my school day letting me know my new student’s parents just came in to fill out the enrollment paperwork. “But that’s typically how new students to the school district are registered.” Yes, that’s true. But rarely (in that I have never heard of it happening) does a family with a child having severe special needs just walk into a school office requesting to enroll their student. They always go to the District Special Ed office, fill out paperwork, supply a copy of their current Individual Education Plan (IEP) from their former school. At that point they are put in contact with a program specialist, who reviews the IEP, meets with the parents, and together they decided which program is appropriate.

You would think at this point the teacher in charge of that program would be informed. Wish that was true, but at least we a few days notice of their start date, when the parents come into the school office, fill out additional ‘school specific’ paperwork and a start date is picked.

Either that all happened in the span of a couple of hours this afternoon, or someone dropped the ball, but a new school day starts in approximately 12 hours, I received an email letting me know tonight, and all the information I have includes the gender and first name of my new student!

Off to finish preparing for my new student…the OT hours are starting to add up!