Cases of corona virus still high in Santa Ana so this year Back To School Night is done thru Zoom. The school principal Mrs. Roque and assistant principal Mr. Merkt and counselors talked about the school, mostly about the safety measures for 30 minutes. Then we joined different zoom meeting with Mr. Castenada, who is William’s teacher. He talked a bit about himself and the goal of the class.
This school year William will be a 2nd grader. How fast time flies! His teacher is still Mr. Castenada from the first grade.
First day of school Aug 16, 2021. This year Santa Ana district decided to start school earlier than previous years: usually the first day of school began after the Labor Day but this year it started before the Labor Day.
Unaware of this change, we planned our trip to Hawaii from 8/12-8/16, thus William missed the first day of school. Then when we got back, the school said William has to self-quarantine for 14 days, which means he cannot go to school until Monday 8/30/2021.
Not only school, TasKids where we have the ABA sessions, also demanded that everyone in our family to take a Covid-19 tests after 3 days we got back from our trip; and they resume sessions only if the test is negative.
We made appointment with Walgreens for all 3 of us on Saturday 8/21. Today is Monday but still have not received the results yet, I guess because we were tested on the weekend, it’d take longer to get the result back.
After 1 week and a half of waiting, calling back and forth Ms. Lisa (Santa Ana school district transportation coordinator ), teacher Mr. Casteneda, and the Transportation department, finally we got a call from the Santa Ana school district transportation on Tuesday, saying that they’d pick up William in the morning at 6:55 AM and drop him off at 1:15 PM, starting tomorrow (Wednesday).
I was worried that he could not wake up that early but this morning when I woke him up around 6:20 AM, and I mentioned the school bus, he just jumped out of the bed! He brushed teeth without me asking so many times like usual. Then he had a little bit time left to eat cereal and milk before the bus came.
We saw the bus coming toward to our house, he ran around to the front yard, looking so excitedly. When the bus driver opened the door, he got in so fast and looked for the seat in the middle of the bus. The bus driver made sure he had seat belt on and then took his backpack to the front. I asked if it’s ok for him to hold on to his backpack because there’s tissue box in there; he has allergy and might need it. She said “OK, thanks for letting me know” and she gave him the backpack back.
I waved as the bus leaving, but he was looking at the window on the other side.
7:30 A.M, I drove to school just to see how he behaved when get off the bus. Just before 8:00 AM, I saw his teacher Vanessa was holding his hand and heading toward the school gate. He looked fine. Call me crazy mom but I guess I’m worried too much. He’s a smart boy, and he does not need his mom to hold his hands to go to school anymore.
After more than a year of shut down because of the pandemic Covid-19, and William had to attend on-line classes, now he can go back to school in person for summer school. He’s so excited!
Jefferson school is about 15 minutes away from our house, it’s not too far; but now that he’s old enough we decided to let him take the bus. A week ago I asked if he wants to take the bus to school, he said Yes.
Summer school starts from 8:00 AM – 12:15 PM. They will not serve breakfast and lunch, they will provide snacks to be eaten in the classroom only. For lunch they’ll pack it and we take the food home.
7:00 AM I texted Mr. C to make sure he knows that William is allergic to peanut. William has been with Mr. C since Nov last year but because it’s always online meetings so I wanted to make sure he’s aware of that. He replied back that William is not assigned to his class for summer, but he’d let his new teacher knows. “What’s William’s teacher name?” – I asked. “Mrs. Rodriguez” – he replied.
I woke him up around 7:00 AM: he asked for breaks as usual before brushing teeth. I told him about the school plan of not serving breakfast ,and that he has to finish breakfast before the school bus comes so that we won’t be late for the bus. He had a cup of milk and half cup of the cereal. We waited and waited but there was no sign of the bus. 10 minutes before 8:00 AM, I called the school and they said the bus was running late as it was the first day of the school, and they told us to be patient. 10 minutes pass 8:00 AM, I decided to take William to school by car.
By the time we arrived, there was only few students and their parents were there; I guess the rest already came to their classrooms. The lady took us to the office, she asked for his name and tried to find out who’s his teacher. We waited for about 10 minutes and his teacher came out to take William to classroom: William was so eager to go with her. I also gave William’s medicine to the lady, asking her to give it to the school nurse. I asked her why the bus did not come to pick up William; she gave me the school district transportation number to call.
So I called the number (714-558-5811), got the mail box, I left the message. 30 minutes later I called again, a lady picked up and said William is not in their list to pick up!
Feeling lost I called the school again (This is impossible because I did ask Mr. C to give us the transportation and he said OK), this time they gave me the transportation coordinator number (Mrs. Lisa 657-289-5919). I called, her mail box was full I could not leave a message. 20 minutes later I called again, this time she picked up; I told her that William was not in the bus pick up list. She said something about the transportation is not provided for home school student, which really confused me! Then she said she was driving, and that when she got to her computer she’d find out why William is not getting the transportation. So I waited for her call.
As I was driving to the Optometry, Mrs. Lisa called. She said for some reason William name was not there so she requested the transportation office to add his name in. This would take a few days so probably he won’t be able to ride the bus until next Monday!
Things never come easy to us, isn’t it? I took the day off today from work mainly to renew my passport, but it turned out I had to deal with the school bus issue.
On the way back from the Optometry, I stopped by at Costco to buy William a hot dog and churro for lunch, then drove directly to school. It was 11:30 AM, I was so early so I stood in the shade waiting for his class to over at 12:15 PM.
12:17 PM, I saw he was walking with his classmates and teacher toward the gate. He ran toward me when he saw me. He did not seem to be happy at all, so I asked if he liked his class, he said “Yes”. I gave him the lemonade and the hot dog to eat while on the way home, but he said “I’m full!” and refused to eat; but when I offered him churro, he took it right away.
1:30 PM, Mr. C called to say sorry; he just did not understand why he filled out the same paperwork for Williams as his classmates but all his classmates got the transportation but not him. The class roster also said he has transportation. So somehow the transportation office did not get the request for William’s transportation. I guess this is why we never get a call from them about the pick up time; the one question that I asked Mr. C twice “What time the buss will come to pick up William?”. Mr. C was surprised that I did not get any call from them. Now we knew why!
So his first day went well to him, I think. He asked why the bus did not come today. I told him the bus will pick up him next week; so this week we’d drive to school. He kept asking Why? I simply told him that we needed to register for the school bus to pick up; and that takes time. Poor little boy, he was so excited to take the bus today!
Thursday Oct 29, 2020.
We had the annual IEP meeting few days ago thru the Google Meet with Mrs. Newman Heather, Mrs. Principle, his speech and OT teachers from Abraham Lincoln elementary school, and Mr. Castaneda from Thomas Jefferson school because William would turn 7th year old soon. At first I did not know why Mr. C was there but soon I found out the reason; and that came to me as a surprise.
I think it was about a month ago when the Mrs. Newman asked if I had any input/suggestions/comments about this whole thing of distance learning because of the Corona virus; I said that William might be bored because the routine is the same every day. All I was hoping that Mrs. Newman can run the class a bit different each day so that it’s less boring. Back then when he went to school in person, I have no idea what was going on in the physical classroom. Now that William is at home learning thru the Google Meet; and I’m there with him every day, I know exactly what’s going on. He most of the time tried to get off the chair and play with his toy: I always had to re-direct him back to the chair,
“I don’t want to sing!
I don’t want to select a song!
I don’t want to talk about feeling!” – It was almost everyday that William refused to participate.
That’s why I made that comment to his teacher. Mrs. Newman then said if I was thinking about moving him to a different class. I felt bad because I thought she took it the wrong way; I did not mean to hurt her feelings at all.
Then after that Mrs. Newman did not mention anything about the new class; and I also forgot about that conversation.
Back to the IEP meeting, just like last year IEP meeting, Mrs. Newman went thru William’s goals and said that he mastered all his goals; and she set the new goals for him. Then all of sudden she introduced Mr. Castaneda! Mrs. Newman started with William’s reading level is at the 2nd grade; he can count to 100 with no problem while his classmates can only count up to 30; he can do addition and subtraction math with single digit fine. And then she recommended to transfer William to a less severe school, Jefferson elementary school. That was when I realized why Mr. C was invited to the meeting, because he was gonna be William’s new teacher! Mrs. Newman asked if I agree to transfer William. I hesitated for a bit because I was worried that William might not like the change, that he would not fit in with the new class; but I also knew that if William stays in this class, he will not learn anything new because his level is higher than his classmates.
Mr. Castaneda started to talk about his class, that this class is for moderate autism; the class size is small also but the difference is that it focuses more on the grade curriculum. I’ve been always wondering what would they teach in the normal class; and if William can go to the normal class so that he can learn the same thing that the 1st graders are learning so that he will not be behind on his academic level, but at the same time I’m worried that William cannot survive in a 25 or more children classroom: I did not know that there’s class for Autism kids that focus on the curriculum! Mr. Castaneda’s class is what I’ve been looking for for William all along; so I agreed!
Which also meant that was the end of Mrs. Newman’s classes for William! Tears came to my eyes! I said “Thank You” to Mrs. Newman and everyone else, knowing that I would not see them again. William was expected to be in his new class the next week which meant he had 1 last day with Mrs. Newman and his classmates on Friday.
Later at night, I told William about his new class, he said “OK”. He took it so well that I was kinda surprised. I was not sure if he really understood what it meant.
Friday came, toward the end of the class, Mrs. Newman played a song to say good bye to William. She’s so thoughtful; Ms. Birdie and Ms. Sandy too. We love them all! I’m sad to say good bye to them. They’re very dedicated teachers who are willing to go out of their way for their students; I still can’t thank Ms. Birdie enough to pick up the Chrome book for William at school and dropped it off at our house.
Monday Nov 2, 2020
William was supposed to start the new class today (school still conducts classes via online due to Covid-19 pandemic) but we still had no information about the class. Mr. Castaneda promised to send us info over the weekend but he did not. It was 7:00 AM in the morning, I texted Mrs. Newman about my concern. She got back to me right away saying that she’d contact Mr. C for me.
Later Mr. C called me and said that it’s best for William to start on Tuesday because he did not have the class materials yet; and that I we could come to the school to pick up his material around noon. I said Yes. So at noon, Tim drove William and me to the Jefferson school; it’s about 15 minutes away from our house. I met Mr. C in person at the gate, he looks more friendly in person than from the online video meeting :). He gave me the class materials and an enrollment form to transfer William to this new school.
Tuesday Nov 3, 2020
It was William’s first day with the new class. Mr. C introduced William with the class, there was only 3 more kids about his age; and I don’t think they really paid much attention about William’s presence. They all seemed very talkative. Mr. C has 3 teacher aid but they’re very passive: all the time Mr. C was talking while the teacher aids just sat there and listening, unlike Ms. Birdie and Ms. Sandy.
The class starts at 8:30 AM. Mr. C played some Good Morning songs from You Tube, then followed with the Social Story which was about using the Polite words. This first session ended at 9:00 AM. Then at 10:00 AM it was math, and reading and some grammar about Noun; the class ended at 11:30 AM.
William survived the first day of class with no problem. Now that I know what’s Mr. C is teaching in the class, I’m relieved because I know William can handle it: reading is about his level; he might have a hard time with words math because it’s the first time for him. But I know William is a very smart boy, with a little bit of help, I’m sure he can understand words math soon.
So that’s how William got transferred to a new school to be at his academic level.
As a Mom, I could not be happier :).