Negotiating? Well - that's one word for it...

This is one of those good news/bad news scenarios...  The good news is that I finally heard back from the district after my latest letter... The bad news is that they are not (yet) doing anything to satisfy me.  I received a letter responding to my questions - sadly the responses were a bunch of platitudes and a refusal to act.


My first issue was with their response to the training/screening question I posed... I received a copy of a powerpoint used for training of transportation staff for transporting kids with special needs.  The section on autism was woefully inadequate, to the point of being counterproductive.  One bullet point states that the kids with autism don't understand what they (drivers and monitors) are saying to them.  This is so far from reality, as those of us living with autism can attest.  Giving the staff inaccurate information like of this sort does both the students and the staff a huge disservice.  If this is the sort of training materials being used to prep staff to work with special needs kids, I can see why there are issues.


Second, the response letter stated that due to some of the staff not being native english speakers, they do not interact with parents as easily as native English speakers.  (True)  Next it stated that this does not mean they do not communicate - this is where one of the major problems is - some of these staff members DO NOT communicate with parents.  Case in point, the staff of the route that we removed Corey from.  Even after you district management met with them, even after my child's teacher tried a communication notebook to make things easier, there was still no communication from them to me.  The communication difficulty was clearly evident the day of the incident when the monitor could not effectively communicate to me that my son had vomited - she came to the bus steps and told me he had "throwed out" - I had no idea what she meant - my first thought was that she meant he had removed and discarded his new glasses (it was the first day he wore them to school).  I didn't understand that he had vomited until I was on the bus and saw him myself.  Clearly, she was not capable of communicating effectively.  It seems obvious to me that someone in this position MUST be able to communicate effectively with parents and school staff, especially when they are charged with transporting children with communication disabilities.


My final point of concern is the district's refusal to inspect the surveillance equipment on the buses.  For all I know, ALL the cameras/recording devices are broken.  One of the reason's the district gave me to give the driver/monitor team another chance earlier this school year was the reassurance that there were cameras on the buses, and surveillance footage could be pulled in the event of an incident, etc.  The letter I received states that the district can't afford to check the footage daily, which I never suggested - I understand that this is unrealistic.  I simply requested that each bus be checked asap for functioning equipment.  I would even volunteer to do so, at no charge to the district.  If all is in working order, a regular schedule for inspection should be workable, though once a year seems far too lax for a safety measure of this sort.


Well - the input above is basically what I sent back to the district Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent.  Let's see what they have to say next... Stay tuned!