No Openings

Today was Kayla's screening for The Center for Discovery, our first choice placement of schools for her. It's a nationally (internationally?) known private school/residential facility for the disabled. And very hard to get in to.

When I picked her up at school she was elbow deep in shaving cream and not looking too happy about it, LOL. Good thing I left plenty of time!

The meeting went well. Kayla was very well behaved. She just sat on the couches and played with her V-Tech Alphabet Town toy and looked cute while I answered lots of questions about her development, what I want for her future, what I expect from school and therapy, etc. It's a good thing I blog since these things are on my mind a lot!

They were impressed that I had a prepared Vision Statement. (will post later) And that my educational/life philosophies pretty much matched theirs.

But, the bottom line is that there is no opening for her for September.

Gah.

They said they never know when they get an opening. Somone may move or leave the program for some reason. And then they will review their list of waiting applicants to see if they have someone who will be a good fit age and ability wise for the opening.

I did mention that our special ed director was OK with changing Kayla's placement if they should have an opening in the middle of the year. So that's a plus.

The down side is that when we visited the school, they didn't have any young kids there. The kids were all at least 8 years old, nearly all much older. So we may have a long wait.

So, Kayla's off to Orange-Ulster BOCES for the fall and for who knows how long. I'm trying to stay positive and think that at this point, maybe it's better for Kayla to be at BOCES since the kids are much "higher functioning" and at her age it will be good for her to be around more typical peers.

But I want The Center for the future. (yeah, another post later about why)

On my way home from Kayla's screening, I had another "animal sign". I noticed a deer with her fawn trying to cross the road so I stopped my car. The deer had half of her back leg missing. It had apparently been missing for some time, since the wound appeared to be well healed. I was so impressed that the deer could survive and raise a fawn in her condition. As the deer and her fawn were very slowly crossing the road, I saw traffic coming in the opposite direction. The road is hilly, so I didn't know if the traffic could see the deer. I frantically flashed my lights, praying that the vehicles would slow down so the deer could cross. Fortunately, they did and the disabled deer (deer with a disability?) and her fawn made it across safely.

I find it fascinating that The Turtle that I saw after Kayla's screening at BOCES didn't make it, but the deer that I saw after Kayla's screening at The Center did -- with a little help. Does that mean anything? Or maybe I should stop looking for signs in animals crossing the road!