So onward with Part 2. Still a wee bit of a lead-up to read through to let you all understand that a number of cases that DCYF MUST take on aren’t all that straightforward. Thus, I’m only concentrating on the Barnstead District and our two Littles and the Special Education services they both needed. Two entities were involved providing services
- the Early Intervention Services folks at the Laconia Family Resource Center
- Barnstead School District SAU 86
The former did a splendid job with the younger girl. By the time she was reunited with Mom a couple of weeks ago, she was expressing an extensive vocabulary elevated beyond her age. Once, she said a 12 word sentence (yes, we tracked such things); blew us away!
However, the latter? Not so much
First Try:
So we set up a preliminary Special Education (“SpecEd”) referral meeting to establish his that he was eligible for services in our town. Turned out, even though the Director of Student Services was willing to start in right away, legally she couldn’t as our District wasn’t the District of Liability (“DoL”). Translation: whose money was going to be used to PAY for any services? While the boy lived in the District, some other District was going to be opening their wallet for this then four-year-old.
Right after that determination, DCYF did find the Dad (loser, IMHO, which will become more obvious in a few minutes) living in another town which, by default, became the DoL.
SideNote: After all, real parents trump foster parents legally (and in some cases, in other areas UNLESS a Judge rules otherwise. However, DCYF ALWAYS maintains legal guardianship, not foster parents, and decision making (although, I may push such boundaries “for the best interest of the child” – I just move faster than they can and they’ve learned to trust me as I ALWAYS tell them what I’m doing and the results thereof.
So Dad’s town conducted their Special Education needs evaluation and agreed that such services were warranted but they announced that they were NOT going render those services. Why?
Only Dad lived, and had lived, in that town; the child had never lived with his Dad. So, that District pushed back on being the DoL as Mom had always had him and lived in yet another town. DCYF grudgingly had to agree.
Second Try:
Back to the drawing board and this is when it starts to get interesting – and not in a good way. After a lot of work, DCYF finally found Mom (in another State and no, I’m not going into details). It was determined that the last known NH place where Mom and the kids were living was Barnstead. So, we had to start the process all over again with the Barnstead School District being the DoL. So the case worker/CPSW started the process all over again
SideNote: while we have generally worked with good folks
- DCYF (Division of Children, Youth and Families)
- CASA (volunteers at Court Appointed Special Advocates who represent the child during court proceedings/hearings) and
- Other related 3rd parties (like those that provide transport services and conduct supervised visits of the children with the parents and often conduct clinical sessions). This time, Northeast Family Services
This time, they were specTACULAR in what they did and keeping us informed. And, of course, trying to keep me in line at times even as they, pretty much, let me get done what was needful for the kids when they need stuff. All I had to do was, pretty much, let them know what I did afterwards.
I had heard bad things about Barnstead (like Colebrook, Seabrook, and a few others while I was more active with GraniteGrok as folks whispered things to me). Not only are their NAEP scores, in being kind, suck but their SpecEd has a horrible reputation. And yes, during all this Barnstead fully lived up to my low expectations. I had run-ins with then Superintendent (who has subsequently gone to Claremont), the Special Education Director (who retired shortly after I showed up), and newly appointed Special Education Director. They certainly didn’t disappoint. Right from the get-go.
It ended up that all of the blogging going after politicians and bureaucrats were brought to the fore in dealing with them (e.g., Right to Knows, quoting RSAs CORRECTLY). Also becoming an NH Education Surrogate Parent meant learning the NH Education Rules (which will play a role in a bit even though I was never officially appointed to serve in that capacity – but I did “assist” Mom later).
Again, months passed after being contacted. Finally, they did their own re-testing and confirmed the original finding that he met the standard for receiving Special Education/Speech Pathology.
Now It Gets Interesting – Lying During the Initial Meeting
Continued in Part 3…
