Nivek

So one IEP out of the way, time to discuss my middle child at OFE. I had a 504 meeting with them. She is doing well, but has dyslexia. The state is moving dyslexia over to IEPs from 504s. So in this meeting I start asking about some testing because she does have a few issues we think she should be evaluated on, which may help her out. Her dyslexia instructor echoed my sentiments. The staff starts to push back on me, basically she is doing well enough NOW so they don't want to. I keep pushing and get to the real issue. They tell me they (OFE and District) are prioritizing 5th/8th graders because the kids are switching schools. Like I give a flying fuck. HISD created this mess, it isn't my daughter's problem that they are understaffed or they were underprepared. Let's start round 2.

Wait until some republican discovers this.

This is like suggesting Ted Cruz not be an asshole.

Unlocked on Netflix is a new series. Has a Last Chance U style.

Bin Laden Construction is tanned, rested, and ready.

There is a slight incongruence here, the US has seen no evidence that Hamas was taking the aid at a significant scale, and Israel has failed to show there is any evidence of this. But that is probably just me being pedantic. It seems to me the solution to the theft would be to overwhelm the thieves with more shipments if there are indeed any thieves at all.

She doesn’t give a damn about her bad reputation.

Schools don’t care about bullying. It’s all theater.

Bitchy Rich?

Zelensky said this already. This is nothing new. The world is failing Ukraine and emboldening Russia. The token aid was never enough and we/our allies all underestimated the Russian resolve to keep sending in wave after wave of crap. Russia is not completely isolated from the world, they are not blockaded, and they have not had all their assets seized and put to better use. In the end, Russia won't be able to fight the West, but they won't have to. They can still take Moldova while we watch them starve out Africa for concessions.

Why not? Our idiotic supreme court cited a guy who sent women to their death for witchcraft.

Bunch of bitchasses in here. Scared of a dog.

That's what she said.

If you believe any of that shit, I got some truth social stock to sell you, its going to the moon!

I thought Bears operated in different ecosystems?

Recent Update: Our advocate has spoken to the HISD district reps and got them to agree that they have not been following or implementing the IEP as it was written. This is a FAPE violation and that exposes them to action and so the district came down on the school and told them to basically give us what we want. Also, our old IEP had expired and we needed to update the current one with an ARD meeting. But of course, FBMS officials couldn't help but be fuck-ups. We have asked for paperwork on how they have tracked progress for some organizational goals (that were started in October) and one of the forms they sent us looks like it was filled out on the same day with the same pen. For a series of other tracked progress we have them talking about improvements that were from when the kid was at OFE or showing nearly ZERO progress, but the FBMS reps talking about how good he is doing. Zero progress is good after 39 weeks? Some of the filings were outright fiction. If the kid experiences a troubling event he will be able to return to class and get back on track. They showed improvement. His absentee and leaving early due to anxiety seems to indicate otherwise (this was not really an issue at OFE after the 4th grade). The dyslexia teacher, couldn't provide a single piece of work performed by the kid, she went away from the meeting to fetch some examples but in spite of the meeting running for approximately 2 hours later she couldn't return and come up with anything. Which was expected as the the recent functional behavior assessment reported that our son was sitting in dyslexia class (and some others) spacing out, watching youtube or playing video games in class, yet, he is making perfect scores all year long. We find out the SPED coordinator allegedly tracks behavior and performance by weekly checking in with teacher and casually asking them how he is doing and he just records that info later on. Then their district staff member steps in with this idea that we can push the responsibility onto the kid to fill out daily forms in each class. (Hey kid, I know you have organizational challenges and you don't engage in class often, and demand avoidance is your go to default while here, so let's add another task for you to complete!) They still do not understand. Since a few months ago we also learned that the teachers had no access to his IEP or other information and they are just handed a series of accommodations they are to enact, then rubber stamp every assignment with those. I asked if we track how those accommodations are working and crickets. No, they don't track that either. So we have no idea how effective each strategy is, or what techniques they are using to modify behavior or reduce anxiety. Nothing. I want to share how out there some of our demands are. We asked that the SPED coordinator get trained on Anxiety (he has autism training), and we asked that his teachers get trained on Autism/Anxiety and coordinate with SPED before the start of classes. We asked that the SPED teacher come in to help keep the kid engaged. We asked that they teach him the material he missed while vegging out. We asked that if he does get overwhelmed and cannot attend school they come to the house to help him here. Of course, it was mentioned that the HISD district cannot help here, because there are no Autism specialists anymore, so all the training has to come from the current SPED coordinator. However, a psychologist from the district is now involved and will be coming in and overseeing it. Tangentially, I was recently in a therapy session with the kid. He didn't want to do it. He covered himself with a blanket, and despite knowing he needs to sit in the chair and be on camera, he opted to lay on the floor out of site. The therapist who has never met him in person, who is part of a research study, was able to get this child to come out of his shell, engage, speak up, smile, be playful, all by deftly talking with him about music and asking him to play a song for her that she never heard of. The kid started dancing during the song even. She even asked him to write a story (which he hates doing above all else, but he did it for her). Watching her at work and him respond was shocking. It was also infuriating. How so many specialists, councilors, instructors, with all their training, bosses, etc. cannot help this kid but this woman can. I shared that with his other psychologist and she was like "yeah, stupid this is what we do."

Killed by a cougar is how I want to leave the world. Are they still cougars if I am older?

My wife was talking to the kids the other day about religion. She thinks it is a good idea for them to get more exposure to it, and I am largely indifferent. Our 12 yr old has no interest, so she tries to make it seem more exciting for him. Somehow the conversation goes to the Lord's Prayer and she fumbles it, I step in and finish it. As she looks at me surprised, I give her the old Ferris Buehler "Never had one lesson." She went to services regularly growing up. Me, not so much.

Shit this is Texas, that is call for a tax cut.

We are protecting the kids from porn, but not bullets.

I do wonder if it has more to do with the women and how the approach the doctor visit. I go and want to talk about 1-2 things. When I talk with her later, she wants me to ask about 3-5 more things. When I take the kids to a doc, I'll do the same, inquire for them 1-3 things. She wants me to talk about 4 more things.

I am kind of guilty of this. I would prefer she start tossing one of the baskets of home designing and decorating magazines that are nearly a decade old, instead of the kid books that we are using/reading or the closet full of clothes/purses/shoes that are just a glorified closet caltrop. Or the little riding toy that I repaired, I gave away to a shelter rather than just have it consume 1/2 of the space of our trash can.

Mack Brown and Greg Davis were his Cus D'Amato.