<p>I am in a big bind with my LD son, a sophomore in high school. He is involved in an extreme sport at the professional level. He has achieved so much social-emotional growth through this sport...maturity, responsibility, goal-orientation, learning to advocate for himself with adults/coaches, self-confidence, organization..the list goes on and on.. it is the only arena where he is a success. It is also his only motivator to work hard in school, as we require him to have Cs or better to participate.</p>
<p>however, at this level he has needed to attend tournaments which involve travel and missing school for a few days at a time every month or two...</p>
<p>He has an IEP and we have been mostly happy with support at his current high school.</p>
<p>We have been excusing his absences with the school. I did not take that lightly but saw no other choice. This sport is his passion and he is very ambitious about pursuing it.</p>
<p>Now the school is taking a hard-line and saying he can't have any more absences this year unless he has a Dr's excuse. They sent us a cryptic letter with SARB 1 in the subject line. I know what SARB is, not a path I want to go down. There are two tournaments coming up that he was already committed to. He is afraid of losing the spot on the team he has worked so hard to attain if he doesn't make these tournaments. One is more important than the other, maybe he could skip one of them.</p>
<p>We are not in a position to homeschool him. I asked the current school if they could give him an independent study contract for the upcoming tournaments and they said they don't do that. They lose money if the kid isn't there and it's too hard for the teachers to keep track of.</p>
<p>The only option is a private learning center that supports kids with IEPs and has a flexible schedule, but it is really not affordable for us. I really don't want to change his placement anyhow, as he has already switched schools a lot and it takes months to get the new school up to speed, and it is costly to change because I have to pay an educational advocate to oversee everything....</p>
<p>Does anyone have any ideas??? What I would really like is if his current school would give him an independent study contract to make up the work when he is out. I think it is justified as meeting his social emotional goals, but they don't see it that way.</p>
<p>I wish I felt more optimistic about negotiating with the school district..I actually had started feeling that out and didn't feel like I was getting much give and take..and I'm kind of at the point in my life where I'm a little tired of swimming upstream..I have fought too many battles with the school districts over the years</p>
<p>Update: Today my son and I had a meeting with the director of Futures/Halstrom. It is almost like homeschooling, but more like what I'd call teacher-directed independent study. They provide curriculum, teachers and materials. Basically he meets with a teacher in each subject for 45 minutes and then completes about 5 hours of work. He goes at his own pace. We think it could work. There is a lot of flexibility in terms of schedule and what classes he takes. He can even get credit for working, and he can use his sport for PE or an elective. It did appear to be very book/pencil/paper oriented though...</p>
<p>We also took a peek and picked up literature at Fusion Learning Center..that has a few more bells and whistles, and more of a direct focus on learning differences, but also a higher price tag. This is also one on one teaching, but less independent than Futures. Can't meet with director there for another 2 weeks and don't even know if they have an opening.</p>
<p>My s is just so happy and relieved that it looks like we can work things out. He is very motivated to make it work. Any ideas out there from homeschoolers in a similar situation?</p>
<p>(If you look over in the Parents Forum, I have received some great input there as well, particularly some good advice on teaching reading to LD kids)</p>