So, we have just had our final ARD meeting...if you don't know what that is, it is a meeting to decide services for the next year...Admission, Review, and Dismissal. This is our final meeting before she "ages out" of services from the public school system. We have just entered the era of adult services. It went well, and I think that she will keep her job at Subway. It is scary for me, because I think that we have just become more responsible for her well-being than ever. You expect that your children will grow and leave the nest. The only problem is that some children are never ready to leave the nest. I don't want for my child to become a ward of the state. I want for her to be as responsible as she can...isn't that what every parent wants for a child?

So, now we have to make plans for her life when she leaves school. We have our last ARD meeting on Tuesday, and we embark on a new era in her life. I want for her to be able to keep working at Subway...they have been so good to her. I just have to figure out how to make it work. I need to find a way to have her cared for during the day when she is not at work. I still do not feel comfortable having her at home alone. She is fine under normal daily circumstances, but she is not at all prepared for any kind of emergency. I'm not sure she would know what to do in an emergency, such as a fire or a break-in. I think that she would panic, but I don't know that she would have the mind-set to call 911 or to get out of the house if it was burning. I know at the very least that she is not able to lock the door on her way out. I have tried to train her to do this, but she has not been successful with it. She is able to unlock and come into the house and lock the door behind her. I am comfortable with this scenario as long as she doesn't have to spend too much time at home alone. The only thing that I know she does when she is home alone is that she eats nonstop. She makes herself a sandwich and continues on from there eating whatever she can find to munch on. I don't mind her having snacks, but I don't want her eating everything in sight, either.

So, Chase's teacher at her high school had her best interests at heart. I am forever grateful for her contribution that she made in the development of Chase. She made sure that Chase went into a "post-graduate" program that would foster independence.

Chase entered this program and she got a job at Subway. These people welcomed her and fostered her in a way that no other could. I am forever grateful to these people for this. They welcomed her in and trained her and offered her a way to make some money, while at the same time taught her that she needed to work to earn a buck. This is not something that I could have taught her. Chase has learned the value of money, when money made no sense to her (and still really doesn't). She just knows that she likes money (like we all do), and she likes to have something to spend. This is a lesson that all parents want to teach their children, and Chase was taught this in a way that we were not able to do. It is a great program, and I am grateful that the school system taught her this. It is now my duty to keep this up and to make her know the value of the mighty buck.

So, we made it past this episode. We were more motivated to make sure that Chase was going to be in a safe place. We knew that there were other students in her class who would be threats to her, and we had to protect her from them.

She moved on to Lee High School the next year, and we avoided the dreaded two years at the freshman school. We loved (and still do) the teacher at Lee. She always had the best interests of the kids at heart. I so much respect and revere the job that she does. She has students to deal with and she has to deal with disabilities that she should not have to deal with. She deals with students, gets them into jobs, and she deals with students who should not be in her classroom. She should not have to deal with kids who have no business being in her classroom. It is a situation that she should not have to deal with. I don't know the solution, but the students who can not have any chance of being productive citizens should not be in her classroom. There should be some sort of support for her, and she should be trying to produce productive citizens in her classroom. She has the chance to get these students to be productive, and we should be giving her as much support as we possibly can. She has gotten Chase to graduation, and we should support her as much as we can.

After the brush with danger that Chase and her friend encountered, we thought that the school personnel would be on their toes when it came to safety. We were sadly mistaken. Chase and the same friend would face something just as sinister as before. They were in a homemaking class as an "out class" with some of the other students in their class. The homemaking teacher left Chase and her friend with a boy in the classroom without adequate supervision, without any supervision at all. The boy proceeded to expose himself to them and suggest to them how they could "help" him out, if you get my drift. Chase's friend knew this was wrong and got the teacher from whatever rock she was hiding under. We got a call that sounded like a plea for us not to sue, which immediately scared the pants off of us, no pun intended. We met with the principal and teachers the next day, and let me tell you, they had one angry papa bear on their hands. My knight in shining armor was ready for battle, and he was going to make sure that everyone in that room knew that he would slay anyone who put his princess in danger again. We didn't sue, though the thought of revenge was an attractive one. We chose to use this episode to move her on to the high school the next year. We would not stand for her to be in the freshman school for another year (and we dreaded the thought that her sister would soon enter the same campus).