school pushing meds

Jane, In somewhat of a defense of a the school, I'm sure they see lots of kids who could benefit from medications to treat ADHD, but whose parents are in denial regarding the situation. I agree with you, however, that having your therapist speak with them directly fulfilled the obligation on your part, and at this point, they are just not interested in dealing with your daughter's issues. The only recourse you have at this point is to take the issue to a higher authority, and to continue to schedule and attend meetings at the school, advocating that your daughter be moved into a more appropriate environment. You are your daughter's best advocate, so you just have to squeek the wheel until it gets some grease. Sounds like you already know that.

Schools have absolutely no business recommending medication for any child. My doctors do not call schools and recommend what their lesson plans for the day should be. Tell the school very firmly, that your child is receiving treatment for her disorders and to stop suggesting you go against medical advice or you'll report them to the board of education. Have your therapist send his diagnosis to them in writing. If they continue to push medication, notify the next higher up and advise them that your school teachers are attempting to diagnose emotional illnesses and that they are not qualified to do this. Nancy Thomas puts out some tapes for teachers called Captive in the Classroom. It explains RAD to teachers and what will and will not work. You could also get the a copy of Teaching with love and logic by Foster Cline and give it to the school. I gave up on the schools providing appropriate services for my son's disturbances and started homeschooling. School's aren't equipped to teach kids with RAD because it goes against everything they've ever been taught about children.

Teachers and Pricipals DO NOT have the background in medicine and psychiatry required to be making recommendations regarding medicines. It really burns my buttons when I hear of School workers being the reason a child is prescribed medication. Medicating a CHILD is a really BIG deal. It always should be done at the last resort and only by a psychiatrist. (Not a pediatrician!) And even then I don't feel it hurts to get a second opinion. If the teachers are having a problem with the child not sitting and paying attention in class they need to deal with that problem directly. I think the special class sounds wonderful. Maybe if you start pushing the school to provide your child with a 1 on 1 aide they will decide to transfer her. Besides, schools never want to spend money. They will make sure your child doesn't get the best education they can, just to save the money. But what most parents don't know is that they are REQUIRED by law to provide your child with the best education to meet their needs. So if I were you I would start calling all the people at the board of ed and ask why it is that your school would rather see your child medicated for an illness she doesn't have than send her to an appropriate classroom setting. Good luck, the fight for proper services in the school system SUCKS!

Look up Dr. Bryan Post in the internet under attachment disorders. Meds usually do not work with these kids and only make everything worse. My son came to be 18 months ago as an adoptive placement. He was 8 years old and on a number of drugs, he still walked around like a strung out zombie off the wall. He has pretty much been off drugs for a year (can't really take him off during six months before finalization) He is doing much better. We also started homeschooling him, my mom babysits him during the school day. I am a special education teacher and fighting the system just was not worth it. If you can hire someone, if you are not a stay at home mom, then it may be worth looking into. Often, the cycle of behavior RAD children exhibit at school causes problems for them to heal from RAD. Drugs are not the answer for most RAD kids. Keep up the fight. If you have your therapist and a Dr. behind you, you will win. Good Luck!

Thanks for the support - sometimes I just need to be validated in my feelings. I did push the issue somewhat with the teacher and she apologized and did not realize what all we had done medically with her already (NOT that it justified her behavior). Anyway, I feel on the uphill side still but it sure helps to vent here. Jane

Schools are very different in different parts of the country and teachers and school staff are people and come with their own feelings and reasons. The thing that has been the biggest problem with my son is people will not take the time to learn about his disorder and what can be done to help him heal. Each of my children have had teachers they have done wonderfully with (well, not my son, but my daughters) and they have had teachers who thought they should be on drugs. RAD is a very real thing for many foster and adopted children. These kids have just a few years to heal and learn what it is to be "human". Often, at not fault of its own, school just isn't the place. Socialogically schools serve the function of child care for the masses and to educate the future workforce. The 12% of special needs children are really a small group over all. There are however many things that can be done for them, especially the emotionally disturbed children and children with learing disabilites to help them become as high functioning as possible. The children with other special needs also need to be treated as well as possible and learn as much as they can to be as independent as they can. I worked in the public school systems for 10 years. I was often given tasks like scanning to see who had Medicaid and only those kids would get to stay in speech past a certain grade (unless parents threatened to sue) I was told not let any one have extended school year (even those who need it). I was told to agree that phone conversations with support staff was direct services, etc.... Was the very best being done for these kids (NO) Were an awful lot of kids on a lot of drugs (YES) Is every single school district as bad as some (NO) We have moved and my son is now being treated well enough to attend school (but still no recieving what he needs to get an education or heal from RAD---I have tried and tried to get the staff to do things (at my expense) like watch this video on suggestions of working with RAD kids at school, read books and articles, I even bought each on them a copy of two different books, and I'm pretty sure most of them didn't even look at them, etc... I still had to play the drug game all over with them. Most RAD kids don't really need to be on drugs as they don't have a mental illness treatable with meds....they have a severe emotional disorder that requires alternative behavioral interventions and they need to learn to trust a primary care giver. Schools are doing an impossible job and many special ed teachers are over ratio. If they really did want to make a big difference in education nation wide instead of putting all the pressure on testing, doing things like reducing all classes to 14-16 students would greatly improve education. Most students with special needs could be delt with by the regular ed teacher then.

I agree, not all teachers are the samethere are some good, some bad... My husband was active duty military, which means IŒve dealt with a lot of different teachers, and a lot of different school districts, both domestically and internationally. I can tell you, from my experience dealing with teachers, and the public school system, that there are more teachers out there pushing for the quick fixӔ rather than spend the additional energy required to deal with a child that has issuesӔ. My son went to two different schools for Kindergarten, in one school, he was switched between three different teachersOf the four teachers he had for Kindergarten (I know, horrible isnŒt it?) only ONE of them didnt CONSTANTLY push me to medicate my son. To me, thatҒs three to many. First grade was a little differentit was so badŅI had to remove my son from public school all togethernot only was the teacher (he had two different teachers in the first three months of school) pushing me to medicate my sonŅbut the principle was also. I ended up pulling my exceedingly intelligent son out of public school when their response to his IEP was that they had no choice but to send him to special education for the entire day, excluding Physical Educationit wasnŒt because he was a slow learner, it was because the teacher didnt want to take the time to deal with him҅she had 28 other students. The private school I sent him to never had a problem with himhe had a wonderful teacher, who worked very hard in tandem with me to make sure my son succeeded every day. When we moved again just before he started second grade, I was scaredŅas I have been any time we move. The teacher he had for second grade was slightly better than the previous teachers I had bad experiences with, but she didnt push meds҅she simply just didnt care. This year, my son has the most WONDERFUL teacher I have ever worked with. She is amazing. She emails me almost daily to let me know how he is doing in class҅not only that, she doesnt make him feel bad for having this disease҅ I think public schools and teachers have come a long way in the last 15 years or so, when it comes to ADD/ADHD, but they still have a long way to go No one is blamelessŅnot the teachers, not the administrators, not the parentseveryone has to work towards the success of the child, or the child will fall between the cracks.

Excellent points. Not all teachers or schools are good or bad...neither are all therapists, parents, etc. etc. It really is important to have an open mind and try to understand the other's point of view...especially if you believe that point of view is wrong, you first need to understand it to be able to address any errors. You will probably want your therapist to help you advocate for a meeting of the Committee on Special Education as a child with RAD, by defination, qualifies for an IEP as a child with an emotional disorder. In addition, the therapist should offer his/her time (at no charge) to go to the school to do an inservice for your child's teachers. I do that, and the dividends from that come back in spades, so to speak. Over the years it's allowed me to win the trust and support of many school districts in this region. regards,

I am new to this forum and to adoption, however, I have been a teacher for 9 years. I am also upset with the negative tone of some of the posts I have read today. I acknowledge that there are many teachers out there who may seem to be looking for a "quick fix", but lets look at the facts: 1. Most teachers are stretched so thin that they rarely have the time they would like with each student, often with 23-28 students in a class. 2. We are not given the training in developmental, learning, and emotional issues of our special needs population. 3. With President Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative we are more aware that our jobs depend on the performance of those we serve. How many of you would like your job to depend on the way your customers or clients performed? 4. Often we get accusations instead of information from parents. It is hard to remember that we are a team when our teammates are accusing us of holding grudges, being unfair, and picking on our students. With this said, I agree that the teacher and school staff should not be "pushing" medicine. For those who really need it, medicine can be as much a lifesaver as insulin is to a diabetic. However, as your child's greatest advocate you need to, in a diplomatic way, let them know (as many times as it takes to get through to them) that you are aware of the difficulties your child has and let them know what has worked for you. Please don't group educators in one group and decide that all public education is bad. Remember, everything you know you learned from a teacher, public or private. Two final thoughts, don't believe everything you have heard about teachers and they won't believe everything they have heard about parents. Also, whatever you do, PLEASE DON'T run down your child's teacher in front of him/her. This sets everyone up for failure. I have seen it happen too many times. Thanx!!

No, I didn't. I learned from my parents, religious leaders, and life's lessons. I'm sorry you're offended, but I have had very poor experiences with schools and so have many of the special needs parents I talk to. I have had therapist and SW try to talk with teachers who don't care to listen as they already know what to do(and then call complaining to me when it doesn't work). MY child was not even taught math this past year as it was too much trouble for his teacher as his schedule did not match the other ld/bd kids. I provided educational material designed for teachers about my older sons illness and they didn't bother to look at it. My kids were given assignments they couldn't do and were given a too bad attitude(autobiographies for kids who were abused and lived in multiple placements, familiy trees, ask your mom where your name came from, baby pictures, genetic assignments-match with family members for heredity). I'm sure being a teacher today is very hard as is being a parent of a special needs child. I have never talked bad about a teacher in front of or to my child. I have tried very hard to work within the system. I choose to homeschool most of my kids because I feel the schools are not trained of equipped to educate my sons with their disorders. If these are my experiences, I should be able to talk about them honestly. Sorry if as a teacher, this offends you. I am greatly offended by the way the schools have treeted my children.

With regards to not being taught by teachers, a piece of paper or a degree does not make a teacher. Teachers are called, not made. If you learned from your parents and others close to you then they were and are called to be teachers. Maybe my tone was a little harsh. I acknowledge and know all too well that not all teachers and schools are like my situation. I wish I had been your sons' teacher, I would have listened and done whatever I could. As an educator I try to look at each of my students individually and do what I feel is best for him/her. I am, however, just human and sometimes fail at my attempts. Thank goodness I serve a forgiving God. I admire your efforts to homeschool your children. I know of many families who have chosen that option. I can see the benefits of homeschooling on many levels. I am not even going to say the line about socialization, because I know education is much more than socialization and children socialize in many places, not just school. Unfortunately, schools are strapped for funds, resources, and time. These cannot be used as excuses when the education of our children is the casualty, however, they are underlying reasons. We all need to work together to affect change in our schools. I appreciate your candid sharing, it will make me a better teacher. I hope that something I have said will help you form a better opinion of teachers and what we try to do for children. It is regrettable that you had, and have heard of, multiple bad experiences with public schools. As it often is with other groups (ie: foster children, teenagers, telecommunicators, clergy, politicians, certain ethnic or socioeconomic groups), we never hear the good things, only the few bad, and our opinions are formed from those accounts. Thanks for listening and sharing!