The final countdown to school...

Well, we have had meeting one with the school nurse and today will be meeting two.. with the nurse (who is not at the school often as she has 6 schools and over 2000 students) and the principal, teachers, counsellor and volunteer aid.

Jared is quite nervous to be making a change of schools period. For those who have not read back posts, Jared had been in private school for the past 2 years as he was diagnosed with Type 1 mere weeks before kindergarten started and the public school was not able to commit (yes, I know it is illegal) to his safety. (Jared himself commented as he walked out the door after his first meeting with the school nurse at the time saying " does my new school not like kids with diabetes?!?!?" (this crushes me to even remember that day). Regardless, we were not prepared to test their lack of readiness to prove a point that no child should be left behind! We took out a loan and sent him to a private school where the teachers all volunteered on weekends to go to the hospital to take classes on diabetes and treating children and administering injections (Which otherwise is illegal in public school in the state.

All that being said, a new school is always hard, a new school with a history (as much or as little as he remembers from two years ago) is hard for both of us. Since then, with the principal change and a new school nurse, we are willing to give this school a good chance. My daughter is also starting Kindergarten there and so they will have eachother at lunches and recess if need be (they are buddies - for the most part ;)

The hard part for me is that they want me to be concise with directions, which is somewhat easy.. there is routine for the most part.. it is the results of those routines which (As most of you know) vary. And if you don't get specific, and you are dealing with a kid... things can yoyo from bad to worse or low to high, or vice versa.

Today, when I meet the teacher, I hope she wants specifics, all these forms are SO non specific, and general... And when you are dealing with a school that has not had a diabetic child there in 20 years, general does not seem to apply! Experience makes things general, lack of .. in my humble opinion requires specifics.

So cross your fingers for us, and hope that the teacher who was 'assigned' my son is interested and wants to know more, and ... I am an optimist (most of the time ;) in time, she will know the specifics and be able to wrap herself around the specifics, until they become generality... or routine. This should be a great year, with new learnings for all!