Down the Rabbit hole

We got Dominic an IEP through the school district at the end of last year so that he would receive services (speech therapy, mainly, but there were some other nuances listed like gentle transitioning, etc) in the classroom this year. We had the option of staying at the school he was at last year (and paying ~$280/mo in tuition) or moving him to our neighborhood school and paying nothing (due to the IEP). So, we chose the neighborhood school. In our school district, some of the schools run their own preschools, and some of the schools have preschool run by the community partnership for child development - which is Head Start and the Colorado Preschool program. Both of those are primarily geared towards very low income and special needs kids

so today was our parent orientation.

What rabbit hole did we fall in?

No fewer than 4 of the presenters made clear that they're mandated reporters for the state for child abuse and informed us that if Dominic has a bruise, we need to announce it to them when we arrive and tell them what happened. (this kid is a classic boy, he climbs, runs, jumps, etc. he's always got bruised shins)

At least three times, the "family advocate" stopped the teacher and said that if for some reason we couldn'ta fford XYZ (the jacket, the extra set of clothes, the medical appt, etc), to call her and she would make sure we had it.

We have "home visits" with both the teacher and assistance (that'd be for monday, and my insistence, we want to be very clear about the things Dominic has going on with therapy, etcy) AND witht the "family advocate".

this is so not the reality we're used to.

At least there will be diversity, tho - there was one family who brought their interpreter because they only spoke Swahili, at least one set of Lesbian moms (i think two, but at least one), a family who spoke only spanish, again with an interpreter. All the paperwork was in both English and Spanish