Once the tests were completed and reviewed by school staff we had a meeting. They wanted to place my darling little child in a special education classroom! At first I was furious and then my heart broke into pieces. Why would they want to place my little baby in the special education classroom? All I could picture was my child in an old, dirty, janitorial closet that the school had the nerve to call a classroom. Antonio sitting next to other children who could not talk, let alone think straight, and banged their heads against the wall! “My child is not dumb!” I remember saying. “Why can’t he receive his education in a regular education classroom?” I wanted him to be with his regular peers as much as possible. I recognized that he would need extra supports from teachers and even his peers. Was that too much to ask? It took several meetings, and me visiting the special education classroom, before we were able to come to a compromise that Antonio would spend part of his time in a general education classroom and part in a special education classroom for that first year. I remember thinking that no one really understood the needs of my child, and fearing that I was always going to have to fight with the school. I felt helpless and alone. I wasn’t sure that I could face that through the rest of Antonio’s schooling years. I wondered if any other families felt the same way.
