The Education of Brian, II: The benefits of not being a foster chil

It was impossible for me not to notice how EASY it was to set up this alternate education plan for Brian. It took a long time for us to decide to do it, but once we had, actually doing it was easy.

There is no doubt that part of the reason that it was easy for us is that Hubby is a special education teacher in the district. He knows all the people who are involved in the decision. More importantly, they know him and they know that he will make sure that Brian is getting educated, not just getting out of going to school.

But even apart from that, it was clear that we had every legal right to make this decision. If it was what we wanted to do, all we needed was to formally inform the school so that they wouldn't send the truancy officer to our house. There might be some sort of requirement for taking standardized tests or something, but the law is clear. If we want to home school our kid, we can. If we want him to go half days and home school him the rest of the time, we can.

Had Brian been one of the foster kids it would have been so much more complicated.

This is not, at least not necessarily, a criticism of the foster care system. It is obvious why it would be more complicated. There are a lot of people who are responsible for this child. All those people have to agree that it is the best thing. In most cases it probably isn't the best thing. As difficult as school can be, it is often the one constant in the live of children whose homelives change drastically. Even if they change schools, there is something similar about the routine and schedule.

Still, it nearly took my breath away. Hubby called the school psychologist in the morning. He called me and I told him which courses I thought Brian should take at the school (based largely on which courses I could most easily get on-line). He called back the school psychologist and at lunch the principal asked Brian if he was excited about going on half days starting tomorrow.

That was it.

Wow.

Of course now we have to do it.