As I wrote in my recent post, my daughters are switching schools this year, and there has been such ridiculousness involved in the process because they’re in special education classes and because we live in a different municipality than the one where my daughters go to school. Everyone keeps putting the responsibility on someone else. But finally, I felt like we were getting somewhere.
But still, nothing.
So today, I decided to stop being so American and be a little more pushy, as is common in the culture of the country where I live, and be the squeaky wheel so that we could get the grease.
First, I called the municipality where we live to find out what the story is with my girls, and found out that they are waiting for the municipality where they go to school to place my daughters in schools. The ball is currently in their court.
I have a friend who is from the local culture who said they’d come with me to city hall to try to get them to pay attention to my daughters’ situation and take care of the issue.
We got there and found out where the education department was, and then asked for help from one of the women there. She told us that the special education department had been moved to another building about 2 kilometers away, but they had pity on us and didn’t make us go all the way there.
Instead, she picked up the phone and spoke to the people there who, surprise surprise, hadn’t heard of my daughters. But now that they were clued into their situation, they said they’d look into getting them into schools as fast as possible.
I was told that there is one specific woman who is in charge of this, and it was the witchy woman that I wrote about last time. But I need her, so I decided to write her an email and CC the person I spoke to at the municipality as well as the person at my own municipality.
I tried to find the balance between being nice and showing appreciation (even though she is the last person I wanted to be nice to after how she treated me the last time she spoke to me) and being firm about needing her help.
This is the email I ended up sending her.
“Dear Mrs. A,
I hope you’re doing well.
Today we went to **[school’s municipality]** to find out where things currently stand with the school placement process for my two daughters for the upcoming school year. We spoke with Mrs. B, who was very kind and helped us understand where things currently stand.
My daughters are:
**Rose’s info**
**Anneliese’s info**
We are residents of **[place where we live]**, which falls under **[local municipality]**, and we are requesting placement for both of my daughters in the autism communication classes at **[desired school]**, Anneliese in 9th grade and Rose in 7th grade.
**[Local municipality]** sent the required transfer documents to **[school’s municipality]** quite some time ago, and Mrs. B explained to us that they are now waiting for your approval in order for us to move forward to the next stage of the placement process.
I know that this is an extremely busy time, especially in the last few days before the beginning of the school year, and I greatly appreciate all the work and effort involved in arranging placements for so many students.
At the same time, the school year begins in just a few days, and my daughters still don’t have a school placement at all. This uncertainty is very difficult for them, especially since they are both autistic and high functioning and need appropriate educational settings, as well as time to prepare themselves for the transition and the beginning of the school year.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could help us and take care of the approval as soon as possible so that we can move forward with their placement at **[desired school]** and give the girls some certainty and peace of mind before the school year begins.
If any documents are missing or anything else is needed from me or from **[local municipality]**, I will of course take care of it immediately.
Thank you very much in advance for your help and attention. I truly appreciate it and hope that, with your help, we can complete this process very soon.
Best regards,
Penny”
Now the waiting game begins. Again.
The really nice woman we spoke to at the municipality said that my daughters will definitely have a school, but she couldn’t guarantee that it would happen before the first day of school. My daughters were really upset to hear that. They said that anyone who isn’t there on the first day automatically has a different status. They’re the new kid, and it makes it that much harder to find their place socially.
I told them that I understand, and that I’ll do whatever I can to make sure that doesn’t happen. If I don’t get an answer in the next two days (I don’t expect an answer over the weekend), I’ll bring them with me and go directly to the witch’s office. I’ll let my daughters cry to her and let her see for herself exactly who she’s hurting by not approving them yet.
Hopefully, it won’t come to that.
Keeping my fingers crossed.
