As I have been sharing all school year, third grade has been a very tough year for my adopted child with special needs. My adopted child has both attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as across-the-board learning disabilities. In North Carolina, third grade is the year that students are required to take end-of-grade standardized tests (EOG’s), so this is the year that everything is blowing up.

As I have shared before, my adopted child has an individualized education plan (IEP), so he has all sorts of modifications in the classroom as well as during testing. Despite all of these modifications, my kid is floundering, and it is painful to watch. His disabilities include the inability to make connections between elements that he knows or process multi-step tasks, and he needs both of these skills to be successful in third grade. Rather than showing improvement, my kid is getting left behind.

My son and I both love his school, but hub and I are considering moving him to a private school that specializes in working with children with ADD/ADHD and learning disabilities. This will be a huge change for us (as well as quite painful for both my son and me). However, what we are doing now is not working, so we have to look into what is the best match for our child.

Some of you who are parenting adopted children with special needs might not be aware that there are schools out there that specialize in different types of disabilities. This particular school sounds tailor made for my adopted child. Our county also has a school that specializes in children with autism, a special school for teen mothers (and other high school students who need to go to school in the evenings for a variety of reasons), and who knows how many other types of special schools, both public and private.

It is a big decision to remove your child from a school he loves, leaving behind friends that have been a part of his life for years. However, if your child has special needs, you need to consider all of the options, even when the decision might pain you.

Photo credit: Lynda Bernhardt