Recap on school happenings...

• Last year Henna had a great teacher and her first service dog, Leo the Labradoodle, attended school with her. The middle school hired an additional aide who's additional responsibilities would be to handle Leo. Henna has seizures from a TBI and is in a moderate ID classroom. The aide was not 1:1 so Leo didn't get the discipline he needed and did what he wanted. The real problem with Leo was he became protective of the classroom and would bark and growl at anyone who entered the room. We retired him in 2010 and waited 2 years before we got Snoball in July 2012. Enter high school...The school seems to be excited to have Sno and I thought things would go like they did in middle school because we were in the same school county. I couldn't have been more wrong! We had written in Henna's dog into the IEP as a medical piece of equipment and she had goals pertaining to her dog. The high school said the dog could attend school, by ADA law, but they weren't responsible for having her aide handle the dog. We also wrote in a 1:1 dedicated aide that we had to fight to get. They finally saw the liability of Henna having 20+ seizures a day and granted a 1:1 aide.
• Flash, another 4 Paws dog was turned away from Henna's school because they said he was too hyper. So against the law. So I've been going to school to handle Sno since Sept. and I have seen horrific things in the special ed program that affects Henna.
• When I started to question things about the special education program the school started to retaliate. Fast forward to present. We hired an advocate attorney who took our case pro bono and we filed a complaint with the state. We thought because the dog was written into the IEP we had somewhat of a case. The state found the school in compliance and does not have to provide the aide to handle the dog. We're working on this still. I talked with the DOJ and an attorney is going to call me. The school doesn't feel Henna needs her dog to get FAPE (Free and Appropriate Education). Sno has been so good in school. Alerting to seizures and doing her job. Great ambassador. We have decided to get a good IEP in place and change schools. Who knows what the new school will say about Snoball. Like most, we didn't have a problem getting the dog into school. We are trying to get the aide to handle the dog which is another issue. Never before has it been addressed in the courts so we're treading on unpaved territory.
• Sno has been going crazy for 4 days because she's been at home. They kicked me out of school saying I was disrupting the class. The teacher didn't like it that I asked her a question and I challenged her answer. She told the Vice Principal that I was disrupting the class, taking pictures in class, and swearing in the hall. They kicked me out and didn't even talk with me to hear my side. If we don't get resolution and Henna back in class today my attorney is filing a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). They did allow me to attend the IEP meeting last Friday but didn't mention anything about Henna getting back to school. They said Henna can come back but we stand strong that she cannot attend school without her dog and I handle the dog. They don't want me watching them in school. They know their program is a babysitting service.
• Hopefully Henna will be back in school tomorrow and we'll work on the dog issue as we go. First thing is getting Henna a good strong IEP and then placement in a new school.