Fast forward and Lacey is now in first grade. She was recently put on home-bound instruction, receiving only 2 hours of instruction a day. I have no recourse to fight this decision, or most decisions involving her education since the Principal and the Superintendent are the SAME person. We had gone to the Principal in the past to discuss the Child Study Team's refusal to acknowledge Lacey's diagnosis of autism by a psychiatrist at an area hospital's behavioral program she attended for approx. 6 months immediately prior to her being placed into the school at the age of 4 years and 10 months old. The head of The Child Study Team at the time, also the school psychologist, who had visited Lacey ONE time for approx. ONE hour at the behavioral program, had stated in he had saw no signs of autism (hand flapping or rocking, stereotypical guidelines for autism) therefore it wasn't an accurate diagnosis and refused to add it to her IEP. We also informed them that she was diagnosed by Agency, with autism, ADHD and attachment disorder. They ignored us and instead opted to sign off on the generic diagnosis of "emotionally disturbed." In my opinion this was done to leave the door open to suspend her and get rid of her in the future should she become an inconvenience to them, which they did. My husband and I spoke to the principal in great length, at which time she assured us she would attend the next Child Study Team meeting and her only concern was for Lacey and what's best for her. We arrived for that meeting and were told that the principal had suddenly had a family emergency that very morning and instead sent an assistant Principal. Someone who we had never seen before, someone who we had not discussed our side of the situation with and someone who was 100% against everything we had to say and another who ignored all the paperwork we had. So, who do we go to? The Superintendent? That’s what most people would do in this situation, but at this school what would be the point? This school is also its own district, containing no other schools. My husband and I fully informed the school before they enrolled her, that Lacey had severe behavior problems. We informed them that Lacey could be combative, physical and at times partake in self-harm. They kept maintaining that they could handle her, and everything would be fine. They then made the decision to put Lacey in mainstream kindergarten despite all the information they had on her behaviors, as well as the fact that she had come directly from the behavioral program and had been told the mobile crisis unit had been called out for her approx. 3 times. When we asked about the option of special education, we were told that was not a good option, as their special education class consists of various ages and grades and with her being 4, would not be good for her. Lacey was placed in mainstream kindergarten, yet they labeled her as being in "pre-k". A couple months in, when her behaviors surfaced, they would "tweak" her class schedule and offer "behavior mods” (bribes imo) to get her to behave and comply. After we were able to prove through her classwork coming home that Lacey was simply handed papers and permitted to just doodle all day, learning absolutely nothing they assigned her a 1-1 aide. Last school year, her full year of Kindergarten, was more of the same, her behaviors would surface, and they would change her class or send her out for certain classes. With every change, came a great struggle for Lacey having to adjust to new teachers, new kids, leaving friends, trying to make new ones, new schedules which I told them was not good for her, Lacey does better with structure. But they continued the changes, continued the behavior mods giving her more and more of a reason to misbehave in my opinion. The worse she was, the more they offered. They would also write in a book to let us know how things went for the day which was started in the beginning (pre-k). We would sign the book and return every day. Which was especially good when Lacey started with her in-home therapist. The therapist would go through the book and if an issue happened at school, the therapist could work on that with her in the hopes of preventing that incident from happening again. The book worked wonders, well until Lacey was placed in the special education class full time approx. the last two months of the school year. I had met the teacher beforehand, she informed us that she isn't much for "book writing" which I didn't think much of because it was my understanding that the aide was the one doing the book writing any way. However, the book was repeatedly being sent home empty or just showed things like "wear sneakers tomorrow for gym" I spoke with The Child Study Team as to why I was no longer getting any feedback. She assured me she would “look into it.” This continued the remainder of the year. Now onto this school year, before it began I was contacted by the CST telling me that after speaking with the special education teacher they felt Lacey was once again ready for mainstream. I responded, that while it was great that the special education teacher thought Lacey was doing well I, in NO way believed two months of special education had magically cured her of her behaviors and helped her needs as I had JUST reenlisted the help of a CMO and in-home therapy through the mobile crisis unit due to behaviors. They still made a few attempts after, I flat out refused to agree. During the first few months of school, I again had trouble getting the same special education teacher to cooperate. I wrote repeatedly and all but PLEADED with them to please write in the book. A few days would go by with things written and then nothing again. On one occasion when I complained, the book came home on a Monday and it read: Monday study spelling, Tuesday study spelling, Wednesday study spelling ...the whole week pre-written out and absolutely no mention of behavior. I complained again, next was a little piece of paper, pre-printed with 4 options. I once again complained, stating that I needed to know what happened otherwise we have NO idea what to work on and that just checking the boxes like good day or bad day, gave me no information on WHY it was a bad day. Even the Therapist, who had gone to the school to monitor Lacey and talk with her teacher and aide, explained fully why we wanted/needed the book written information. They claimed they understood, however still no compliance. When I questioned why her aide could not write in the book, as her previous aide had. I was sent a rather nasty note by the teacher telling me it was NOT the aide's job to do it, it was hers (yet she would not). Finally came the CST meeting, When my team (CMO, FSO, in-home therapist and myself) questioned the teacher in person as to why she was so adamant about not writing in the book, the teacher became frustrated and annoyed stating "I am not a RAT, I'm NOT going to tell on her and get her punished!" Perhaps one of the most ridiculous responses I never expected to hear. It was NEVER about punishment, it was ALWAYS about therapy. I then requested Lacey be removed from her class as it was clear she was never going to assist in helping Lacey with her therapy. After this, things got far worse. They began shifting her classes numerous times and Lacey began getting more and more frustrated and combative.