Readers, THANK YOU for checking in. Dar has exhausted me well past the point of updating this…mostly.
However, yesterday, a ray of hope arrived. I received an email and then a call from the appropriate authority figure at the BUSD, no need to say who that is. She said that…a school is open to taking Dar! Right now!
HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! (Play the music)
I had noticed that Contra Costa County had slightly more liberal re-opening procedures, at least for special-needs kids, than Alameda County (or at least Berkeley), and I encouraged this authority figure to make inquiries with certain places. Lo and behold, one of those inquiries seems to have borne fruit.
I’m not gonna name the school right here, but it’s near Pinole. Am I open to driving to Pinole every weekday so that Dar spends some time out of the house? YES.
That said, “every weekday” isn’t on the table, at least right away. Depends what phase this school is in, and as you might imagine, that’s a moving target, like it is for every school these days. Probably, Dar would start at four hours a day only two days a week. That MAY soon change to more hours a day or more days a week or both. Maybe. We would take ANYTHING over what we have now, which is 24/7 Dar.
He needs this as much as us, probably more.
On the phone, the BUSD authority wanted to emphasize that the BUSD is trying to get its own special-needs “cohorts” into operation by the end of March, so there’s a chance we get Dar into something only to bounce him back to Berkeley by the end of March. Hey, fine. Whatever.
Here’s the tiny asterisk: pre-pandemic, Dar was enrolled at an NPS under the auspices of the BUSD. As I write this, there is a very tiny chance that place would not take Dar back after the pandemic if we take him out of their school. He could always go back to the proper BUSD but that’s not great for him. Anyway I’ll resolve that today by speaking to that head of school.
RAY OF HOPE, people.
I know everyone has pandemic challenges…hang in there. Your ray of hope may come soon too. 🙂
