I walked into the room, the same room my child had previously been playing and running around in, to see 5 teachers and staff members sitting around a table. They all looked at me with these gentle, yet stern faces. I honestly felt like I was walking into a intervention meeting. And in essence, I guess you could liken it to an intervention.

Each person introduced themselves, their role in the evaluation process, and what information they’d be presenting me with. I was provided with my son’s report so I could read along as they detailed his needs and their determination of eligibility. And the meeting began.

I saw quantified data surrounding my son’s displayed motor, speech, and social capabilities. Where he sat on the deviation chart compared to other students his age. His deficits. His assets. Quantified. Meaning there were points assigned to my son. Like, numbers on a scale. It was interesting to see how they were able to so objectively study my child. Truly, it was interesting stuff.

But it was also really hard to see how far behind he was compared to his peers. We knew he was developmentally delayed, but it broke my heart to, again, see those delays quantified. I broke down. The team understood and gave me a minute to collect myself. They reminded me that these numbers don’t define him as a person, and that they actually believed that he was capable of doing much more than he displayed during evaluation. They understood that my son was tired and was in a new place, which likely contributed in some form to the scores. And I knew they were right. But it didn’t change the numbers I was seeing.

I pulled myself together enough to proceed. And so we did.

After defining his needs and deficits, we discussed a plan of action for his education — his IEP. My wishes aligned seamlessly with the plan they presented me with, so the meeting went very smoothly. We ironed out some of the details regarding transportation (because my baby made it very clear that he wanted to ride the bus, so Mama made it happen) and I learned the school he would be assigned to. This meeting lasted roughly an hour and some change.

Very intense, but left me feeling quite assured that putting him in school was the right decision. Provided that his IEP is followed, that is.

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