Checking over the 504 Plan

I had a quick meeting with my school case manager who is helping oversee Jordan’s 504 Plan. We went through what was set up at the start of the school year and had a chance to talk to Jordan’s Kindergarten teacher about what works and if there are any needed additions. What I learned during the meeting was we set up a pretty good plan. As I wrote before the school year started, my main goal was to make sure all of Jordan’s teachers think about possible challenges ahead of the lesson plan. I also learned that Jordan’s teacher discovered she could do a lot of thoughtfulness ahead of her lesson plans but it’s the little things that would catch her off guard. You know, like the little moments where her teacher talks about using two fingers and holds up each index finger. And my not-shy-at-all daughter calls her out: “You know I can’t do that!” And her teacher will ask Jordan to come up with a solution.

Because there’s always a solution.

And Jordan really always finds a solution. She really does. But there remain two things that are pretty tricky for Jordan: elements of the PE class and using the scissors quickly. Jordan is actually an excellent scissor user… but she isn’t fast at the task. So when you need to cut out a bunch of words from a sheet of paper to sort the words, Jordan loses time to work on the word sorting because she’s still cutting the words out. That’s when her teacher usually jumps in and helps her out. Jordan would never let her do all of it. But she does allow assistance. Our school caseworker decided we’re going to request a new OT assessment from the school district just in case we can use the district’s services. (I currently use a private OT who works with Jordan every other week.) We’re also going to see if the school district’s adaptive physical education manager can help assess Jordan’s needs during gym. I know she struggles with pushups. Her prosthetist is working on a pushup hand to help… but right now it’s not quite right. We’ll keep working on it. But maybe something like a yoga block could help. Maybe there are ideas I haven’t even thought of.

I feel like we’re in a good place. Jordan has a supportive school and teachers who want to remain open to give her an equal footing with her peers. I’m already looking forward to First Grade!