Rocky start

The principal called me yesterday morning to let me know that Jack has been having difficulty since the second day of school. I knew about his 1 "excited outburst" per day, but yesterday was not very good. According to Jack, he got upset with the teacher for asking him to color an assignment- one that he should have known he was supposed to color. He could have not been paying attention, or he could have been out of the room at the time the instruction was given. (Apparently he needs to stay in the IS's room until 8:10 every morning, though he says he doesn't know why. I'm wondering if he is having trouble with the morning routine? Doing what he needs to do?). In his own mind, I'm sure he felt like he'd already done whatever he thought was required of him, and he wasn't willing to do any more. He got upset. I don't know the exact details of how things escalated, but he kicked the principal and the IS.

They don't know Jack yet. Not really. They don't know what makes him tick, and they're not sure what his triggers are. Maybe they assume that Autism means every child more or less behaves the same way, so they can't believe he's acting differently. That said, I can't believe they haven't seen other kids with similar behaviors, and don't already have some good ideas on how to handle it. I have only heard from the general ed. teacher a couple of times, and about the same amount from the IS- nothing really to do with behaviors, other than Friday's summary. I was asked to come in this Friday morning before school (with the impression that Jack will be there, too) to discuss some strategies, appropriate consequences to behaviors- as I type this, I think it sounds like I will be part of the Behavior Contract discussion.

The principal asked me if it might be good to give me more feedback on what's going on at school, so that I can support what they are doing. (I have the urge to resort to sarcasm here but I think the principal is really trying- this is her first year as principal at this school, so I think she's trying her best to be understanding). I told her that we've been doing that in one form or another since Jack was in Kindergarten. She said I should start receiving something today. To be helpful (though I have no idea if it was/is), I sent the IS a couple of examples of previous daily behavior charts, so that she and the teacher could get an idea of things he has struggled with that they should focus on- or what types of things I'm looking for as feedback. Guess we'll see how it goes.

I guess things are better with the bus driver, now that there's a plan in place for early arrival at school. The bus driver does a route for Savannah's school, and he honked and waved at Jack when he saw us waiting for her yesterday afternoon. On a side note, yesterday the driver handed Jack an Emergency Contact Form as he got off the bus yesterday. I made a point to write down that Jack has Autism, and may get frustrated if he doesn't understand a request (for whatever reason). Restating it and keeping a calm voice will "go a long way". Is that too much? LOL

Tonight is Curriculum night, so we'll see if the teacher needs to see me about anything afterward. She may not be too thrilled with the quality of Jack's work. I saw a school assignment that came home, and his answers were hardly "4th grade" work. :(