The end of Clear Horizons (for us)

I have truly loved Clear Horizons over the years.  I think we are the only people who only went over the summer, but each year I just couldn't bear to send him to the public summer school (not even the teachers recommended it) and then I would wait to see if the teacher was good that year before sending him to the expensive school.  When public school went so badly for us that last year, I have to admit I was a bit excited to finally be able to try out Clear Horizons full time.

Unfortunately, my husband was never fully on board, which made this year rather uncomfortable.  The charter school that opened this year called three days before school started to let me know that they had a spot for Tyler.  At that point, I was too excited about CHA.  We had already met his teacher and signed all of his forms and everything, and I was never sure that we wanted to go to a school the first year they open.  I didn't even know anything about the charter school at that point.  I had put his name in the lottery, seen how far down the list he was, and assumed that they would never call us.

So I told them no.  Christopher wasn't in town or in cell range, so I just made the decision.  And the whole year, he wished that I had said yes.  In my defense, they did have a rough few months at that school getting things sorted out.  Opening a new school will do that to you.

I've always known, then, that our days at CHA were numbered.  One year, maybe two.  So when they announced in late winter than they were changing almost everything about the school and nearly doubling their cost, I knew it was over.  The school was founded to work with a program called DIR, which focuses on the in interactions with the child first.  Most of the research is with ABA, which just didn't click with Tyler, so I have really been grateful for the DIR method over the years.  But the school closed and became a "treatment center" over the summer, teaching ABA instead.  They hope to be able to have their students pay with insurance money.  I don't even want to think how much hassle getting insurance and Medicaid to pay for school would be.  To be honest, I am really quite mad with them for blindsiding all of us with the huge change.  They weren't concerned with the students or what we wanted, they just fired a long list of people and went for it.

My only regret is that I never figured out a way to be in the classroom more this year.  My favorite thing about CHA is that I could (finally!!) come and help out in the classroom.  I was so tired of not being welcome in his old classrooms.  But I never figured out a good way to take care of Jasmine.  I had a neighbor to trade with, but I had to be home too early to make it worth it.  My mother-in-law was too far away.  And now it is too late.

He had a good year, though.  It was a bit less structured than I thought it would be, but I think that was good for him in its own way.  He progressed a lot in reading and writing, which was my main hope.  And he made a much better connection with the other kids in his class than he usually has, which was awesome, too.

Our last event with them was a field trip to the Zoo.  They have always been awesome about letting my whole family come to any field trips, which basically gave Kaitlyn twice the field trips.  She loved that.  The zoo day landed on a rainy day, but we still had a lot of fun.

Daddy was even able to make a long lunch break and come join us, which was great.  He hadn't seen the zoo in years, so he was curious.

I'll miss everyone we knew at Clear Horizons, but apparently it was time to move on.  So next year Tyler will be at the Spectrum Charter School that opened last year.  Daddy is thrilled: I am nervous.  I don't like how low the ratio of teachers to students is.  At least I know that I like one of his teachers, since her daughter was in Tyler's class last year.  We'll just have to see how it goes!