By this time Tylor was about four years of age and was attending a preschool in town three afternoons a week. The school he was in was somewhat special in that it catered to the needs of children who had shown some sort of physical or socialization problems, both of which were present in Tylor. With these were an equal number of so-called "normal" children to give a natural feel to the group.
So it began that Tylor's father was now a single parent with a troubled child. Faithfully for the next two or so years he took his son to the preschool in town and picked him up again a few hours later three times a week. He also attended the parent group meeting that was held at the school in the evenings, while at the same time attended private counseling sessions with one of the school staff twice a month.
All of that, plus running his own auto repair and towing business. Needless to say he was looking forward to the day when his son would begin to attend a public school located just one block from where he and his sons lived.
In preparation for that day appointments were made to see many child development specialists, all of whom agreed that while Tylor was behind in some areas of his development, he could be successful in school provided a certain set of criteria were met by that school.
Many miles and many hours later, it was time to visit the school and see if a program could be set up in the local school district to suit Tylor's needs. That meeting was held, and a plan of action was drawn up. It included continued attendance at the preschool during Tylor's kindergarten year in public school. It was also decided that he would attend preschool during the summer before his first grade year.
This plan was carried out to the letter. Late in his kindergarten year another meeting was held at the local school in which the Education District counselors were present. An IEP was drawn up that provided for Tylor to attend kindergarten class in the AM and to move into 1st grade for the afternoon at the noon break.
To the best of Tylor's fathers knowledge, that plan was carried out successfully for the first four to six weeks of school with Tylor responding to the plan very well. The fact that he worked well under the plan was evident by the many stars and stickers he earned for his work and effort in school. Life seemed good.
Dad knew problems were starting to develop soon after the middle of the second month of school, as the good work and stickers were no longer present among the things Tylor brought home from school. At the same time Tylor began to complain that he didn't want to go to school on an almost daily basis, not to mention the telephone calls from the school principal about Tylor's behavior at school.
During the course of many of those calls the dad was asked repeatedly what was wrong at home to make him act this way in school. Meetings were called to discuss Tylor's behavior problems, although there seemed to be little the school had to offer or say except that if things didn't change, they would have to call CSD. Not once did the school reveal that the call to CSD would be to report suspected abuse on Tylor's parents part, nor did they ever tell him that the half day/half day plan for Tylor had been abandoned just before the trouble started with his behavior.
In talking with Tylor about the trouble there was no clue that his school day had been returned to a normal schedule by the school without consulting his father, the Education Service District Counselors or anyone else for that matter. It was done unilaterally by the school, thus setting the stage for the subsequent sequence of events. Tylor's father had just made the first in a series of judgmental mistakes that were to cost him his sons, his business, and his savings. They were to be even more costly to Tylor who would soon be taken from his home and any security he had ever known and begin a life full of uncertainty and instability, the two things it was repeatedly said would be the most damaging to him by the people at the preschool and the ESD, not to mention the rest of the child development specialists by whom he had been seen.
All of this because the school in question didn't have the money it would take to supply Tylor with the physical therapist or individual tutor the IEP called for. It may interest you to know that the school never mentioned the subject of funding at any time during the meetings or conversations with Tylor's father, nor to anyone else.
Years later, at another school, in another district the same problem would come to a head and be the major deciding factor in Tylor's continued attendance there also. In retrospect it has been the major stumbling block in all but one school district Tylor has ever attended. Money, the god of our society.
Money: it seems to control everything about our lives, including a professionals loyalty to a task. It seems it didn't occur to Tylor's father that almost all of the teachers, principals, administrators, caseworkers, lawyers are doing their job not because it needs to be done, but for the money. Almost to a person they're there for the money, not the job.