Navigating the Special Education System Part 1: As a Student

As most of you know, I have ADHD,  and my daughter, who is almost eight, is autistic. I want to start a series about navigating disability within public education from a parent's perspective.  So today, I'm going over my experience with disability and special education as a student.

When I was in elementary school, I was very energetic and always busy, but I really struggled in school. Until second grade, my parents weren't sure if I was very smart, especially compared to my older brother who was very, very intelligent. However, when I took the first standardized state test in second grade, I had incredibly high scores. They were so high, in fact, that my parents had me privately retested because they weren't sure if the tests were accurate, but the on the retest I still had very high scores.

My parents realized there was a disconnect between school and testing but they weren't sure exactly what it was. It was the 90’s and diagnosing girls with ADHD or ADD was rarely done especially considering I was kind of an average kid who just seemed to be struggling in school. I kept trudging along, continuing to struggle. I did have some incredible teachers. My second grade teacher was very invested in me. I think she saw my potential and spent a lot of time working with me. She even came to my house multiple times. My parents got me tutors for specific subjects, especially math since that has always been a struggle of mine. I had another very invested third grade teacher who my parents ended up hiring to be my math tutor for fourth through sixth grade.

I continued to struggle in school, while continuing to also to do really well on the standardized tests. My scores were not really matching my grades or my performance in school, which was something no one could really figure out. I also had a super busy after school schedule that was self-driven. I was very athletic and always had a sport going on as well as dance. I added onto that babysitting and working odd jobs. Basically, I was always busy doing something so I always had outlets for my energy. I continued this until about my junior year of high school. I went to a high school that offered the International Baccalaureate program, which is an international high school diploma that is highly rated and very intense. I was given the option to do either a certificate in a certain class or a full blown diploma. For the full diploma, there are language requirements and a bunch of specialized things including research papers for every single class, including math. I also had to write an all encompassing  paper on a topic of your choosing that you have an advisor for. All of the exams and papers are sent off to different teachers all around the world to be graded. It is a VERY in depth and intensive program.

Even though I had been prepping for this for a long time and had taken Pre-IB classes freshman and sophomore year, once I got to junior year I fully hit burnout, even though at the time I had no idea what that was. My schedule was packed full and then I had all the extracurriculars I had committed to. I would study and study and study for tests, confident that I knew the material, and then once I was taking the test my brain just froze. IB tests are a lot like AP tests where they aren't multiple choice. You're given a prompt and have to answer it in your own words. For someone who has undiagnosed ADHD and doesn't have the tools to deal with it, it's very overwhelming.

I was hitting a wall. Along with completely bombing tests I had worked so hard to study for, I was also doing other things that were weird. I was lying about having homework and lying about totally inconsequential things. My grades that were usually A's and B's were slipping into C's and D's. As this was happening, my family was seeing a psychiatrist for other reasons and my mom brought up my issues to the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist suggested she look into ADD. After doing so, I in fact was diagnosed with ADD. At the time ADD and ADHD had two separate classifications but now the DSM has combined ADD and ADHD into one. So when I talk about it, I refer to it as ADHD.  I was 16 almost 17 when I was diagnosed and I was immediately put on medication, something I desperately wanted. I also started regular therapy sessions with my psychiatrist, because she really wanted to focus on giving me tools on how to work with my ADHD along side of medication, which was awesome. My mom then started the process of getting me a 504 plan for my senior year.

We met with all of my teachers, the administration, my parents, and myself. We discussed the accommodations I would need and I remember some of the teachers were super, super supportive while some were really not. I have very distinct memory of one of the teachers asking, "why does she all of a sudden need accommodations and why is it my responsibility to provide them to her?" This teacher was probably in his sixties and had been teaching for decades. The administration explained why I needed the accommodations and her turned out to be one of the most accommodating teachers, as well as one of my favorite teachers, my senior year.

I made it through my senior year and received my IB diploma and went to college. I ended up going to the disability resource center at school and was able to get accommodations for testing and assignments as well as note taking through the disability resource center. A lot of people don't know those are available on campuses so I would HIGHLY suggest finding it and taking advantage of those resources. This played a huge part in helping me get through college as someone who, even with accommodations, still struggles with school. I realized I was not stupid. I was not, in fact, flighty or incapable of making it through school. I have a disability. My brain is different and it keeps me from learning in the way most people do. Having that understanding, the therapies I had for it, and then as well as the accommodations I had within the school system helped me graduate and get through college. Without them, I don't think I would have done either. Luckily, my public school ADHD experience was pretty tame compared to some that I've heard of. I'm so glad I had parents who advocated for me and a school that supported my needs. It's made it much easier to advocate for my own kids in the school system which is what the next part in this series will be. So stay tuned!