Schooling was not something we considered would be possible for Livvy given all of her limitations. However, our coordinator with the Arizona Early Intervention Program urged us to look into it and apply so that she is in the system whether we decide to move forward or not. I figured how hard could it be to apply her to school?

Well, it has been a process.

After a zoom call with someone from her school district, an in-person evaluation was planned for a month later. Of course this fell the week after her surgery in Utah (that caused the CSF leak she had) so she was not in the best of moods but I had canceled once before and just wanted to get it over with.

Assuming we would be meeting with that same person, we walked into the room and were surprised to see 6 additional people sitting in chairs bordering the room, each spaced 6 feet apart and wearing their face masks. Woah. This truly caught me off guard and left a bad taste in my mouth upon leaving. They grilled us with questions about her abilities (or lack there of), one question after another.

Can she sit upright on her own? No.

Can she crawl or roll? No.

Can she feed herself? No.

Can she point to what she wants? No.

The list goes on and on. It was essentially an ugly reminder for us of everything she has lost from this terrible disease – all just within the past year.

While they understandably needed to get to know her if she would be in a classroom, it was a rough hour. 

Weeks later we had a zoom call with everyone that was at the in-person meeting to determine eligibility together (insert eye roll here).

At this zoom meeting they proceeded to tell us that she has severe delays in each area. Please tell us something we don’t already know, I thought. But that she does in fact meet eligibility for schooling in their special needs program.

“Would you like to know what this looks like?”, they asked? Why not, Dave and I thought. They then proceeded to tell us that if she starts in the fall, it would be a three-hour day beginning at 9am where she would have both time in her stroller and being held by a teacher for more interactive “play” with other students. Snack time would include food brought from home. There would be one teacher and two assistants in the classroom who would all learn her medical needs to care for her properly and keep her comfortable.

Prior to all this, Livvy was in so much pain each day, and so irritable, that we thought there was no way she would be able to attend “school.” But since her last surgery which removed the internal port she has been so much more comfortable, and happy! While it pains me to think that thing caused her unnecessary pain this whole time, now that it’s out and she’s more stable I could potentially see this as being an option for her. Being around her sisters makes her so happy that I think being around other kids would make her just as happy.

So, I asked Livvy if she wanted to go to school with other kids and she smiled the biggest smile and laughed. So that takes care of that! We are now beginning the process to enroll her at the school down the street from our house and come August will see how she is doing and if she is still up for a change of scenery. 😊