I hate paperwork!!!

I am slowly.....no, make that quickly, drowning in paperwork. This time of year, many parents are signing their students up for SAT's and paying their obligatory $55-ish fee. This is all just a vague memory for me now, given the age of my oldest kids. For my youngest, though, it's a WHOLE different ballgame. sigh. He has dysgraphia due to anatomical abnormalities in his hands. For that reason, he needs to use a computer during the essay portion of the SAT's, and quite possibly for all of those hundreds of little bubbles that must be neatly filled in.

So, instead of paying $55-ish, we are paying $$$$ (yes, that's 4 $$$$) to obtain proper assessments to attach to an application to the College Board. There is the neuro-psych, the psychologist, the school psychologist, the occupational therapist, and the school career counselor on Team Stephen. And the paperwork?? Oy! I have filled out SO many applications to date that my neck hurts, and I've made so many extra copies of prior assessments that by all rights, I should have each line of all 100+ pages memorized by now. sniffle. NO, make that SNIFFLE!!!! There isn't enough Excederin back and body pain reliever to help me this week. And yet, we're only part way done. Two reams of paper, one ink cartridge, numerous car trips, numerous phone calls, one school meeting, and we're still in the process of obtaining what is supposed to be a free service for disabled students. Oh....it could be free. We could go through our school district for all of the testing, but the problem with that is when my son steps onto public school property, he is suddenly "cured". He can't pass simple occupational therapy tests administered by private professionals, yet magically seems to pass the tests at the public school. I guess anatomy isn't something that our public school district administrators are required to learn. Why does this miracle take place only on public school grounds? That's easy to answer....if he fails the public school test, then they *gasp* will have to pay for the services that we otherwise have paid for. Arrrrgggg!!!! Sure, we could, and should, hire lawyers. But instead we've chosen to put our money into private education and private professionals. Our school district's lawyers are better than any other lawyer that I've seen any parent hire yet, but that's a WHOLE other story.

And will all this effort be successful? No. Not at first. The College Board has a nasty habit of immediately disqualifying all applications for accommodations. We will most likely have to appeal, which is why we are starting this process about a year ahead of time. Thank goodness for knowledgeable school personnel and staff, because they are the ones who told us to act NOW.

And the reward? Well, long term it will be a college education and greater independence for our son, who is an academic genius. But short term, it will be another round of testing in another year and a half to obtain accommodations for college. The fun never ends.

OK....time to take my whiny, neck-achy, fatigued body back up to the copier. sniffle.