Yes, this mommy is frustrated in this episode of our Marley and Me series.  Frustrated is putting it nicely.  After arriving back from our three week vacation, we had a huge stack of mail waiting for us at the post office.  One of these pieces of mail was the letter from the school district letting us know where Marley would be going in a few weeks.  To our surprise, she’d been assigned a school in a completely different part of town.  If roads around here actually went through instead of dying and starting up again, it would be a 10 minute drive or bus ride (that’s if we let her ride the bus, you REALLY don’t want me to get started on that issue.)  Instead, the way the roads are designed down here in the south part of town, we have to go North ten minutes, west ten minutes, and back down south another ten minutes to get to the school she’s been assigned to.  Why is she to go to a school so far away when there are two very good schools that are offering preschool just a mile from home?  After a week of phone calls, messages, and the run around, I’ve come to this conclusion.  Nobody knows anything about anything.  I was under the impression during Marley’s IEP that she would be going to a community based program with, the word I hate to use being “regular” kids.  Instead from what I’ve gathered from other moms, and confused receptionists, each school’s preschool is for a different type of disability.  The school our address is zoned for is offering a preschool program for autistic kids.  A mommy friend is forced to send her daughter on the other side of town because she need speech therapy.  Umm, correct me if I’m wrong but, doesn’t that defeat the point of that they are called, “Community Based?”  Apparently, if I want Marley to get the IEP, she has to go to this school they’ve assigned her too.  I’m speculating when I’m saying this, but does this mean she’s going to be in school with other blind and low vision kids?  This might be the county’s cheaper and easier solution, but this isn’t what we want, nor is this how her education plan was presented to us.  We want our daughter in a mainstream, a “normal” school with “regular” kids.  My husband wants to say f**k the IEP.  I want to say f**k CCSD.  I will probably be spending the next few weeks getting more and more frustrated with each phone call that I have to make.  I will send Marley to school and see how it turns out to really be, and we’ll see where it goes from there.  Wish me luck that I don’t blow up on anyone.