The heads of my department asked to talk again.  I had thought it was because I had given them Monster’s report from the educational psych.  Of course it wasn’t.  No.

They were warning me they were going to refer Monkey to SEN.  That … was a surprise.  I mean I know she’s struggling in math.  I get it.  Even they say the expectations for math are higher here than all of Hong Kong which by extension are even higher compared to American expectations.  We came from a small school in the US.  There is a huge gap.  

They also brought up ticks and tendencies with Monkey.  They asked if she was ever evaluated and if I ever saw anything before this.  *sigh*  Here we go….

Well, yes.  I knew she had Asperger’s tendencies.  In 4th grade, the school psych wanted to test her because he was certain she was Asperger’s.  We didn’t go through with it because she was coping just fine without the label.  There wasn’t anything in the school that would have made that label mean anything.  We lived in such a small town that our school district did not have a lot of the things that the bigger districts do.  We would have gone through all of that just to say she was Asperger’s.  There would be no benefit at school really.  

She was academically doing just fine.  She just struggled with social issues.  So yes, I knew, but she was fine.  We saw no need to put her through all of that just to have her labeled with something that would mean nothing academically.  

On top of that, I had asked the teachers how she was doing.  All but one teacher said she was doing really well.  They said she was behind because it was a new curriculum but were confident she would be fine once she settled.  In a few classes she was excelling.  

They looked at each other like that is not what they heard.  I don’t know what to tell them.  Monkey has been successful in the past.  She is pretty responsible.  She takes care of herself.  She is pretty brilliant in certain things.  Is she Aspie?  Yeah, probably.  Does it really matter?  No, I don’t think so.  She is happy and functional.  She is who she is.  

Now, I’m not going to lie, I sent her previous records to the ones who would do her referral because I wanted them to see that, according the the US standards, she is doing great.  I know we’re in a different system, but I feel like they think I am dishonest as far as when I applied for the kids and didn’t offer any issues.  I did with Monster.  The other two function just fine.  

Ugh.  It has been a long week.