The following blog is from Lisa Tyran who takes a moment to brag on her daughter Cate as she readies for typical kindergarten in the fall of 2011.  All of their hard work and due diligence has paid off.  Thanks so much for sharing your success story!!!

Guest Blog: Lisa Tyran

Just wanted to let everyone know that Cate has been placed in a regular Kindergarten class at Hickory Hill Elementary for the 2011-2012 school year!!!!  She will have a daily pull-out for speech but she will be with her typical peers for the rest of the day supported by a co-teacher for Reading/Writing and Math.  She did great in her official testing, scoring 100 (100 being the median typical score) on the Kindergarten readiness testing, on the low end of typical average in a two categories, and borderline every other category.

We are so proud of her – this is a great place to start off her school career.  Her case worker at Hickory Hills will keep a good watch over her and make sure this is the right type of class setting for her to be in and we’ll adjust as necessary.  Hickory Hills is a great place for her to be because they have so many services to offer, if she needs more support we’ll be able to get it right there without having to move her to another school.  They are also the Arts Academy of the City of Marietta School system so Cate will get to participate in Art, Music, Dance, and Drama (we all know she will excel in that one) classes in addition to PE in rotation.  We will also plan to keep our current private therapy load as well, as long as you think she needs us too.

We know that it is because of all of  the members of her team that Cate is thriving.  We appreciate all your hard work and the time you spend overcoming Cate’s patented stubbornness.  She is paying attention to you after all – you are doing (or have done) great things for her.