Getting Accommodations at School

As soon as we received the news from Lynk's optometrist that Lynk is legally blind, I went to his school to see about getting him accommodations so that he can function in a school setting. I talked first to the school counselor, Ms. Flemming, who is in charge of setting up 504 plans. A 504 plan is basically an accommodation plan.


Ms. Flemming put Lynk on the agenda for the weekly special ed, or SPED meeting. The meeting is attended by the Speech Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, the Counselor, the SPED teachers, everyone. They work as a team to make sure students have everything they need in order to learn. The meeting at school took place yesterday, and this morning, while Myck was in Speech, I had a meeting with Ms. Flemming and the SPED chairperson (I can't remember what she said her name was) about Lynk.

Since Lynk hasn't been seen by a low vision specialist yet, none of us can be sure of what accommodations needs as of yet. But for now, the plan is that we will enact an emergency 504 plan until he can be evaluated in Atlanta. Currently, Lynk uses a magnifying glass in the classroom to help him read, but it isn't enough. It's difficult to use, and his hand gets tired easily trying to hold it up when he reads.

For now, Lynk's accommodations include having large print everything, and everything being high contrast. Black on white. It's hard for him to read words written in colored ink, so everything has to be black words on white paper. Also, they want Lynk to try using a slant board in class. A slant board is basically a clipboard with a do-hickey on back to hold one end up. The result is a raised clip board that slants toward you. It will help hold books or assignments closer to Lynk's face to he doesn't have to bend all the way over his desk to read.

They are looking into getting a special projector for Lynk. It's a device that takes the image of whatever Lynk needs to reads, and projects it onto a large screen, so Lynk can see it better. The school is also going to get a consult with a Visually Impaired teacher who will evaluate Lynk in the school setting to see what Lynk may need. Right now, we are thinking that he may need occupational therapy to help him with handwriting because he can't quite see well enough to make sure he is making his letters correctly. His handwriting right now is atrocious.

It's good to know that so many people at the school are looking out for Lynk. His teacher, Ms. Ramos, even told the class that no one can touch Lynk's magnifying glass, because he depends on it to read. He has OT's and SPED teachers who pop in to observe Lynk, to see how he does in the classroom and try to figure out what they can do to help make school easier for him. We are just so blessed to have these wonderful people looking out for him.

One of those wonderful people is the school's SLP (Speech Language Pathologist), Ms. Faines, who works with both Lynk and Myck for speech. After she heard about Lynk's diagnoses, she asked me if it would be okay for her prayer group to pray for him. It warms my heart to know that not only do the people at school genuinely care about him, but that he is also receiving prayers from so many, not only in Georgia, but in Kansas as well.