Section 504 allowances

[Anonymous]

I was wondering if I could get the opinion of a few veteran SN parents out there. My child has a 504 but was placed in a highly chaotic classroom with a teacher who herself likely has ADD. There's clutter everywhere, trash on the floor, graded and ungraded papers strewn across the floor, desk spilling over with clutter...you get the picture.

My child has SPD and this is a sensory overload for him. He has a hard time getting work done in the classroom as a result. Apparently he is engaging in quite a bit of sensory seeking behavior in the classroom, roaming around, playing with objects...The school is contemplating moving him, now after 2 months of already being in this classroom, to a different class with a teacher who is more organized and has less chaos in her classroom. But he has friends in his class now and it may hurt his feelings so I don't want to move him.

Can anyone provide advice as to what can be done to help make it easier on him in the classroom. He's 7 and an excellent student otherwise.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't sound like the present classroom will work for him. No one is going to be able to change the present teacher's MO or the environment in that class. I don't think there would be much of a choice, and the change would probably benefit him. He can see his friends after school.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the PP. As difficult as it may be initially to be in a different classroom, it sounds like the better environment would be with a different teacher. In my experience, it's very difficult to get the school to agree to a change (if anyone has a different experience, please speak up) and if they're proposing or agreeing to it, they don't think his situation will get better with that teacher. I think you should acknowledge the difficulty of leaving friends in a classroom but assure your DS that he'll have friends in the new one and he can play with the old ones on the playground.