ChiKat

My mother-in-law is pretty determined to move out of the city once the school year is over. On a selfish note, this means I lose my Friday night babysitter, which will really hurt my dates with my husband. But it's even more depressing because the biggest reason she is leaving is the Chicago public schools.

My mother-in-law has two adopted children with special needs. She has moved them to several different public schools trying to find the right programs for the boys. In some of the schools, the teachers don't have the right training. That problem is a hassle, but it can be fixed because CPS allows you to transfer your children to a different public school if you can show that your child isn't getting the right training. Because there are so many different types of special needs, it isn't unreasonable for a parent to request a specific school because the special ed teacher's training at that school.

However, the boys share recesses, study halls and lunch hours with the mainstream kids, and that has unearthed an amazing number of problems for my mother-in-law. The last straw for her was the yearbook picture. In it, several mainstream kids are flashing gang signs. My mother-in-law is not a naive woman. She has worked with disadvantaged kids for 15+ years, so I believe her when she says that the kids are flashing gang signs. The school, however, said the photographer just happened to catch the kids while the kids were moving their hands. Not a gang sign! Just movement!

Whatever. My mother-in-law is frustrated that the school is being so naive. The principal clings to the notion that they live in a decent neighborhood and their kids wouldn't do that. My mother-in-law feels differently, and doesn't like the idea of her highly-impressionable, desperate-to-make-friends, special-ed son sharing limited supervised playtime with kids flashing gang signs. The boys are TWELVE. The next few years are such at-risk years. I can understand her concern.

So she's looking at moving out to the suburbs. My husband and I are back to trying to figure out if it's possible to live in the city when you don't live in the nicest neighborhood and you can't afford private schooling.