Red Room Where the Writers Are

It's late, I'm tired and I still refuse to admit defeat.  Once again my insurance company is denying health benefits to my child who falls on the Autism Spectrum.  It's interesting, there are all of these great resources out there: school, insurance (actually primary AND secondary) and nobody wants to help.  And I'm paying for all of it.  What a joke.  The insurance companies say it's a developmental disorder and the schools need to foot the bill for services.  The school says he can breath and sit in a chair, he doesn't need services.  And yet my child gets in trouble at school almost daily for behavior issues and completes no classwork.  If I stand by and do nothing he will surely be expelled and/or not get an education.  I don't know where Obama is going to come up with the other 26% of funding for IDEA, but I hope he does it without raising my taxes, I have paid enough.  When Congress passed IDEA they promised to fund it by 40%, it is only funded by 14%.  No wonder schools discriminate when it comes down to providing services.  When I chose to become a parent, I never expected I'd have to become well versed in social skills training, speech, occupational therapy, sensory integration disorder, adaptive PE and alternative learning methods because my child CAN and DOES learn, he just does it differently.  I got my college degree in English for crying out loud!  It occurred to me this afternoon that 50 years from now, at the rate that Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders are growing, it won't be long before neurotypical is the anomaly and the tables are turned.  One thing I have learned through this process is that when you are fighting with an 800 pound gorilla, you don't give up when you're tired, you give up when the gorilla is tired.