INTERVIEWER: What has it been like to work with Michaela’s schools? Have they been receptive to Michaela having special needs because of her ADHD?

MOM: So the first school she went to the teachers were not receptive to that. They tended to resist everything that I knew and understood about ADHD, and they had their formula for what it meant, and they were the teachers, they were the professionals, and they knew how to handle things. When I eventually got my daughter into a public school, it was a very different sense of understanding. And I guess I really felt with what they were saying to me, that they did truly understand the nature of her problems, and they were accustomed to working with other children that had similar issues. So they were more forthcoming with “Well, this might help her; this might help her.” They had suggestions as opposed to the first school that really everything was left up to me to try to sort out what might help her and ask or beg for them to try to work with me.
     I felt like I really needed to advocate for her, that my understanding of the Americans with Disabilities Act for Education was that it was to help the child be the best that they could be, not simply pass. So that was a bit of an argument back and forth, and finally my sticking to my position was that she could be an A student if the school would work with her and recognize that she had a problem, and not just be satisfied with a B or a C. And she was asking for the help; she knew she could do better, and she wanted to be able to achieve.