Special Kid, Special Parent

I've been dragging my feet about this for awhile, but I'm starting the process to get Angel recognized as having special needs by the school board.  After all the hassle we experienced when Angel started kindergarten and we were told by the principal that she did not have special needs, I'm a little leery of this process.  At that time, we had a "diagnosis" of Global Developmental Delay and the school board does not recognize that (a fact that they never shared with us during the intake process).   Now we have a diagnosis of speech/language delay and fine motor skills delay.  The school board does recognize these delays.

Angel has been doing very well in kindergarten.  We've noticed big leaps in her development year over year.   Her speech was assessed last year to be age appropriate.  In order to qualify for continued support, she needed to have 2 sounds that were not age appropriate and Angel only had one.  As far as fine motor skills go, her last assessment with the OT was very positive and found that she was pretty much on par for her age.  We have another assessment in February.

So here's the reason I've been sitting on the fence about this.  If both of her therapists have assessed Angel with "age appropriate" skills, is she still delayed?  Has she caught up?  What about her sensory issues?  I find it so frustrating because some of the behaviours Angel displays would fall in the autism spectrum, yet she is not autistic.  Everything relates back to the speech delay and the fine motor skills delay.  Angel has poor social skills (although they have improved immensely this year).  She doesn't always understand social cues and is often quite literal.  Then we've got the sensory issues with noise and movement.

I'm half afraid the school board will say she doesn't have special needs and I'm half afraid that they won't.  The bottom line is that I want Angel to have the support she will need in the classroom.  We're not due to have another assessment with Angel's Developmental Pediatrician until this summer or fall, just before grade one, or just after she starts grade one.  Then we'll likely have an educational assessment like the one that we did privately only to find that she was too young to do the testing when we did it.  Yeah, I'm a little frustrated by the whole system.  Can you tell?

We've called to get an assessment letter from the developmental pediatrician (they originally sent me the whole write up which is a little too much of my personal information for the school board to have).  I started researching the process and my next step is to write a letter to the principal requesting an IPRC--Identification, Placement and Review Committee meeting.  This meeting would be when they would decide if Angel has special needs and what kind of assistance she would need.  I think I want to have a chat with Angel's current teacher first to get her input and recommendations.

Have you gone through the process?  Any insights for me?  Let me know, please!