O.B. school district not providing proper education
Iam an Old Bridge resident and have been for the past 33 years. I went through this district's public school system and now have a son that is going through this same system. My 10- year-old son attends an elementary school in this district and the system really stinks.

When he was at the beginning of the second grade, I was told he was having learning difficulties and that he should be evaluated by the districts child study team. Being a caring and concerned parent, I had this done and even took him to a pediatric neurologist. The child was evaluated by the neurologist, which is just a series of questions asked to parents. The child was placed on medication for having some signs of ADHD.

My son walked around like a zombie at the age of 8 years old, so the medication was changed. After two years on this medicine, I found out the child was not ADHD, nor did he need the medication. He was just having learning difficulties. Parents please beware.

The child was evaluated by the child study team and was placed in the district's resource program and given an IEP (Individual Education Plan), which is administered through special services and funded by the state. Needless to say, I was not seeing any improvement in his work, nor did I feel he was gaining any skills that he was lacking. I just felt like he was going backwards.

I then took him to a pediatric psychiatrist and was told he is just having terrible learning difficulties and it is to be believed that he is not being taught properly. At that point, I demanded an emergency IEP meeting and demanded my son be pulled out of resource. I was told at the emergency meeting that he had to be re-evaluated and that would happen over the summer. At that meeting, I was told that he was gaining from their resource program.

The funny thing is we are now at the start of the fifth grade and my son is still in resource and is still struggling to the point of where every day I have to reteach him what was taught in school in a way that he understands. Two weeks ago, I took him to the Huntington Learning Center for an evaluation costing $195. The testing was very extensive and lasted four and a half hours. At a conference with the Huntington Learning Center two days later, I found out that he has no basic skills and that he has no foundation to be able to build off because he was neither taught these skills nor the proper way of gaining these skills.

My son will now attend the Huntington Learning Center five days a week, two hours a day, everyday after school, at a cost of $9,307.50.

I guess the kicker here is for every child that has an IEP and is placed in resource, the district gets funded (more money) by the state. So, the more children you can get to have an IEP, place them in resource. In the eyes of the district, it's "Let's take what we can and not help these children learn properly." It's "Let's just push these children through this God forsaken school system."

Lisa R. Ryfa

Old Bridge