Hello everyone, I am Jena,44 years old, Married to Darrell for almost 30 years. Mother Ken 23 and Beth 21. She has Trisomy 21 Down Syndrome. We have a very important event coming up this year. Beth will graduate from High School. This is not going to be a happy time for her. She dearly loves school and is all she knows.
It will be a very heart breaking time.
Unlike many of the kids I have read about Beth's mentality is that of a 4-7 year old. However, she is the biggest blessing of my life. I have been searching the web and talking to everyone I can think of looking for something to replace school. I drive her Special Needs School Bus at this time and have for 10 years. I was hoping the County would let me continue and let her ride with me. but that was a deadend. due to liability.
We have what they call a Training Center that is maintained by the ARC. but it is not the kind of place any of us would want our child to go. It is by far out of date.
Basically what I am asking, has anyone else been through this? How did you handle it?
Thanks for any answers or suggestions.
Jena

Welcome! We have a board for those who know someone with trisomy 21 who is a teenager and older and there has been a lot of life-transition-planning talk on the board lately as there are others in the same place you are at. Here is the link to the board: http://www.network54.com/Forum/264460/ Hopefully you will be able to jump in to some of the conversations there .

Monica, mommy to SEVEN (gulp!) year old (Mikey)!

Hi, my name is Suzanne (36) and I am the sister to Julie (21). My dear sister just graduated in June, our mother and entire family thought it would be so horrible for her, she loves schools. She walked across that stage with the other 219 students and tears flowed down everyones face, she waved and said"my sister is out there" I couldn't have been prouder of her. As she walked back up the row she spotted me and ran to me and then cried. I don't think she knew exactly what the next day would bring. She now goes to a sheltered workshop, she doesn't really interact with the other workers just the staff. She loves 'work' and won't miss a day. I feel sad when I stop and see her during her lunch break, however she is very happy there. She still does her 'homework' and loves to play school. I have a 6 and 8 year old and she is right at their level. My mother use to drive her regular ed bus and she rode along, now she rides the public bus to work and back. It is a door to door service. Please feel free to e-mail me. this is my first time on this site and happened upon your post.
Suzanne