Letter of Introduction to Teacher 2 - Template Letter
March 14, 2005
April 9, 2006
RE:
Dear Teacher:
We are writing to you regarding our son,____. _____ has had an incredible summer and has come a long way since moving in with us in December 2002. Before joining our family, _____ spent many years in foster care after being removed from his birth family. Our adoption of _____ will be completed soon, and we anxiously await the final paperwork from the courts. When the paperwork arrives, _____’s new legal name will be _____.
As you may know from his file, _____ suffers from a mental illness known in the DSM-IV as Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and also from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. These disorders stem from the abuse and neglect he endured while living with his birth family and from multiple, abrupt moves while spending four years in foster care. Since he has been living with us, we have been seeing an attachment therapist, ________, L.C.S.W., to help _____ with his disorders and to help him adjust to living in a family. According to his therapist, _____ has progressed very quickly in a short period of time. However, while his behavior has dramatically improved at home, due to the nature of RAD, when _____ becomes stressed, his old behavior surfaces. Since school is a major stressor for _____, we anticipate he will act out during the first few months of school until he feels safe.
_____'s RAD manifests itself in several predictable behaviors, all of which are designed to take control of his environment. In _____’s mind all adults are a potential threat, so he likes to keep the adult close to him by monopolizing the adult’s time. He will try to accomplish this by engaging the adult in long seemingly important conversations usually beginning with the words, “ Well, I…” and refusing to perform academically unless the adult talks him through each question. He will seek this help by either pretending he is frustrated at his lack of understanding, throwing a tantrum, or he will be superficially charming, acting like he is putting forth his best effort but just can’t do it. _____ will ask many nonsense questions, e.g., “Is this yellow? Would you show me how to turn off the water?” He will pretend he doesn’t hear what the authority figure says, usually following every request with either “What?” or “ Would you please repeat what you just said?”, in an attempt to get you to repeat yourself. When feeling unsafe, his writing will be either illegible or huge. He will pretend he can’t spell or read on grade level and will seem unable to sound out words. He will act as if he does not remember simple math and likes to draw teachers into long discussions about how to become more organized. He will try to take up class time pretending he is looking for his school supplies or homework.
_____ will also make inappropriate comments to other students to test whether the person in charge has the authority to make him stop. It is for this reason that he needs to be closely supervised at all times.
In order to elicit sympathy from adults, _____ will refuse to eat breakfast at home and then arrive at school saying it was not made available to him. He will refuse to do his homework and say we wouldn’t let him, or we refused to help him and that we want him to fail. He will intentionally destroy or lose his school supplies or clothes (winter hat, ,gloves etc.) and then say we wouldn’t buy them for him. _____ is very good at appearing helpful around the classroom. He will offer to clean, empty trash, retrieve pencils, hang pictures, or anything else that he can offer. His sole motivation for doing this is his desire to run the classroom. He believes if he can take over the jobs in the classroom, he has taken over the class.
_____ has practiced this routine for years, with great success and reward, so he is extremely believable. However, _____ hasn't exhibited any of these behaviors at home for the past four months, so we know this behavior can be stopped. Provided the teacher, aide, or person in charge catches the behavior and refuses to let _____ manipulate the situation with his “playing dumb,” you will eventually see the behaviors lessen and disappear.
At this point in _____’s development, he is able to follow one step commands with 100% accuracy and compliance. However, he is not yet responsible enough to bring parent/teacher communication back and forth to school. Our home email address is _______. Please feel free to communicate with us via email about any concerns you may have, any school business of which we should be aware, or to verify any information that _____ gives you that seems questionable. We check our email several times a day and will respond as soon as possible. We will also be happy to come by the school at any time to pick up written correspondence (graded papers, school newsletters, etc.) or any time you deem necessary. We can be at _____within ten minutes if the circumstances warrant.
We truly are excited about the new school year and seeing _____ come into his full potential. We will continue to be actively involved in _____'s education at ______ Elementary and look forward to working with you.
If you ever have any questions regarding _____’s disorders, therapy, or dealing with his RAD, please contact his therapist, ______, at ______ or us at either ____ (home), ___ (___s work), or ___ (____s work).
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
