And Ms. McGee hopes her hard-won lessons might benefit other parents.
Kyle was born with orthopedic and neurological problems. In elementary school he was found to have several learning disabilities that included severe dyslexia and attention-deficit disorder. Ms. McGee sought for years for her son to get the kinds of therapy and intervention that would help him succeed in his public school system in Yorktown, Va.
Throughout Kyle’s elementary, middle and high school years, Ms. McGee had to fight for the special services, particularly for a reading program for dyslexia that worked well for her son. She even enlisted the help of a lawyer who specializes in learning disability cases.
At one point, Ms. McGee and her husband, Chuck, decided to put Kyle in private school for two years before he went to public high school. They often paid out-of-pocket for reading therapies that schools could not or would not provide.