Ventage (not vintage)

Okay...I need to vent a little. My elementary age children received report cards yesterday - yea! I opened Drew's, and we looked at it together; and then we high fived - all is good in the life and education of my brilliant 2nd grader (was that boasting?). I opened Cal's, my special needs child, who is not on 4th grade level but is progressing (at his own pace) very nicely; and again I see something to smile about UNTIL I read the P.E. grade.
Let me give you a little background info. here....Cal has autism (if you have read my blog posts before, you know this). Where we live, he is included in a "typical" 4th grade classroom with "typical" 4th grade kids; but he does have aides and pull out time with his special ed. teacher and for therapies. All his specials teachers (Art, Music, Spanish, PE) are required to adapt lessons to his current abilities....these are part of his IEP's (Individual Education Plan). We have had a few issues, with them not doing this in the past, but it has been easily resolved EXCEPT IN P.E. Cal goes through his day, each day, and he has a behavior chart....he either received a SMILEY FACE or a SAD FACE (for each subject from each teacher)depending on his level of cooperation and behavior. He had much more severe behavior issues in grades K-2, but he is really continuing to improve in this area. He helps the teacher write the smiley or sad face, so he knows which he received and why he received it. She will also write little notes by it, so we will know. In P.E., he very rarely receives a smiley face. NPayne and I discovered that this is not because of his behavior, necessarily, but because of his lack of participation in certain activities. You might think....well he shouldn't receive a smiley if he doesn't participate, BUT there are activities that he TRULY DOES NOT UNDERSTAND or that he is TRULY AFRAID TO DO. His P.E. teacher is suppose to adapt these for him, but .....
Cal has a genuine fear of many things....parades, crowds and jumping rope (to name a few). Everytime it's jump rope time in P.E., he refuses to do it; and he is horrified. He comes home with a sad face in P.E. I don't think there is even the remote interest(by his P.E. teacher) in trying to help him overcome this fear or even in finding something else suitable for him to do.
We have brought this up in past ARD meetings, and we will bring it up again (in a few weeks) at his yearly ARD.
Now I'm not one to "bail my kids out", but (this is usually followed by an excuse, and I hope my following explanation doesn't seem like an excuse) .....when you have a child with special needs, there is a lot to learn about the public school system; and there can be battles to be fought (for lack of a better phrase). Fortunately we haven't come across many battles and have been blessed with a wonderful school, resources and teachers; but we do have to stand up for him and his rights....because he doesn't know how to do that. It is our responsibility as his parents to make sure he is learning to the best of his ability whether it be in Reading, Math or P.E., and you can bet we take that responsibility very seriously. As for his P.E. grade, it's not of concern to us; it's why he was given that grade that's the concerning part.