Awesome news! I heard back from the Director of the Masters program in Early Childhood Special Education, and even though she "strongly recommends" that I take the Place or the Praxis Elementary Education test, she is willing to waive that requirement for me.

Of course, she also warned me that I would not be able that I would NOT be allowed to teach K-3 general education without taking the test.

Which, seeing as I teach PreK SPECIAL ED, does not exactly concern me.

So, I'm in the program. And my school district will reimburse me for PART of my tuition. Which is great- once we come up with the initial cost of my classes, as I REFUSE to take out student loans with the amount of loans we still have to pay off for my husband. *sigh*

BUT! I'm in the program! Which means my job is safe for the rest of the year! *cheers*

For the past 5 years, I've been teaching Preschool Special Education. I hold a K-12 Special Education license, and in North Carolina, I had to take 2 additional classes to be certified in Birth to Kindergarten education.

In Colorado, things have gotten a little more complicated.

Last year before we moved, the principal at the school I ended up teaching in when we got here (which is not where I am now, which is a long story involving feeling picked on and including a few anxiety attacks) asked if I thought my Colorado teaching license would cover PreK SpEd. "Sure," I said, and that was the end of it, even when I applied for and got my Colorado K-12 SpEd license.

This year - new school, new system, new requirements. In order to teach here, I have to get my Masters in Early Childhood Special Ed. Ok, sure, if it will keep me in PreK, I'll do it, even though I think it's unfair that they can't work me and just require a couple more classes.

So, I've been applying for the UNCo Masters in Early Childhood Special Education. I was accepted to the grad school itself, and now need to be accepted into the program. Only I sent off my application packet over a month ago, and have heard nothing.

So, this morning, I emailed. I explained the situation with my application, and was concerned that my packet might have gotten lost in the mail.

Oh no, they told me, we have your packet. And we still need a copy of your PRAXIS or PLACE scores in Elementary Education. Or a copy of my Elementary Education teaching license.

Well, says I, I sent you a copy of my SPECIAL EDUCATION teaching license, and can get you a copy of my SPECIAL EDUCATION Praxis or Place scores if you need them.

No thank you, says they. You need to take the Elementary Education Praxis or Place.

What? Says I. Why? I have taken the Place AND the Praxis in SPECIAL EDUCATION and am licensed in SPECIAL EDUCATION. Seeing as I am interested in a Masters in Early Childhood SPECIAL EDUCATION, I am unclear as to why I would need to take the Elementary Education Praxis or Place in order to qualify for your program.

Because, says they. It's required.

This has been going on all morning, and I'm about to beat my head against the wall.

If it would be easier to take the stupid test, I would, but I don't feel like paying $85 out of pocket for a test I would desperately need to study for (as I don't TEACH Elementary Education, and know little about the content needs), and STILL am not sure I would pass on the first go round because I DONT TEACH ELEMENTARY ED.

I hate all things right now. Except chocolate. But I don't have any chocolate, so I'm just going to go send my husband angry text messages about why I hate this school.

We just got the letter that Brandus' student loan forgiveness application was APPROVED! That is $5000 that we do not have to repay!

For such a long wait, it was a very short letter. It didn't say which loan the $5000 was coming off of - he has a total of 4 student loans, of various amounts and interest rates. I'm hoping it came off of the highest rate ones, but I'm betting not.

But I am very excited about it, as it will change our monthly repayments less - which is more that we can put towards our credit card payments! And yes, I know, I could continue paying the same amount on the student loans and make them go away quicker, but, honestly, the credit card is much more important to me. The Discover card has a much higher interest rate than any of the student loans - it's much more of a priority.

Over the weekend, we also went to the Denver Zoo, where we have a membership. We ate lunch before we got there, and we had a ticket for a free ride on the train, so it was a pretty low cost trip..except for the snowcone we ended up getting for the small friend who went with us.

We went out to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory for a treat, and it was totally worth the cost.

My husband has quite a bit of student loan debt. He has 2 Master's degrees, all gotten while we were together, and for a chunk of that time, he couldn't work due to having to attend school over full time to get it over with quicker.

We're both teachers, and while I was lucky enough to attend college on "the Daddy Scholarship," Brandus was not. He dropped out his senior year of college after his grandfather died and his grandmother told him they couldn't help him with tuition anymore. When we got serious, he decided to go back to school.

So, we have loans.

Teachers have some interesting loan forgiveness programs, though. If Brandus taught for 5 years in a Title 1 school, $5000 could be forgiven. If he taught special education for a certain number of years, $10,000 could be forgiven. While one of the Masters he has is in special education, we aimed for the Title 1 forgiveness loan.

We mailed in the application three months ago.

Two months ago, we got notice that they thought the application looked ok, and they were sending it on to be formally reviewed.

Since then, I get excited every time I see a Nelnet envelope. And for the past two months, every single time I've opened it, it's been a notice of forbearance of the loan. On one hand, that means that they haven't turned down the application. On the other, it means that they are STILL REVIEWING IT.

It would be amazing to have $5000 forgiven off of his debt. Yes, we would still owe quite a bit, but that $5000 is easily over a year's worth of payments towards that loan.

Come on, Nelnet. Throw me a line here. Please?