Reply #3: I have a student with the opposite writing problem

[noamnety]

I had the students do a few writing exercises recently, but I'm in a computer lab so I had the kids do it on the computer.
One student complained because he has issues writing on the computer - he'd rather write by hand. It wasn't a big deal, I asked him if he'd rather do just write on paper the next time we do one of these, and he said yes and was happy. Problem solved.

I don't know your specific situation, but it's worth at least talking to the teacher about it to see if they can accommodate you in some way. If your school has a learning resource room for kids with IEPs, even if you don't have an IEP maybe they can see fit to let you do the essay there on a computer with supervision (or in a media center with supervision if your school has something like that). It's always worth asking the question ahead of time.

There might be other reasons why you don't qualify as having a "real" LD, by the way, but grades shouldn't be one of them. We have kids with IEPs who are straight A students, and one year our valedictorian was a special ed student.

If you are missing school because of anxiety, I'd try to stay in touch with the teachers through email where you can and still keep up with your assignments. It also helps to have a safe room set up at the school - a teacher or counselor you feel comfortable with, and an agreement with all the teachers that if you can't handle things you are able to walk out, go to the other place (so you aren't just "missing" or skipping), and do your work there. Do you have something like that available?