By JACK ENCARNACAO
The Patriot Ledger

WEYMOUTH - Jennifer Collova knew well before her daughter started school that she was different from other children.

“She didn't turn around when you said her name, didn’t notice planes in the sky and never pointed at things,” Collova said. “I would point and say ‘look at the plane’ and she wouldn’t follow at all.”

Collova adopted Sofia in Romania when she was 8 months old. Sofia was diagnosed with autism when she was almost 3.

Working with a behavior specialist at home, Sofia made great strides, and her mother enrolled her in public schools.

But when the first day of school came, so did a new reality for Collova, a single mother who lives in Weymouth.

“When I finally saw my daughter in school, that’s when I realized I'm not going to be able to fix this,” Collova said of her daughter’s condition. “It was like a death.”

The specialist who had been working with Sofia had coached her in speech, using utensils, making eye contact, pointing to things and sorting things by shape.

It wasn’t easy. Early on, Sofia resisted, cried and often threw fits during the sessions, but they paid off.

“It was a remarkable change in my daughter,” Collova said. “I’ll never forget the first time she said ‘mom.’ Oh my God, I cried a bucket of tears. As a parent, the thing you want to hear more than anything in the world is your child say ‘mom.’”

When it was time for Sofia to enter the public schools, Weymouth officials determined she only needed half of the hours of specialized instruction she had been getting at home.

Collova fought successfully to keep the 20 hours of at-home specialist sessions that she had seen make such a difference in Sofia. The Weymouth School Department agreed only after Collova pleaded her case during meetings with school officials.

“It has got to be one of the most emotionally draining experiences a parent can go through,” Collova said.

Her mother soon became dissatisfied with her teachers’ ability to understand and work with an autistic child. She had to fight to get her in an inclusive classroom with regular students.

After three years of what she called “beating my head against the wall,” Collova took Sofia out of public school and enrolled her in a private nursery school in Sterling. She paid the tuition. Weymouth schools paid the cost of a specialist to work with Sofia in the private school.

Though it was 75 miles away, Collova was willing to wake up at 4:45 a.m. to drive Sofia to school. She will attend the school again this year.

For the next few months, Collova will keep the same arrangement with Weymouth schools: She will pay the tuition, and Weymouth will pay for the specialist. But with her mother battling cancer, she plans to move from Weymouth soon.

“The issues I’ve gone through with Weymouth are the biggest factor (in moving away),” she said. “My mother’s situation, that was just the impetus to make the final decision.”

Jack Encarnacao may be reached at jencarnacao@ledger.com.

GARY HIGGINS/The Patriot Ledger

Jennifer Collova with her daughter Sofia.