Bemidji High School rescinded an academic award offered to a student with special needs, after they realized her special ed classes are graded differently. Now the school is awarding her anyway.

BEMIDJI, Minn. - Born prematurely, 15-year-old Anna Jensen of Bemidji has fought through challenges in life - Cerebral Palsy, and problems with vision. She's blind in one eye and has low vision in the other.

But her mom says she perseveres.

"She's on the bus at 6:20 every morning with a good attitude. And she carries on that good attitude all day," Lori Winger said.

So imagine Lori's pride when she received this letter in the mail from the Bemidji School District. It says, "Congratulations! You have been identified as an Academic Letter Achiever."

Citing Anna's grade point average, it invites her to an award ceremony next month.

"I thought it was awesome that the high school would actually acknowledge students with special needs. Not only was I proud of Anna, I was really proud of the high school for going ahead and offering that to her," Winger said.

Those feelings quickly faded last week when Lori received this voicemail from the school secretary.

"You may have received a letter about the academic awards program. And I wanted to visit with you about that. Anna does not qualify for that, because she has modified grading. And so, she should not have gotten the letter and I apologize for that," the voice mail said.

Anna has special ed classes, which are graded differently, making her "ineligible" for the award.

"I thought about it all weekend, and I just was thinking how awful it was," Lori said.

Lori posted the story on Facebook, then heard back from the school with a resolution she thinks should have been obvious from the beginning.

"I just wish they would have called me into the office and had a little meeting and said, you know, maybe we could do this for her instead," Lori said.

Administrators met with Lori on Monday, apologizing, and offering to give Anna the award. Lori said they feel a little awkward about attending the ceremony, so the principal will award her one-on-one, which Lori said will mean more to Anna.