Thursday, May 31, 2007

Kindergarden Readiness

Next week we do another turn on the IEP dance floor. This is a biggie. We change fromt eh world of preschool to that looming unknown of kindergarden. Real school. SOLs. Full day education.

This was the fall I was supposed to put my little boy on a big yellow school bus for the first time. Instead, it will be our fourth year- old hat. It will just happen earlier in the morning. I actually remember the first time I got on a school bus. The morning was cool and dewy, and I had on a jumper and red checked shirt that I dearly loved, it was really comfortable, and shoes that weren't so much. I can still smell it, the metallic damp of the bus and the plastic seats that were too hard to really get comfortable on. Joey loves riding the bus. It will be a comfort as we send him off into a new world.

It won't be completely new, though. We're probably going to go ahead and put him in the summer program the schol cooked up on the fly; it will give him a chance to get used to the new building, and provide him a very regular schedule or most of the summer. The point is to not have him freak out for months and waste more time at school than absolutely necessary. Maximize the learning, that sort of thing.

We decide the setting Joey will be in. Will we put him in the self-contained classroom, with the spectacular teacher, lower student: faculty ratio, but not as much exposure to non-disabled peers? Or do we try to press for LRE, despite the teacher being lukewarm and no aide available? The school personnel find his "behaviors" disruptive, so they want him in self-contained; but how much of it discrimination against his way of expressing himself, and how much is really of concern? So what if he tracks instead of giggling with his classmates when he's bored? Shouldn't it be the BOREDOM that is addressed, not my son's way of expressing it? Its not like he's hurting anyone.

My private OT is coming to the meeting. She's as unhappy as I am with the OT situation at school. The OT is the only person that holds over from the preschool; she's the only OT in the system. With all the kids they now know need OT services, you'd think that they'd start hiring OTs, just like they now have several SLPs. But no- we're stuck. So I'll bring an actual professional to help us determine goals.

I also have located a few online resources for determining "kindergarden readiness." Why these weren't pulled out when I was asking about what skills he needed for kindergarden back in September, I have no idea- they are right off the VDOE website- but that's all water under the bridge now. I have these tools now, to take with me and ask about. "He can't sit and listen to a story for ten minutes. He can't tell you his first and last name. He can't button his own clothes. These are skills VDOE says are signs of kindergarden readiness. How will you be addressing these issues?"

As usual, they will probably try to fluster everything and say they are being addressed in goals that sound vaguely connected to these skills, while missing the point. Then they'll tell me they know best, since they are professionals, and have been working with him for three years now. And it will all be so that they only provide what they absolutely must, and at their own convenience.

It's going to be a long week.

5 comments:

Club 166 said...

We decide the setting Joey will be in. Will we put him in the self-contained classroom, with the spectacular teacher, lower student: faculty ratio, but not as much exposure to non-disabled peers? Or do we try to press for LRE, despite the teacher being lukewarm and no aide available? The school personnel find his "behaviors" disruptive, so they want him in self-contained; but how much of it discrimination against his way of expressing himself, and how much is really of concern?

Sounds like your choice is clear. You have to go with the better teacher, even though it's the self-contained classroom. I'll go with the better teacher any day of the week.

But maybe this is our own experience clouding my judgement. In our case we went with the regular class (which the school recommended, though they denied our request for a 1:1 aide). What followed was a disaster. They had no tolerance for Buddy Boy's behaviors, and he almost ended up being expelled. It took us a year and a lot of money (lawyer) to straighten the situation out.

Mary P Jones (MPJ) said...

Big hugs to you! I am still exhausted and trying to pull myself together and recover from our IEP a week and a half ago. Oh, how I hate the vague goals and the crazy pushback. Take care of yourself.

mumkeepingsane said...

I have to agree with club 166 on this one.

It's too bad the other teacher is lukewarm. I'm a big proponant of integration if at all possible (my son is integrated with a full time aid) but I would also go with the better teacher every time. Hopefully you'll be able to provide some social interaction with typical peers when he's not at school.

Is it possible for him to be in a self-contained classroom this year and then be integrated next year or is this the choosing of a path the school won't let you off of later?

Suzanne said...

sigh... should I feel fortunate we know Ezra belongs in the self-contained room next year? I don't much like the teacher (She's strong on ABA, and also suggested my 9 year old go back to Kindergarten which he did at age 6.. grr) but they have a large staff, so he'll find a "friend"(besides his big brother), I hope. We SO LOVE his Early Childhood teacher. But he can't stay there forever ;)
It would be nice if Joey's IEP allowed for SOME mainstreaming with the support of the EEN room. EEN staff seem much more ready to keep up communication with parents. I hope the transition goes smoothly for Joey. Remember, IEP's CAN be amended!

Club 166 said...

...Is it possible for him to be in a self-contained classroom this year and then be integrated next year, ...?

This is pretty much the route we took. After almost having Buddy Boy expelled in Kindergarten, we worked our way up from half time in self-contained classroom/half time in school for emotionally disturbed (best deal we and our lawyer could make once they built all of their "evidence" of his disruptions), to whole day in self-contained classroom (took about 6 months), to starting "special" (art, computer, PE) by the end of this year.

Next year he starts off in the self-contained classroom, while going to all of his "specials" with the regular class. For Buddy Boy, that is probably the ideal situation for him at this time.

So my message is, even though they may have an agenda and plan, that doesn't mean that you can't change it. By showing success and re-convening the IEP as often as necessary, things can change.