Getting an extra year Pre-K

[julianito]

My DS is 4.5 (ASD). He is having a rough time with 4 three hour mornings in a very high student teacher ratio integrated special needs. Actually, he holds it together at school and then before we are out of the parking lot he flips or cries, etc. And despite many new skills he has had a big up tic in spectrumy behavior (more stimming, first instances of echolilia, and fleeing from stresses).

So I had a meeting last week at the school and they started telling me the great features of the social thinking program at the kindi he will be eligible for next year. He'd be mainstreamed with half an aide and have lunch and recess groups.

We are sure full day kindergarten is not in his best interest. Ditto early academics. He has apraxia of speech and needs intensive speech, plus OT for sensory and fine motor. And he needs more social exposure than I can manage via homeschooling (plus the social awkwardness of his playdates stresses me too much to be the primary facilitator). So we do need the schools, but definitely don't want to start adding academic pressure so soon when he hasn't mastered preschool yet.

Has anyone got an extra year of preschool for their child. Or fought for it and did not? I'd love to know others experiences....

[BethSLP]

I don't know what state you are in or how things differ from state to state, but I live in Texas and work for the schools as a speech pathologist.

As far as I know its not possible to get an extra year of Pre-K. The reason being that it is not mandated by the state that any child attend Pre-K so being "held back" doesn't make sense. Further, there is a big issue with SN kids being "held back" and they are now pushing that everyone go on to the next grade (even if they are in a self contained life skills class and on an IEP where the number is simply a number).

It used to be that if the parents agreed a child could do an extra year of Kinder. They really aren't even allowing that anymore at my school. Again, because Kindergarten is not mandated by the state (which is insane, but its not). Most kids go to Kinder, but technically a child could show up the first day of 1st grade with no prior schooling. So to retain in Kinder is an issue. It annoys me to no end because some kids really just seem to need an extra year to mature.

In my school the PPCD (which is preschool program for children with disabilities....probably similar to what you have now??) goes until age 6 but they are usually "monitored" by PPCD that Kindergarten year and in the mainstream class for most of the day. I believe they are pulled out some in the afternoon to target their individual IEP goals but in general are mainstreamed.

I have definetly seen kids who are overstimulated being able to go to a calming down area or out of the general ed class to a more restrictive placement just for certain "down times" to cope with the stress of all that is going on during the day. Does he have difficulty transitioning? Would a picture schedule help?

I'm sure its not going to be an easy transition, but the school is probably going to fight for having him all day. They will claim they need the time to target his IEPs. They are responsible for showing progress and they need the child there to do so. I'm not always saying I agree with this, but I'm guessing that's what you'll find.

And it may be that he will adjust better than you thought??? Sometimes 3 hrs. isn't enough to get in the swing of things. Do you know the aide he will have? Is it someone he knows?

Best of luck to you!
XOXO
B

[logan&jordansmommy]

Here in AZ the public schools (at least in our city) won't let you stay in pre-k another year, basically I don't think they want to pay the extra year of services. You can however go to a private preschool and start K later....I think here you have to start K by 6 or 7.

[cedoreilly]

I have not personally done it but it is possible in our school system. There is a set of twins who have summer birthdays who are doing an extra year of preschool in my DS2's class. Talking with the mom it sounds like she requested it and the school said OK.

[KCMichigan]

I have twin DDs w/ a Fall Birthday.

They qualified for free PreK this year and would not be able to do 'another' year, but we could 'pay' for private PreK adn still get IEPs services for my DD w/ an IEP. The program is for 4 yr olds only---so they would not be able to participate next year, the PreK will not kids funds for kids that do not 'qualify' and they would not due to age---my DD would not qualify for a full Spec.Needs PreK so that is not an option.

The other options are 1. Developmental K (a young 5s program- you have to qualify by age and abilities) possibly w/o Spec.Ed services 2. 1/2 day K w/ Spec.Ed services 3. Full day K w/ Spec.Ed services. 4. pay for private PreK (we cant afford it) and get spec.ed services through the schools

Most likely we will do 1/2 K with Spec.Ed services. That leave the option to do all day K the following year if we need to.

The option her PT &OT had suggested was all day K----with the IEP written that I could take her out at lunch time. All academics are done in the am so she would not 'miss' curriculum. We could do that route, but I do not really want to do the all day K school. Then , as she tolerated--- lengthen the day.


Are 'modifications' an option for your son? Ideas that have been done in our area are 1. part time aide in regular classroom 2. 'pull-out' resource room services for 'academics' and with general ed for lunch/gym/recess/art/etc 3. adapted schedule (like I described above).

Our age 3- PreK programming is different than K-12th programming---with only a few programs (self-contained, severely impaired, etc) that are age3-12th. The county does age 3-PreK Spec. Ed exclusively and the local districts serve K-12th (with OT/PT through the county providers). Staying in some programs/eligibility varies due to funding.

Also see what the district will 'do' for you over the summer. Some kids are eligible for ESY (extended school year) programs---that would include speech or OT and *maybe* ASD program (summer classes).

We have a lot of concerns for one of our DDs next year, but the PreK teacher tells me that it is 9 months away. I look back 9 months and amazed at how much progress DD has made....I anticipate a 'rough' start (we had a LOT of stimming,melt-downs, etc) the first few weeks, but hopefully it will all work out into a routine.

Go with a list of your concerns, some suggestions that you like to see happen--if you are not content with the solution they suggest, reconvene the meeting again at a later date.

[Lollybrat]

Our state (Ohio) gives you a choice if your child with an IEP will turn 5 before the cut-off date for kindergaten. You can do another year of public preschool or you can enroll in kindy.

We choose to enroll our son in kiny and not do another year of preschool. DS is academically advanced, but very impaired socially/emotioanlly. We and his teachers agreed that DS needs to be kept academically challenged in order to be motivated to work on the other issues. Additionally, he does better with older children than younger children, so we did not want him turning 6 in a classroom with 3 year olds.

DS is in a K-2 autism classroom and working on partial mainsteaming. He is thriving in this class and we are very pleased with his progress. He loves going to school.

Moving on to kindy was the right choice for our child, but it may not be the right choice for yours. You should discuss the situation with your child's current teacher and therapists and see what their opinions and experiences are. Does your district's special ed dept have a Parent Mentor? If so, contact him/her and discuss this issue. Parent Mentors are great resouces to help the parent advocate for their child's needs and they know how to work the system. If your district does not have one of these wondeful people, contact your local autism group and find out if they have a parent advocate who can help you on this.

[kbins]

Our DS's b-day is 2 days prior to the cutoff for school entry. He was receiving PPCD services - community based, basically they came to his private preschool to provide the services, since PreK in our district is only for socioeconomically disadvantaged kids. I was worried they would push him into K this year since he was technically eligible for it, and so they wouldn't have to provide another year of community based services. However, DH and I felt he was NOT ready for K and needed another year in preschool. We were pleasantly surprised that his entire team agreed and recommended to the IEP committee that he not advance this year, and they continue to provide services thru PPCD.

I feel as though we have a fabulous team on board for DS and they truly have his best interests in mind, not finances or some other factor. (We had 14 people in the last IEP meeting, which is astounding to us that so many educators are engaged in our DS's academic life!)

My recommendation would be to start informal discussions now to see if it's likely that the school/IEP committee will push your son on another year, or not. A compromise is likely. For instance, DS is in PPCD most of the day, with an hour of K inclusion (with an aide's help). The plan is to increase that time throughout the year, to get to the end of the year with most of the day spent in K so that he can go into the K class next year with minimal intervention. Academically, he would have been ready for K this year (reading at a 3rd grade level) but not socially or developmentally. A hybrid program for him made the most sense, and luckily we had a team who could see that and craft a plan that was perfect for him.

[julianito]

Thanks, Mamas for your thoughts.

My thinking on staying in preschool is because he is making social connections (somewhat weak ones, but still) but mainly with 3 year olds. He has fine motor issues and word order problems that will make learning to write a struggle and could use more work on this before jumping into academics. He can't be understood about half the time, and kindi kids are more likely to tease and bully. And with his DX (HFA/ASD) it is likely he will be a year or two socially behind the curve throughout his growth and development, so why not give him the age advantage. Add that to his struggle with the short day, and I really hope we can get the services he needs without moving onto kindi.

I could do private pay preschool for another year, but worry if he could handle the mainstream ratios. And the social support piece is crucial for him.

I'll definitely look into get an advocate, and starting these conversations now.
thanks again....

[crl]

We held DS back for an extra year of pre-K. He is now in K. His dx are anxiety disorder and ADHD. His school related issues are an awful lot like austism spectrum kids' issues in general.

We were in Arlington VA at the time that we held DS back. The school told me it was not possible to hold DS back in the public system. (I also did not like DS' preschool at the time and felt that they had contributed to his unreadiness for K so I did not really want an extra year in THAT preschool--there were other options in the public system, but I was being told we could not go that route so I didn't know much about them.)

I started investigating private preschools. And came across one that I really, really liked that also happened to have a few slots for special ed students through the public school system. So I put DS on the private enrollment list there and also started bugging people higher up the food chain in the school district about getting DS in there for an extra year of preschool. (I can be pushy.) Turns out we COULD do an extra year of preschool and DID do an extra year over the objections of his entire IEP team, except for us.

I pushed for it because I felt DS was socially and emotionally immature. I felt that the skills he still needed the most help with were essentially preschool skills and that it was best if he worked on those skills in a preschool setting. I felt it was very important that DS view school as a place he could succeed and fit in and that the best way to accomplish that was to put him in a setting where he was working on the same kinds of things as the other kids.

The extra year made an enormous difference in DS and he goes to a mainstream K with no aide, just pull-out OT and ST and a couple of accommodations, that he hasn't used since the first couple of months of school. I think the extra year of preschool was a good decision. DH was never in favor of it (it was an agonizing decision for us and DH finally ceded the decision to me as the stay-at-home parent). DH is uncertain whether it was a good decision. He agrees that it is fine now, but worries about how it will play out in a few years. He is especially concerned that DS will end up academically bored. I think schools are much better in general about providing for academic differences than they are about providing for behavioral differences so I am not as worried about this. (Plus, although DS has no troubles keeping up with the academics, I don't think he's a genius or anything.)

So, my bottom line is not to take the first no you get if you want an extra year of preschool.

If you have specific questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them.

Good luck!
Catherine

[BookGoddess]

Catherine - We're struggling with the decision to do another year of preschool or two years of pre-K. The school district seems to think DD will do better in a junior kindergarten. I think she'll be ok in preschool for another year. She's 4 years old now.
I was curious about your son. Did he start kindergarten at age 6 or 7?

[bdavis337]

You may be able to do half day kindy, even if they say no you can't. Find out at what age school enrollment of any sort is mandatory in your state - in mine it's age 7. So until he turns 7, my son is not required to be in a school building for any period of time, which makes kindy attendance totally and completely optional. I can send him full day, half day, not at all. And all I have to do is say "i know that he's not mandated to be here so I'm going to pick up him every day at lunchtime". They can't say no and they can't tell me to withdraw him from the program. AND, they would have to provide all of his services during the time he was at school unless it was a group setup like a social skills class that could only meet in the afternoons.

[BookGoddess]

There's no mandatory kindergarten here. In fact, they told me that at some meeting we had.

I like the idea of half day kindy. Right now we pick up DD shortly after their lunch program at preschool and she comes homes.

One or two people on the team, not all of the IEP team members, have said in the past, that it's better for kids to repeat kindy than stay an extra year in preschool. The rationale was that an extra year of kindy gives you the structure and feel of what regular school is like whereas an extra year of preschool might be boring and not beneficial from an academic standpoint. I don't agree. I think preschool is the place to pick up social skills and kids are far more forgiving and oblivious at that age than in kindy or 1st grade. Since our kids have a growth curve where they are a year or two behind typical kids, I really like the idea of another year of preschool. If we could do half kindy half preschool, I don't mind either, but that's not an option I don't think.

[queencarr]

Our school has a "transitional K" and "transitional 1st grade". These are classes for kids that haven't quite mastered the skills (academic or social) for K or 1st grade. IIR, they require parental approval but are not IEP required or Spec Ed classes. After each year, they can then repeat into the traditional version of the same grade or go into the traditional next grade. Transitional K can also go to transitional 1st if they are still not quite ready for 1st grade, but have the skills for K. Is there something available like that where he could practice a little bit?

Otherwise, I think I would push for the half day if K is not mandatory.

[julianito]

Originally Posted by BookGoddess

I think preschool is the place to pick up social skills and kids are far more forgiving and oblivious at that age than in kindy or 1st grade. Since our kids have a growth curve where they are a year or two behind typical kids, I really like the idea of another year of preschool.

This is a big part of my thinking on the extra preschool year. My son is only starting to communicate and be understood by his peers, never mind do the socially complex best friending, etc. of kindi.

Also, the programs available in our district differ between preschool and kindi. Preschool is an intensive early intervention type program where the kindi is a mainstream with some social supports.

I think we need to support our kids by meeting them in their zone of proximal development. If you push them ahead before they master the skills of play,
they will also suffer in academics later on.

That said in our IEP meeting the team is saying 100% kindergarten. My husband says homeschool next year. He is dead set against kindi (for all the man reasons) and so is the rest of my family. I want another year of preschool. I really want him getting intensive ASD therapies and a active social program and am not sure how much of this I can do myself.