Please help. (ETA: If you know anything at all about a 504 versus an IEP, can you tell me if that would be an option for my son? I was told in May he no longer qualified for an IEP--had one in preschool-- based on the testing they did, but from what his K teacher said awhile back it sounds like they could re-test him if they saw a need for it.)
DS is almost 6, just started kindergarten.
He was on an IEP in preschool, he went from age 3 years 2 months through last year. He never had therapy services, just an IEP in the preschool classroom.
The reason I brought him for initial testing was that he didn't seem to understand simple questions. For example, asking him, at the age of almost 3/3 "Do you want a red popsicle or a blue popsicle?" would get you a blank look. It seemed from my past experience with daycare kids that he should be able to answer a question like this. My friends told me that their kids were making choices like that. So, in we went, and he qualified.
Fast forward to last May. He had the same teacher in preschool for pretty much 2 full school years (minus a few weeks, we moved about a month after the school year started right before he turned 4, and he got a new school and teacher.)
Preschool teacher was amazed with his progress. He completed the pre-kindergarten testing (with another tester, from what I was told, and some with the school psychologist, an IQ test and I don't know exactly what else)
After this testing, I was called in for a final IEP meeting and informed that he no longer qualified to be on an IEP.
I had already spoken to his future kindergarten teacher, and what *I* wanted was for him to be sent with something "transitional". Even just ONE goal, so that we could see how the transition went and then either add to it and make a full IEP again, or get rid of it entirely.
I was told that based on his test scores, this was not an option.
Maybe this was my first mistake, I don't know, but I did go ahead and sign off on getting rid of the IEP, even though I was not fully confident it was the right move.
Now...does anyone know if that's fully true or not? If it is, I have a feeling my child is not the first to be put through a lot of testing that could have been avoided by changing this rule.
Does his school program have some kind of incentive to NOT send children to kindergarten with IEP's?? (it's standard federal mandated preschool services for kids with special needs)
So...now we are in kindergarten. And as I expected, the standards are higher, and DS is starting to struggle. He can DO the work, that's not the problem at all. He reads--to the point that if he were here right now, he'd be nosing over my shoulder reading this post near-perfectly. He can write, again, it's readable, the spelling is near perfect.
The difficulty for him is that he processes the directions given verbally much more slowly than the other children. He CAN follow the directions, he *understands* the work. It takes him longer than the other children to process what's been said and start doing it.
And the setting, the expectations, all of it has changed dramatically. The biggest change I've seen, and probably why we are noticing difficulty that the preschool teacher did not see is:
The sit-down table work in preschool was done with the adult (teacher or assitant) and less than 10 children sitting at the table and working.
The sit-down work in kindergarten is the whole class at tables of 6-7 children listening to the teacher give directions and then they are supposed to work while the teacher and parent volunteers go around and help as needed. (Parent volunteering is mandatory one half day a week at his school. I've been there to see exactly how table work goes.)
The morning 'centers' I have not seen in action but I'm envisioning something a little more like preschool with the kids in smaller groups with an adult since she assigns each of the 3 parents a group and takes a group herself, and they rotate so they do all the 'stations.'
I have noticed that he's taking longer to complete the table worksheets, and from what I can see, it is because it's taking him longer to understand the directions and get started. He KNOWS what to do. It's not that. It's processing.
I emailed the teacher about this, and she said pretty much that she sees the same thing. She also said that she had him in the higher reading group but has moved him down a level because he is not able to follow the directions and turn to the right page in the book and stuff---he is slowing down the group with this.
So I sent back an email basically explaining that *I* did not want him off his IEP, that I *wanted* to do what she said and have something transition with him, but that the preschool said he didn't qualify for that.
I even went as far as to say that I didn't know who needed to hear my 'complaint" (not my exact terms, but close) but I'm sure my son is not the only one who has been in this situation and it seems like basically a waste of time and extra stress on the child to repeat all this testing rather than have a way to send a child from preschool to kindergarten with an IEP that can be added to if needed, or taken away if not...when we know how different the setting is, and how that could bring out difficulties the child might not show in preschool.
And I said in no uncertain terms that I did NOT want him kept from working to his full potential because of what I believe to be a disability. I believe he has special needs that require accomodation, and that is what I expect. I asked her to please either send me whatever I need to sign so that they can retest him, or to put me in touch with the person I needed to talk to in order to have him retested.
I'm outright PO'ed that I even have to do this. I *tried* to talk with the preschool and get him sent with *something* so that we would not have to start from square one. I just had a gut feeling that the change in setting might bring out difficulties that his preschool teacher no longer saw with him. Yes, while it's fabulous for children to no longer need special services, I don't think it does anybody any favors when a child ends up in a situation like we are in right now...I'm seeing him struggle, he's in a lower reading group than he SHOULD be, and if he had an IEP, it would be a matter of simply writing in how we are going to accomodate his different learning need into the reading group that he BELONGS IN.
And no, I'm not at all exaggerating. The child could honestly sit here right now and read this post and say "Mom, what's 'exaggerating?' Reading "repetitive text" books (I'm thinking "Brown Bear Brown Bear" or similar, even shorter, books) is NOT meeting him at his reading level and giving him a little challenge beyond his current ability, which is what I think would be the POINT.
If you've made it this far, thanks. I hope I don't sound like one of THOSE parents, who thinks her kid is way more advanced than he actually is...I'm not. If you knew my child and saw his ability, you'd totally understand where my frustration is coming from.
(even better.....he gets it directly from ME. *I* prefer written directions to oral any day. I *demanded* a switch in English teachers in middle school because the one I got insisted that no pens move while he was talking. I'm an avid note-taker, I process what I'm hearing while I'm writing or I guess as I *see* it, it just did not work AT ALL for me. what's even more amazing to me now as an adult is that they actually moved me based on MY complaint, not my parents.)
DS is almost 6, just started kindergarten.
He was on an IEP in preschool, he went from age 3 years 2 months through last year. He never had therapy services, just an IEP in the preschool classroom.
The reason I brought him for initial testing was that he didn't seem to understand simple questions. For example, asking him, at the age of almost 3/3 "Do you want a red popsicle or a blue popsicle?" would get you a blank look. It seemed from my past experience with daycare kids that he should be able to answer a question like this. My friends told me that their kids were making choices like that. So, in we went, and he qualified.
Fast forward to last May. He had the same teacher in preschool for pretty much 2 full school years (minus a few weeks, we moved about a month after the school year started right before he turned 4, and he got a new school and teacher.)
Preschool teacher was amazed with his progress. He completed the pre-kindergarten testing (with another tester, from what I was told, and some with the school psychologist, an IQ test and I don't know exactly what else)
After this testing, I was called in for a final IEP meeting and informed that he no longer qualified to be on an IEP.
I had already spoken to his future kindergarten teacher, and what *I* wanted was for him to be sent with something "transitional". Even just ONE goal, so that we could see how the transition went and then either add to it and make a full IEP again, or get rid of it entirely.
I was told that based on his test scores, this was not an option.
Maybe this was my first mistake, I don't know, but I did go ahead and sign off on getting rid of the IEP, even though I was not fully confident it was the right move.
Now...does anyone know if that's fully true or not? If it is, I have a feeling my child is not the first to be put through a lot of testing that could have been avoided by changing this rule.
Does his school program have some kind of incentive to NOT send children to kindergarten with IEP's?? (it's standard federal mandated preschool services for kids with special needs)
So...now we are in kindergarten. And as I expected, the standards are higher, and DS is starting to struggle. He can DO the work, that's not the problem at all. He reads--to the point that if he were here right now, he'd be nosing over my shoulder reading this post near-perfectly. He can write, again, it's readable, the spelling is near perfect.
The difficulty for him is that he processes the directions given verbally much more slowly than the other children. He CAN follow the directions, he *understands* the work. It takes him longer than the other children to process what's been said and start doing it.
And the setting, the expectations, all of it has changed dramatically. The biggest change I've seen, and probably why we are noticing difficulty that the preschool teacher did not see is:
The sit-down table work in preschool was done with the adult (teacher or assitant) and less than 10 children sitting at the table and working.
The sit-down work in kindergarten is the whole class at tables of 6-7 children listening to the teacher give directions and then they are supposed to work while the teacher and parent volunteers go around and help as needed. (Parent volunteering is mandatory one half day a week at his school. I've been there to see exactly how table work goes.)
The morning 'centers' I have not seen in action but I'm envisioning something a little more like preschool with the kids in smaller groups with an adult since she assigns each of the 3 parents a group and takes a group herself, and they rotate so they do all the 'stations.'
I have noticed that he's taking longer to complete the table worksheets, and from what I can see, it is because it's taking him longer to understand the directions and get started. He KNOWS what to do. It's not that. It's processing.
I emailed the teacher about this, and she said pretty much that she sees the same thing. She also said that she had him in the higher reading group but has moved him down a level because he is not able to follow the directions and turn to the right page in the book and stuff---he is slowing down the group with this.
So I sent back an email basically explaining that *I* did not want him off his IEP, that I *wanted* to do what she said and have something transition with him, but that the preschool said he didn't qualify for that.
I even went as far as to say that I didn't know who needed to hear my 'complaint" (not my exact terms, but close) but I'm sure my son is not the only one who has been in this situation and it seems like basically a waste of time and extra stress on the child to repeat all this testing rather than have a way to send a child from preschool to kindergarten with an IEP that can be added to if needed, or taken away if not...when we know how different the setting is, and how that could bring out difficulties the child might not show in preschool.
And I said in no uncertain terms that I did NOT want him kept from working to his full potential because of what I believe to be a disability. I believe he has special needs that require accomodation, and that is what I expect. I asked her to please either send me whatever I need to sign so that they can retest him, or to put me in touch with the person I needed to talk to in order to have him retested.
I'm outright PO'ed that I even have to do this. I *tried* to talk with the preschool and get him sent with *something* so that we would not have to start from square one. I just had a gut feeling that the change in setting might bring out difficulties that his preschool teacher no longer saw with him. Yes, while it's fabulous for children to no longer need special services, I don't think it does anybody any favors when a child ends up in a situation like we are in right now...I'm seeing him struggle, he's in a lower reading group than he SHOULD be, and if he had an IEP, it would be a matter of simply writing in how we are going to accomodate his different learning need into the reading group that he BELONGS IN.
And no, I'm not at all exaggerating. The child could honestly sit here right now and read this post and say "Mom, what's 'exaggerating?' Reading "repetitive text" books (I'm thinking "Brown Bear Brown Bear" or similar, even shorter, books) is NOT meeting him at his reading level and giving him a little challenge beyond his current ability, which is what I think would be the POINT.
If you've made it this far, thanks. I hope I don't sound like one of THOSE parents, who thinks her kid is way more advanced than he actually is...I'm not. If you knew my child and saw his ability, you'd totally understand where my frustration is coming from.
(even better.....he gets it directly from ME. *I* prefer written directions to oral any day. I *demanded* a switch in English teachers in middle school because the one I got insisted that no pens move while he was talking. I'm an avid note-taker, I process what I'm hearing while I'm writing or I guess as I *see* it, it just did not work AT ALL for me. what's even more amazing to me now as an adult is that they actually moved me based on MY complaint, not my parents.)