WWYD....Kindergarten placement question...

Septmomtobe

I previously visited this board often when my oldest son (now 7) was diagnosed with Apraxia.  I haven't been on in awhile because things have been going well but I was hoping you ladies could give me your thoughts on a situation with my middle child.

Background: Brandon attended a pre k program 5 days per week for 3 hours per day last year.  While the school reported he was doing very well it became clear towards the end of the year he pretty much flew under the radar because he was a good and generally quiet child. The teachers even told us at his first conference that they barely heard him speak in class (he is very shy in groups but with kids he knows he is not quiet at all!).  At the end of the year he couldn't write his name without being told the letters and could not identify most letters.  When we registered him for Kindergarten (in June) they recommended he attend a full day kindergarten program instead of the standard half day.  At that time we declined the option because it was at a different school (same district) then my oldest child attended and because we had many questions about the program that went unanswered (that school did not return my calls to discuss the program...essentially all I received was a letter in the mail).

Fast forward to today...we focused a lot on Brandon over the summer and got him to the point he can write his first and last name without being told the letters.  He can identify 21 out of 26 capital letters, can identify 17 out of 26 lower case letters and can identify 20 out of 26 sounds that letters make (I tested him on this last night).  Our school gave him the DIBELS test sometime in the last 2 weeks and according to the school he scored very very low.  They reported he does not participate in class and seems to just go from area to area because that is what the group does.  We have a conference scheduled for Wednesday with the teacher and the principal which I believe is to discuss possibly transfering him to the full day intensive kindergarten program.

My concerns: This is a different school from the one he is attending although it is still in our school district. This requires him to ride a different bus (they send a small individual bus out for these students).  He currently attends the same school and rides the same bus as his older brother and all the kids in our neighborhood.  I'm concerned how this will make him feel...getting on a special bus going to a special school, etc...Obviously it's all how we present it to him but I'm struggling with how this will impact his self esteem.  I had trouble getting that school to return any of my phone calls when this was initially suggested...will this continue to be the case?  The size of the school is significantly larger.  Our school has 4 half day kindergarten classes and 2 first grade classes.  This school has 12 half day kindergarten classes, 2 all day kindergarten classes and 13 first grade classes.

FYI: the school asked permission to evaluate him for speech services (we had him evaluated at 3 and he passed but they said they are noticing some difficulties which I can see). We signed the permission for evaluation form on 10/2 so while he does not have an IEP yet I believe he will in the next month.  Does that have any impact on this proposed transition?

Sorry this was so long!  Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.  I'm trying to keep my emotions out of this decision but it's difficult.

Septmomtobe

Thanks Auntie!  I think you have a lot of valid points and I agree my mommygoggles get in the way a lot!

To clarify a few things: the class size is smaller. Current class is 23 kids with 1 teacher and 1 assistant.  Intesive kindergarten I believe is 15 kids with 1 teacher and 1 assistant so the ratio is quite lower. 

Yes, they did a kindergarten readiness test at registration with him.  I'm not sure what it entailed because they took him to a different area while we completed paperwork.  They did not receive any feedback from the pre k program.  While I think the pre k program is a wonderful program I think they concentrated a lot on the non academic portion and less on academics.  Several students in his class were recommended for the full day intensive kindie program. 

I think he is catching on but is just very shy in class.  When we work on his homework or review his school work he has very little difficulty completing it yet the teacher says otherwise.  For exmaple she reports he struggles naming letters yet at home does it with ease.  Shyness may not be the factor here...I think it's easier for him to respond "I don't know" and get away with it rather than answer the question.  Perhaps in a smaller class he wouldn't be able to get away with it so easily.

I don't think the concept of the "short bus" bothers me so much as he rides a short bus home from school now (there aren't many kids in our area on the way home).  I think it's more the issue of going to a different place on a different bus from the other kids.  But you are correct it is about how we present it to him.

We went into the school year knowing he wasn't ready for kindergarten but didn't feel like we had many options.  If we didn't send him to kindie this year our options were mostly day care type settings or another year in pre k.  We were prepared to hear he wasn't appropriate for first grade at the end of this year.  We didn't know at that time about this all day intensive program.  We've really only learned about the program this year from a call with his teacher.

Thank you again for your response.  Like I said I'm trying to look at this from a different stand point but of course it's always difficult to hear your child needs additional help.  I wish we would have agreed to the full day kindie from the start of the school year so he wouldn't need to transition 30 days into the school year.

funchicken

I think the full day kindie sounds like it could be really good for him. Lower ratios and more time to work on the material could make all the difference in preparing him for first grade. My DD is in half-day kindie, and it's tough for the teachers to fit in everything in that time much less give the kind of individual attention that it sounds like your DS needs.

lite-bright

You know, my experience has been that the more classroom time my child gets, with appropriate supports, the better off she is. We are paying $300 a month for full-day kindergarten (half-day is free) because it's absolutely the right choice and right placement, even better than half-day at the very same school. I would place a LOT of importance on full-day kindergarten for a child who is struggling, and I would send my child to another school and a transition to get it. Especially with a smaller class size. 

Having the supports is great, but it's also a more enriching experience IMO. They get to do things like music, art, P.E. and two recesses a day that the half-day class just doesn't have time for. 

It sounds like your district is being very proactive on addressing his needs and I would see that as an opportunity to take advantage of. I was warned at our first preschool IEP meeting that my DD1 could probably "float along" in a typical classroom because she's an agreeable, passive child, but she would not grow and progress the same as if she were being pushed and challenged and have staff/therapists working with her on her needs. I'm glad we took the team's advice because they were spot-on. 

funchicken

lite-bright said:

You know, my experience has been that the more classroom time my child gets, with appropriate supports, the better off she is. We are paying $300 a month for full-day kindergarten (half-day is free) because it's absolutely the right choice and right placement, even better than half-day at the very same school. I would place a LOT of importance on full-day kindergarten for a child who is struggling, and I would send my child to another school and a transition to get it. Especially with a smaller class size. 

Having the supports is great, but it's also a more enriching experience IMO. They get to do things like music, art, P.E. and two recesses a day that the half-day class just doesn't have time for. 

It sounds like your district is being very proactive on addressing his needs and I would see that as an opportunity to take advantage of. I was warned at our first preschool IEP meeting that my DD1 could probably "float along" in a typical classroom because she's an agreeable, passive child, but she would not grow and progress the same as if she were being pushed and challenged and have staff/therapists working with her on her needs. I'm glad we took the team's advice because they were spot-on. 

The bolded is so true.  Our school has a fantastic music room, but they don't have enough time to fit a music class into the schedule.  The half-day class also doesn't have as many social opportunities as the full day class.  They have one short recess, but that's the only down-time.  The bus ride is DD's favorite part of the day because that's when she gets to have more unstructured time with her friends.

spartybride3

Dibles at the kdgn level will look at letter names, sounds, and phoneme segmentation (oral test. Teacher says word and student has to say all individual sounds). All of the letters are lower case and are mixed up on the page. Also I don't think all letters are represented (my district uses aimsweb. We haven't used dibels in 5 yrs). We do kdgn screenings before school and many kids do not do well because they have limited academic exposure. For some measures 5 is average. On Spanish assessments 0 is average in fall of kdgn. ZERO!!!

Full day kdgn sounds like a nice option, but if it is a self-contained special Ed program, they can't ship him off over there without an iep. Also your child has the right to be educated at his home school with his non-disabled peers. Given my experience, I don't see why they can't meet his academic needs at his home school, with or without an iep. My vote would be to stay in the home school unless you really want a full day kdgn program.

FYI: I'm a school psychologist