I'm wondering if anyone has kept their child in preschool, rather than starting kindergarten. Michael will be 5 in July & should be starting
kindergarten in September. I know it's not the norm, but would like him to stay in preschool for one more year. I also know I may have to fight for it. It's a wonderful program, but due to his medical condition, he has missed so much school this year. Next year, I pray, there will not be the same medical issues & feel he will truly benefit from this program. His IEP meeting is scheduled for 3/29. Looking for any feed back. Thanks.

Ann Marie

I'm planning on asking for this option during our IEP. I just recently learned (although I'm sure this varies from state to state) that a child can only be held back once during the lower grades and once during upper grades. And since they want to include Sadie in a typical classroom.. I would like to make sure she is as ready as possible. I think a extra year in preschool is a good option. Here's the catcher- in our district, special ed. kids get 3 years to complete Jr. high and 5 years to complete high school- but have to be done with school by age 21. So.. it is cutting it close if you wait until they are 6 to start- actually Sadie will turn 21 a couple of days before she is suppose to graduate. I asked regional to do some research on how common it is to ask for another year of preschool. Let us know what you decide!

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Kari
wife to Scott (since 8/3/91)
and proud Mom to..
Kiersten 13 yrs.
Madison 11 yrs.
Hannah 8 yrs.
& Sadie(DS) 3 yrs. (6/17/04)





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I just asked John's preschool teacher about this the other day. She strongly encouraged me to have him start kindergarten on time. He's eligible to go to school until he's 21 and she said the life skills classes he'll get at the tail end of his education are more important than what he'll learn in preschool. I wish I had a crystal ball so I could see how it all turns out and decide based on that! Right now he just seems so little to me and so unprepared for "real" school. I feel like I have my work cut out for me in the next year trying to prepare him for kindergarten.

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Ann
Mom to Sally, Mark, Jane, John (12/02, DS), and Paul

We had Russell do an extra year of EC before entering Kindy. For us, Russell was very delayed and behind AND by the time we had moved and finally settled down, it was Russell's 4th teacher and placement and he was only 5 yrs old. We moved into MO in March and he JUST turned 5. So the first thing out of my mouth to his teacher was he would NOT be going to Kindy in the Fall and they never said anything to me about it otherwise.

We all agreed that for Russell, he needed some continuity and consistancy in appropriate placement before entering kindy.

I know plenty of other parents in our district though that did not have that option like I had for Russell, so for us it was purely based on Russell's needs, which is how it's suppose to be.

A.

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2007 St. Louis Buddy Walk Regan 14 (and a half), Russell 9 (and a half) DS, Autism, Visually Impaired, Reece 7.

We tried to get that done. The school wanted to pay for Briar to stay there and then start regular school. THe thing was he was going to be skipping Kindergarden all together. That was the schools plan. The preschool Briar attended did not have the lisence or whatever it took to keep a child older that 5years.

Where we live if you turn 5 your public schools

Lori

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Lori
Wife to Wes (briarsdad)
Mom to Will( Briar(5)DS

Ann Marie, I can see you are from NY and am wondering where you are. In our district the age cut off is December 1st. If you are 5 before that day you are "eligible" for kindergarten. My understanding is if you are eligible and choose not to send the child, then the school district doesn't have to provide services at nursery school or at your home; they could require you to bring the child to the school for services at their convenience--I know in our district they schedule the services at 7:30 a.m. for kids in this category, which may or may not be a factor in your decision. Our Anna has a birthday mid-way through December so she is not kindergarten eligible until she is 5 3/4.

Another factor you might want to consider is what other, typical kids do in your district. Where we are, practically every boy born after June is kept back by their parents so they have an extra year of preschool. (For some reason the same does not apply to girls). My 13 year old son has a September birthday--he was the youngest child in his class pretty often, and sometimes the other boys were more than a year older than him. This was a problem for him because he was that much more immature and smaller than the other boys in his grade.

So I think you have a number of factors to consider--and give big consideration to the fact that schooling ends at age 21, so if you use up a year now on extra preschool that may hurt later on.

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Mary
Mom to Libby 6/92, Alex 9/93, Anna (DS)12/12/03

Please support the Down Syndrome Research and Treatment Foundation by sponsoring Anna at the NYC Romp for Research www.firstgiving.com/annasamigos07

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I think December 1 is the cutoff statewide, since it's that in our district as well. And our district also makes Kindergartners go to the school for services. My 5 year old goes to private Montessori but is bussed to the elementary school for services. It's annoying, but that's how they do it here.

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Ecki



MomMom of Kayla (Ds/Autism 4/5/04) and Laurie (PDD-NOS 7/12/01)

Our Blog - Opposite Kids
Kayla's Story http://www.ecki.com/kayla/

Thanks, guys for all the feed back. I just found out staying in his preschool is not not an option. It's just that this particular school is only allowed to accept kids up until 5 yrs. I'm sooo upset - I live in a small district so my options are not that great. Kindergarten in my district would be a self contained class (this year it's six kids), but a mix form kindergarten to 2nd grade (he's the youngest, at the moment). The other option is a BOCES program. I'm in the process of setting up a visit, but I think it also will be mixed grades & I'm not really comfortable with that.