Re: not starting kindergarten in NYC

[Guest guest]

Deborah,

Request in writing that you do not feel your son is emotionally, socially,

academically ready for kindergarten and that you feel another year of a

preschool program is needed. This being the case, what will your child's

placement be and what services will the district provide for your child who is

diagnosed with ___________. Having copies of private evals done by a

developmental pediatrician, speech pathologist and/or OT with a treatment plan

is highly recommended. If you can get a recommendation from his current

special ed teacher, therapists, and aides who work with your son on a daily

basis is good too.

Who is his current caseworker for the IEP he has now? She should be brought

into the loop by your requesting a placement meeting in writing. You may want

to talk prior to writing to feel them out. This is different from an annual

review of your child's IEP vs. an evaluation meeting where more tests are

needed. I also found that having my own outside testing provided more power on

my side.

At one point I recommended services but did not request for tuition

reimbursement b/c I knew I would never get approval. I felt services and

therapy frequency was more important than the $2000 I had to spend on preschool

tuition for the year.

It seems whenever I talked on the phone I was denied a majority of ideas. The

minute I faxed a letter to the Director of Special Educaiton Services requesting

more sessions, a change in placement, request for an OT eval, etc. I was taken

more seriously and documents provide a better paper trail for when you need to

go to mediation. Every letter was also cc: to the Superintendant of Schools for

my district and to the Mayor of my township. I'm not sure who the boss of the

special ed dept of NYC is, but it may be the Chancellor.

Hope this helps.

Joanne Mulholland

[ ] not starting kindergarten in NYC

Hi all,

My son Nigel, who was 4 in Nov. 2003, is supposed to start

kindergarten this coming Sept. (the cut off date for kindrgarten is

Dec. 31st in NYC). It has been a real battle to find a public school

in NYC that will let him start the following sept. (even though no

one can make me start him, they all said that if I held him back,

they would put him directly into the first grade) can you believe

it? Apparently it is up to each individual principal. I finally

found a school that agreed to let him start kindergarten the

following Sept. but now my problem is this: every one is telling me

that because he's " supposed " to be in kindergarten he is not eligible

for any services through the board of Ed. next year. My son still

desparately needs speech therapy and my IEP meeting is coming up on

Fri. If anyone has any thoughts or comments about what to say or who

to get letters from, I would greatly appreciate it, or if anyone has

had a similar situation in NYC or else where, I just don't know what

to do at this point. But I am absolutely sure that starting him in

kindergarten when he is 4 would be a mistake.

Thanks for listening,

Deborah, (mom to Nigel, 4, severe apraxia)

[Guest guest]

deborah

we live on long island and my son who turned 4 last october has been approved

to go to kindergarten in the same school he went to preschool and then repeat

kindergarten mainstream the year after. this was largely due to his speech

and his late birthday. so technically he is going to kindergarten but in a

setting that he already knows and is more of an extension of preschool. i don't

know if this is possible for you. but just giving you ideas. sometimes it is

better to continue from kindergarten to first grade in the same school. does

your son's preschool have a kindergarten class too?

lori

[Guest guest]

Hi

Not the Lori who you are responding to, but I live in Suffolk, Mt. Sinai, you

can email me.

Lori J.

mother to verbal apraxia 4.8

[Guest guest]

hi lori,

I was wondering where in long island you live. I know your helping deborah but

that is something I would like to do for my son. I live in suffolk county in

long island

chris

boomr3@... wrote:

deborah

we live on long island and my son who turned 4 last october has been approved

to go to kindergarten in the same school he went to preschool and then repeat

kindergarten mainstream the year after. this was largely due to his speech

and his late birthday. so technically he is going to kindergarten but in a

setting that he already knows and is more of an extension of preschool. i don't

know if this is possible for you. but just giving you ideas. sometimes it is

better to continue from kindergarten to first grade in the same school. does

your son's preschool have a kindergarten class too?

lori

[Guest guest]

chris

we live in northport, but my son goes to school in nassau at variety

children's learning center in syosset.

lori