Transitioning from PreK to Kindergarten

December 19, 2007

Me again! Sorry to be so needy, but we are a bit in crisis here. We

live in an area with few resources for special education. The public

school system in our county (Florida) offers a VE (varying

exceptionalities) class, an LLI (Language and Learning Impaired)

program that is K-2, and a self-contained autism class that we would

like to avoid. My daughter is turning 5 soon (severe apraxia, PDD-

NOS diagnosis) and will be transitioning to Kindergarten. We have

heard different thoughts on holding the apraxic child back with some

people insisting 2 years of PreK is best. Many people we talk to

here feel like allowing the child to transition to Kindergarten and

then letting them repeat Kindergarten is the best choice. I am

completely at a loss of what to do. I see no really good options for

my daughter at all. We have gotten no good recommendations for any

program here except for a transitional Kindergarten class that is in

the next county (we would have to move) and has 28 or more students.

Private schools are not an option as none in the area have the

resources to help special needs children. None of the schools are

fabulous about meeting the children's needs here and though

accomodations can be put in her IEP (she uses PECS currently), I

still don't know what our best choice would be since all of the

choices seem... well, mediocre or worse. (by the way, I do know my

rights and know we could fight the school system, but the way things

are set up in our county, are options would still be pretty limited.)

If anyone has any thoughts, I would appreciate it.

Thanks so much,

Recommended Posts