Decisions and more decisions

JP does not qualify for special education summer school. He has not qualified since his first year. I could have fought it. Their rational was that during his first summer he did not regress. Of course not! That is the summer we started our home program. When we did his IEP in April we were aiming for 2 word utterances. When I reconvened the IEP team in September we adjusted as he was averaging 5 word sentences. Yeah, he didn't regress. I have the cancelled paychecks for the 20+ hours of home help we hired and trained. He sure as hell better not have regressed!

So anyway, the next summer they dropped us from services because he wasn't at risk for regressing. I didn't fight it. I wasn't convinced the school program was really going to move him forward anyway. It really felt more like a couple hours of daycare for a couple weeks of the summer. We opted to pay for a Recreational Therapy camp at a local facility here in town. This camp is for kids with various disabilities. It was more fun than therapy but when you have a kid with social issues...fun is therapy! Plus they have a buddy assigned every kid. So JP was set to get 1 on 1 interaction. So anyway, that is what we did last summer.

This summer I was sort of at a loss of what to do. I had prepared to push the school for summer services so that we could keep him in the "school" mode straight into Kindergarten. I read somewhere in the legal mumbo jumbo that summer services are critical during transition phases. So I was going to play it up that way.

But I didn't have to. The elementary school that we are going to had a special program for incoming Kindergartners. The kids will attend Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for a couple hours. This was open to all Kindergartners at our neighborhood school. That is roughly 80 kids. They could only accept 30 into the program. At parent night all of the parents were scrambling to get their application in. I locked into the program through my IEP.

But now that I talk to the principal, they only have 12 kids coming! Can you believe that! Us special ed parents have to fight for everything and the general ed population just threw away (6 weeks x 7.5 hours) services to help prepare/ease their children into Kindergarten. (I ask myself what happens to that grant money!) Unfortunately, Mrs. A (his Kindergarten teacher) was not going to be teaching the classes but it was going to be a chance for him to get to know a few children from his upcoming class.

Well, the principal asked me a couple hard questions. Because of his academics being advanced she thought JP might benefit more from attending with the 1st graders. These are kids coming back for summer services. This class will be taught by the Resource teacher and a 1st grade teacher. This will be JP's resource teacher and the first grade teacher will likely be his teacher next year as she has taught for 17 years in a self contained special ed room.

Here are my thoughts:

1. The kindergarten program will only have 12 kids. Only 3 will be faces JP will see next year. The teacher of this program has no experience with special education or autism. The para they would put in with him would not have experience either. Because JP doesn't get adult support 100% of the time he would only qualify for 1 1/2 hours ( out of 2 1/2 days) of support at summer school. (However, I was invited to meet with the teacher before summer school to help her understand JP's issues)

2. Many Kindergartners will not have been in preschool before. They will be learning how to sit with the group and behave. JP has already been through 3 years of this. However, all it will take is one hyperactive child running around and JP will be up running with him. Without an adult to remind him to sit quietly we will very likely lose those classroom skills. I fear him "learning bad habits". I am not sure the teacher/para will understand what kind of support he needs in this situation. I fear regression.

3. I worry that he is already socially behind his fellow 5 year olds. Won't his social issues be even more apparent with the 1st graders? Also, who is to say these 1st graders aren't in summer school for "behavioral" issues? Who is to say that they will be better role models?

4. Putting him in with the 1st graders will allow him to meet his resource teacher and his 1st grade teacher. This will give them insights into his issues. They would be invested in his success since they will have future relationships with him and me.

So anyway, I bit the bullet and agreed to the 1st grade placement. I just felt that it had the most positives. I had hoped that this program could have given him a boost with some of the peers from his class but atleast it will give him a boost with his relationship with the adults.

We'll start next Tuesday. I hope it goes well. How is a parent ever to know what is right?