Searching for our wandering beach:
It's too windy:
Just us two:
Coloring in the lines:
Doing the Dinosaur March into Windwardside with her cousin Alma and Mama:
These past few weeks have been filled with school tours instead of days at the beach or listening to the tree frogs at night. I have seen a few schools that look like they would be a good fit for Eliza for next year when she leaves Gramercy, but most of them have very few spots available. One school had as little as 2 and one had as many as 36 spots. The school with the 36 openings has over 500 applications for those spots. I don't even think William and Mary had that high of a ratio of applicants to spots. This all just seems surreal for Kindergarten, and makes homeschooling Eliza to the sound of tree frogs and crashing waves look pretty attractive.
Wow. That is...competitive. How do they pick from the application pool? Are they "rating" these kindergarteners or is it by lottery?
ReplyDeleteIn the private schools or non-public state funded schools, the admissions directors apparently look for a group of children who will have similar needs, some who would be models and kids who need models. The schools also look at the neuropscyhological evals to see if they can serve that particular child's needs (speech, learning, emotional needs etc.) In the public schools, if your child is going into general ed, you are placed in your neighborhood school. If the child is going into the special ed program, the goal is to put the child in the nearest school with a special ed program, but there may not be room there, so the child may be placed in an alternative location.
ReplyDeleteNot sure this makes any sense!
2012 is Henry's kindergarten year. Most people wait until that spring to register around here. I am planning, touring and strategizing now. People say I'm over-thinking it. I don't agree. These are the most important years. Keep us posted!
ReplyDeleteSo does that mean no matter where she goes, she's going to be in an inclusion classroom?
ReplyDeleteEmery's evaluation is coming up next month and obviously it's much different here, but the more I'm reading about inclusion schools the more I'm leaning towards it.
The answer my dear Sarah is, "it depends." Some have populations of kids only with speech/language impairments at the kindergarten level, other schools have kindergartners with other health issues or emotional issues. Some schools are inclusion programs, others are not. So a school may look attractive because there is a small class size (8 to 12) but all of the kids have speech impairments. Another school may be attractive because it is an integrated program, but has 25 kids in the class with a regular teacher and a special ed teacher. And then there is the price tag...but that is a whole other post.
ReplyDeleteI think I like it better where people tell me what to do and I do it and then passive-aggressive complain about it to anyone who will listen but can't do anything about it. Course, we could call that our political system. Oh, never mind.
ReplyDeleteAny ideas what you want to do?
I am hoping someone tells me what to do, or win the lottery :)
ReplyDeleteHello Anne,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is so informative! There are lots of options for typical children but for special needs kids we have few options and don't know which would be the best. Please keep us posted so we will be benefited. Don't you like the idea of regular class with personal aid in a public school? I know private schools are always good in academics and Eliza is smart so may be private is a good option for her but for some special needs kids do you think public school is the only choice?
Thank you so very much for sharing your personal thoughts with us.
kathy.
Kathy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. I think the private schools offer some excellent options for kids with special needs and I am certainly looking at those. I suppose what I find so frustrating is the process of locating a school and, if it is a private school, to get funding for that school.
Perhaps I just yearn for the simple choice my parents had: the public school on one corner or the Catholic school on the next corner.