Preschool Part 2

Community Friends

Well they determined that Mary is still not eligible for Special Ed. So they found her a spot in a special ed class as a "community friend." What is a community friend you ask? It's a "typical developing" child in a special ed class to help the special ed students mainstream and learn social behavior. She starts at this new school in this new class in a couple of weeks after spring break. And she'll continue until the end of the school year on June 8.


But since she's a "typically developing" child in the classroom, she will not have an IEP nor will they be documenting her behavior or progress. Luckily as her mother, I think that all she needs right now is exposure to other children in a classroom setting. We will have to wait until she gets older to see if she will do well in a general curriculum class.


Since there is no general curriculum class for preschool in the state of California, we will have to wait for Kindergarten. Then we will have to wait and see how she does in a regular Kindergarten class and if any problems arise then, I guess we'll deal with it then. Thank goodness we still get therapy through the Regional Center because the school district is falling a little short. At least they got her in as a "friend" for now and that means she won't miss out on preschool this year.

As a post script, I should note that I could send Mary to a private preschool. Except, she is not potty trained yet and private schools like to see that. And private schools usually aren't personnel equipped to deal with autism and it's many facets. And not to mention she'd probably go to school only 2 days a week instead of 4 (Yes, public preschool is 4 days a week.) because that's what we can afford.

Preschool

Oh man, I just saw this post I was working on from 2/5. I was writing a draft and then forgot I guess. Here it is.

Mary began preschool just a little over a week ago. Now there's kind of a whole story behind her going to preschool. Because she's autistic and has some trouble potty training, we had a hard time finding a private preschool for her. Also not to mention the totally obsenly crazy price of about $1000 a month for full time preschool.


Oceanside Unified School District in Southern California, has done their assessment of Mary and determined that she doesn't need any special education. But since I was able to get and actual diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder from UCSD, then OUSD has offered to place Mary temporarily in a special ed class as a school in our neighborhood. Then in a month or so of school they will reassess Mary to see if she is getting any benefit from school.


Mary loves school, by the way. She even wanted to go to school on Saturday. She goes four days a week for three hours each day and it seems like a wonderful class. She has a great teacher who has 25 years experience with special education. I am worried becuase Mary is so high functioning that people who assess her usually believe that she doesn't need any help. I want her to reach her potential, not just perform adaquately because everyone felt she could do "fine" without any assisstance. I hope the new teacher will see that Mary is very smart and agrees that Mary would benefit grately from preschool this year and next.


See next post for an update...