Just found this forum and am hoping your experience can help us with a few things. DD just completed an astonishingly awful year of kindergarten at a regional magnet school which we selected in part due to the multi-age classroom setting. She had always been �way ahead of the curve� on most things but also was in private OT for a fine motor deficit. We assumed she would receive kindergarten level instruction where needed and more advanced instruction where needed. She ended up receiving little to no instruction at all. During her first week of kindergarten she actually lost playground privileges when she was unable to write a specific sentence despite the teacher being aware of her fine motor deficit. It only went downhill from there. By the end of the year our happy, outgoing, confident 6 year old was clinically anxious.
The last weeks of the school year we were finally able to arrange for special ed testing to see if she could qualify for in-school OT. At the meeting we also pointed out our concerns about her reading � usually reading at or above grade level at home but barely willing to acknowledge that she knew her letters while at school. We thought this was the result of the anxiety she had developed in this school and made arrangements to enroll her in a wonderful (albeit very expensive) private school next year. The low key, no pressure environment that was focused on one-to-one teaching and no testing seemed perfect. We proceeded with the special ed eval primarily because we were told it would be a huge expense to do on our own later if for any reason it seemed to be needed.
Got the results last week and they showed a 40 point difference between her Verbal Comprehension Index and Perceptual Reasoning Index, which we are told places her in less than one half of one percent of the population. Various verbal comprehension scores in the 96th-98th percentile while Perceptual Reasoning, Processing Speed and Alphabet/Word Knowledge were all 5th percentile.
The special ed coordinator for the town has only seen 1 other kid with these types of scores in her 30+ year career; the school psych that did the testing had never seen anything like it. They are telling us the she NEEDS to be in a public school so that an integrated combination of special ed services can be provided. They also acknowledge that the town does not have a mechanism to offer enrichment prior to 4th grade so we are not sure if her comprehension strengths will be supported. They are taking a personal interest in her because they view her as a unique situation but they are also flying blind. The private school would have us contract with an Orton Gillingham specialist who would come to the school 4 days per week, at an additional cost of almost 50% of the already steep tuition. We would also continue to do OT privately, as well as potentially counseling for the anxiety.
Does she really need to be in a public school, at least until we figure out exactly what the special ed needs are? She would go to our local school � definitely won�t subject her to the magnet again. Can a private school meet her needs (12 kids to a classroom with 2 masters level teachers per room) without having someone in house coordinating the special ed component? Can the public school actually meet her needs if they have not seen this situation in the past 25 years or so? We are confident that her anxiety and comprehension are better suited to the private. The special ed and our wallet, though, make us wonder if public really is the better option. Any ideas? All input is welcome.
Thanks in advance.
