NO
way would I put a child with a severe food allergy into a school environment (of any kind) without having a 504 plan in place to address it.
If you've not had much experience with kid's programming, er, that allergy thing can
really be a hassle. If your child has anaphylaxis history from really small exposures, this is not something to approach lightly. There are other ways of (more safely, if you'll pardon my bluntness here) getting that social experience. While a SpEd classroom might be a good fit for
some reasons, it may well be a nightmare on the food front.
And really, there seems to be little point in doing that until you know more about what sort of second e you're dealing with.
I'd look at what it would take to get early interventions rolling in other ways, given that your child
already has two exceptionalities that will be quite difficult to manage well even in a standard PreK setting, nevermind a SpEd one.
Basically, you have a 3e child, in all probability. Begin looking at "least worst" in terms of fit, because things are likely to be a series of compromises.
Full-time attendance at this point doesn't seem like a good way to do that. Not unless that third exceptionality is such that it needs VERY intensive, aggressive intervention, in which case that might take precedence. But you don't have that info yet, so no, I wouldn't enroll anyway until you have more info.
Maybe he's expressing a desire for more novel experiences when he's talking about going to school? Might be time for some enrichment options that you have a little more control over, I'm thinking. While
pre-school through your parks dept might not be worth it, maybe they have other opportunities for preK enrichment? Dance class, art classes, that kind of thing? Those provide that formal sort of environment, but in smaller doses and with less food.
ETA:
ask how I know all of this... go ahead.
Yeah. My daughter had a boatload of food allergies at this age, and we opted to avoid preschool entirely since our applications kept magically staying "on the waiting list" and equally magically, apparently we were always LAST on those waiting lists, since there were never-- and I do mean never-- any
openings... SIGH. Almost
all of her "school" experiences until she was about eight were Parks and Rec classes or enrichment via our public library, and mostly those required me to be in the room at all times. It doesn't seem to have hurt her any that I can see. Then again, she very definitely does not have ADD/ADHD/ASD, though at four, that picture was very much less clear. She
did seem to have some unusual quirks that pointed in those directions at times, but they were always situational and transient. She also has sleep issues and always has, but we've finally come to realize that this is partly GT, and partly genetics "other." At four, though, we were worried about her; I do understand that.
Just know that "can't sit still" and "sleep problems" aren't necessarily pathology. Some of that is being four and being gifted.
