So, I can use any help I can get on this one. DS4.5 is due to start Kindergarten in the fall. As some of you remember, he is in special ed preschool right now, mainly for social interaction reasons and has a diagnosis of PDD-NOS, which may or may not be correct (possibly Asperger's, possibly "just" quirky gifted). In 2 weeks we have a "placement" meeting at which his teacher, his OT and his ST and also the special ed director will recommend whether to hold him back (for social / high activity reasons) or whether to send him off to Kindergarten. They are also aware that we are considering homeschooling. And we DO want to give K a shot, simply because he LOVES school. He's not getting anything out of it academically but he loves being with other kids. (I wish he was one of those kids complaining about school since that would make our decisions a lot easier :().

And the placement meeting will also be his annual IEP meeting where we will go over what does or does not need to be done when he is in K. And here is where it gets complicated due to multiple issues.

1. Do we want to keep an IEP when he doesn't have too many problems right now? For practical reasons, I would probably want to keep it just in case he does have issues once he is in K so we don't have to fight for a new IEP and also I want to keep an eye on his pragmatic speech as that is the only occasional squeaky wheel at the moment. (other than constantly talking and always wanting to answer and just wanting all the attention because he just loves school :))

2. He has multiple food allergies for which at the moment he has some sort of a health plan but it is nothing formal. The only formal paper is a note from his doctor at the nurse's office regarding what he is allergic to and how to treat it and when to use the epi-pen and our authorization to give him treatment when necessary. The allergies are one area that REALLY worries me. Even now when he's with only 9 other kids and on a class designated school bus we have ran into issues where contrary to the class policy (no eggs allowed due to his severe allergy) he came home with Valentine's day snacks in his backpack where some of them had eggs in them ... clearly disclosed on the packaging) or when a substitute teacher told him when he wanted a snack he's not allowed that "one or two wouldn't hurt you"!!! And I can only imagine Kindergarten will be a lot harder to manage as he would be on a K-6 bus and in a class with 20 other kids. At least it's only half day so we wouldn't be dealing with lunches yet, only snacks but still. A lot of chances for exposure. They will make his class egg-free again but with our experience, we have trouble relying on the school staff making sure he really doesn't get exposed.

Plus, aside to eggs, he is also allergic to soy, though not as severely but did have an episode in the Fall when he started having problems breathing after having a glass of soy drink! So we will probably put soy on the zero tolerance list because of the reaction he had. (plus a Gluten free / Casein free diet that we are managing on our own but school knows about it and he has it written down by his doctor in his school papers)

So, my thinking is, having a DETAILED allergy management plan of some sort in his IEP to make sure nobody takes any short cuts and because it does affect his education. Plus we are worried about school bus rides as the buses do not have an epi-pen and he can come into contact with kids who for example had scrambled eggs for breakfast, didn't wash their hands and poof, here comes a reaction frown. Can we request a school bus with an epi-pen on board and trained bus driver??? (I know I could drive him to school but it would not be manageable given our younger one's sleep issues)

3. as of couple months ago, he is now officially allergic to cold (or to temperature changes). And living in Chicago's northern suburbs guarantees periods of serious cold! ... exposure while waiting for the bus ... BAD ... school experiments with cold water / ice ... BAD (After I contacted his pre-school teacher about his cold allergy and our attempt to keep him from any exposure she let him play in a sensory table full of ice and wondered why he broke out in hives. Hmmm, let me think about that ... what part of MINIMIZE EXPOSURE did you not understand?). So, again, I have no idea if this is something we can have in the IEP? When we had deep freeze over the winter, I ended up keeping him home those days because just couple seconds of that cold air outside made him break out in hives again and his face getting puffy. So maybe a note from a doctor saying if temps drop below ?F he will have excused absences???

4. Sleep issues. Something we have been battling since he was an infant and never solved the problem. He has trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. After about 5 months of sleeping only 3-4 hours a day last year he finally started responding to Melatonin but even that is not a sure thing and he has days when he's up all night and finally falls asleep around 4am or 5am and at that point I just don't see it being of any benefit trying to get him up at 7:30 to go to school? It is a long time documented medical issue for him. Not just bad parenting or our laziness or anything like that. Is this something that should or needs to be in an IEP??? If you have kids with similar sleep issues, how do you handle those days when your child was up all night???

Sorry to have made it this long but ... it's complicated frown. I see it screaming HOMESCHOOLING at me but I know how much he wants to be at school and we really want to try. I am thinking start K in the fall and if things aren't working the way we want them to or if the cold allergy or the other allergies become a serious issue, we'd pull him out then.

I am not even attempting to address giftedness with the school because the gifted pull out program doesn't start until 3rd grade and when I tried to show the school where he's at academically while in preschool, they didn't get it (he's 2-3 years ahead in math and while he's not reading yet, he's almost there. I'm pretty sure he will be reading when he goes to K in the fall). So, basically he goes to school to have fun and learns at home.

There is a chance the school will recommend holding him back due to his August birthday being pretty much the youngest one in his class in K combined with some of the PDD issues but there is absolutely NO way we would hold him back. He's very much ready to fun forward.

So, as I said, any advice would be appreciated. I have 2 weeks to figure out what I need / want. Also, are all these points something I should send to the Special Ed director so she is ready to incorporate it in the IEP as I'm sure she will come to the meeting with basically a copy of his old IEP with minor changes ready for me to sign it? ... She already thinks I'm difficult but we ARE on good terms ... I think? lol

Last edited by Mk13; 04/24/13 09:29 AM.