Indigo gave a lot of good advice above. My DD7 is SSA in math, but only one year. Her math teacher told me that the first day that she came into their classroom, several kids cheerfully called out her name as soon as they saw her at the door. Apparently they remembered her from the previous year and were happy to see her back. I found that to be very encouraging. At least one of the girls from the older class is also in her new Girl Scout troop. We will be inviting one of the other girls to her birthday party, as she rides the same bus and lives in the neighborhood.
I can see how it would be more difficult with a 2-yr gap. And I'm not sure that DD's friendliness with any of the students will ever go beyond surface-level, but I just wanted to chime in with some positive social experience from SSA.
