New School

Justin started at his new school last Monday.  At the kindergarten orientation earlier this month I was able to speak with the school principal and the speech pathologist regarding my concerns on J's readiness and the speech pathologist mentioned an ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education) program where J could be mainstreamed into kindergarten.  At the speech pathologists urging, I contacted the Director of Special Services to find out more about the program.  But before I heard back from Special Services I got a call from the Special Education teacher at J's new school.  As it turns out, the speech pathologist gave her my contact information.  The teacher, sensing my difficulty with making a decision on J's readiness, suggested we transfer J to her class and she could evaluate his readiness. 

I must say the whole process went pretty quickly; I enrolled J in the district, faxed his IEP to the Special Services department and we took J to the school to meet his new teacher the Friday before he started.  J probably could've started sooner but we delayed the final enrollment appointment because things were so hectic with Carlene's wedding.  I must say that in just two weeks I'm very happy with our decision to switch J mid year.  Even though it's only a half day program J will receive so much more speech therapy because the class has a fully dedicated speech therapist in their classroom on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  So J will receive 40 minutes of individual therapy, in addition to group therapy the rest of the day.  They also have music therapy every Thursday where a guitarist comes to the classroom and plays songs and they have a book buddy program where 3rd graders come to the classroom to read them stories, do arts & crafts and play games with them.  The class has PE on Mondays and once the weather gets nice they'll start going outside every day.  Another plus is that there are 3 para-pros in the classroom in addition to his teacher, which means that J gets much more individualized attention compared to his old school where there were only 2 adults in the classroom.  The only downside of making this switch is that the program is only half day so I end up spending my entire lunch break shuttling J back and forth.     But it's totally worth it. 

When we met with J's teacher the Friday before he started she gave us a classroom list with pictures of all the kids, the para's and herself.  It was nice to go over the faces he'd be seeing his first day of class.  She also gave us a calendar which lists the weeks topics/concepts taught in class which makes it easier for us to ask J questions about his day.  On Thursday the teacher sent home a packet with all of J's work that week , along with a letter welcoming J to the class.  So yeah, this switch is totally worth it!!!

A bonus for J is that he gets to ride the bus home from school.  He loves it so much he cries when he has to get off, even the first day when he was asleep when the bus arrived at the house.