‘The special-needs kindergarten crunch’
September 25th, 2008From the New York Times, ‘Lesson Plans’ blog:
Christine Gralow, a pre-school special needs teacher in New York City, says children with disabilities and their families have an especially difficult time dealing with the city’s “culture of cut-throat competition” in kindergarten admissions. She recalls a student whose family had to move out of the city to find an appropriate kindergarten placement for their son, who is on the autism spectrum.
All this is not to say that there are no good public kindergartens in New York City, or no good public kindergarten programs for special needs children. They do exist, and some parents of special-needs kids — those enough lucky to live in one of the city’s coveted public education districts — do find good placements for their kids in well-run team-teaching classrooms, or, when appropriate, in well-run self-contained classrooms. But such placements are few and far between. Even in the coveted districts, I’ve rarely seen an appropriate special-needs kindergarten placement come without a parent struggle.
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September 28th, 2008 at 8:49 am
It actually starts earlier than that. Finding a good pre-k program is tough too. For kindergarten, I did what you’re not supposed to do. I took out the phone book and called the local schools. That of course failed, because they’re not supposed to speak with you, but some kind administrators do. It allowed me to compile some information.
One of my son’s therapists told me of a truely unique program that focused on Occupational Therapy and how it should relate to Speech. I visited the program when the administrator took pity on me. Since Speech and OT were my top priorities, I made a case that this program alone would address my son’s needs the best. My local district gave me a hard time and suggested alternatives. One of the sites they sent me to boasted that they had obtained a variance that would allow them to keep kids in the kindergarten room until they were 8 years old. The idea of keeping my sweet little 5 year old with Down syndrome in a class with older kids who may have emotional problems was out of the question.
I created a matrix comparing all the programs they sent me to. By the time I had jumped through all the hoops, my district put me through the program I wanted him in was full. So I emailed Joel Klein (the chancellor) on a Sunday evening telling him that the delays the district created took away my son’s rights to an appropriate education. On The following Tuesday morning I got an email from a deputy superintendant. Miraculously they found an opening. He’s now in fifth grade in the same program and it has been great. Totally worth the extra effort.