Redshirting for SN children?

The Redshirting question on the parenting board got me thinking...

DS' birthday is 10/13 and I therefore assume I have the option of keeping him back. Right now (I'm 2 years early for this question) I cannot see any benefit to starting him at 4-turning 5 in October. In my head it would give him an extra year to improve upon all his delays.

Is there another side of it I dont see? The school district can't make me put him in kindergarten right? He could still go to his special preschool?

Redshirting for SN children?

from my understanding, he has to start K, otherwise you will loose ALL services.

Redshirting for SN children?

We just went through this last year....

You have to start Kindergarten in order to get services. I do know a few people that didn't and went the lawsuit route but as a general rule they have to start Kindergarten "on schedule". We retained DD this year and she is doing K again (well she's in Special Ed class and they really don't have grades it's K-2, so she's in the same placement again this year) and next year she will be mainstreamed into a 1st grade class.

Re: Redshirting for SN children?

Re: Redshirting for SN children?

This is the way it was explained to me:
If the child is eligible for any services, they must be registered for Kindergarten to receive services. I think it is possible for the child to keep the child back a year, but the district will not pay for another school program.

You might be able to enroll the child in a private Kindergarten, and get speech or another related service and then have them repeat K if necessary the next year, but they still have to be registered in the district for the first year. Our district doesn't have full day K, so I think this is something that comes up a lot here.

If your child is in a center based program for preschool (which I think is the case), I don't think you can hold him back unless you want to pay out of pocket.

My DS's birthday is later than yours, we missed the cutoff by days. I think it was great for him to start Kindergarten this year. He spent the last year and a half in the same class at his preschool and if he stayed, he would have been in the same class again. I think he was ready for the change and was ready to move on.

Message edited 1/2/2013 3:49:46 PM.

Re: Redshirting for SN children?

DS will start K when he is almost 6 because of the cutoffs down here. I'm happy about that because I think he will benefit, however I did not even think about the rules around it.

Re: Redshirting for SN children?

DS is turned 5 in July and our cutoff in NJ is in October.

We never had any hesitation in sending him to Kindergarten so I can't say for certain whether he would have lost services. However, he was ready for Kindergarten. Of course with support. I couldn't see him repeating the same preschool program. What my SD did was to put him in their contained LLD K-2 class so that it was a smaller ratio and more individualized. This was there "just in case" measure but there intention all along was to ease him into the mainstream class and only use the LLD class if he needed a break. He stayed in that class for 2 days and then was fully moved to the mainstream class with a shared aid and pullout services. He has never gone back. Don't regret my decision at all...it was the right one for him.

It really is a decision that needs to be made on a case by case basis and what you are comfortable with.