[leenab]

I know big title. But we're at a crossroads with R. He's been homeschooled now for 2 years and has some special needs (sensory issues which affect his learning, ADHD and most likely some learning disabilities and his expressive language disorder/delay is back so it would seem.)

DH thinks he should go to public school as they can help him more. He has made tremondous progress in the last 2 years (going from not knowing his colors to being able to read, write, spell and do basic math.) In school he'd be in 1st grade. While homeschooling he's at the end of 1st and having problems with double didgit addition (for the last 3 months).

If he does go to public school he'll most likely need an IEP, probably resource room help with math and reading, speech therapy and some OT. If we enroll him is it a good idea to get a child study eval before school starts? Or wait until he starts to have problems, which knowing how much he knows he may do fine for a while. The student teacher ratios are looking like 24+ children to 1 teacher.

Our other option is a private school in which there are good ratios, one teacher and one aide per 15 students max. It will more likely be about 10 students though. And he'll get more attention from his teacher. I don't know if they have resource room help though or do IEPs. So we'd have private OT and speech which we're fine with.

The other option is to continue to homeschool R. Dh doesn't really like this option as he feels it's time for R to "leave the nest" and learn his social school graces.

Our other son O will continue to be homeschooled as he's not having any academic or social problems. Dh agrees that for the time being homeschooling is working for O.

Any thoughts???
Thanks,
Leena

[lucyjoy]

Just a thought-you can send him to school part time and for particular things. The schools like to tell you you can't, but you can. Might be worth checking into as I'm sure he benefits from the one to one he gets from you.

[leenab]

I wish part-time public school was an option. But here in NJ it's either full-time or no-time. A half day option would work really well for R, and give him the best of public school and homeschool. One of our neighboroing state's offers it..hmmm...maybe we should consider moving(only half serious about that).

Even if R attend public or private school I'll still work with him in the evenings and weekends. I know he'll need extra help.

[lucyjoy]

Did you check to see exactly how the law reads? The school district tried to give me the "we don't do part time school" line as it's inconvenient. I had to show them how the law actually read before I could do it.

Private schools tend to be more lenient on the part time schooling, especially if it's a christian based school.

[ajjhmf]

Another idea might be a charter school. I don't know if your stat has them, but they offers them, but it's worth checking. Charter schools are still public schools and are required to do IEPs and such. We're actually doing a homeschooling charter school with J. They provide a good homeschooling curriculum, I teach it, but have resources for IEPs and 504 plans. J and I have a 'teacher' who works with me as J's teacher and checks that J is on track academically. We're getting an IEP for the fall for speech and OT. And if we eventually feel he needs additional help academically, they provide tutors through an IEP as well.

Just a thought.

Jenny

[mommyoftwo]

I am a special education teacher in the public school system of PA..If you put him into public school, I would start the IEP process now. I think you are asking for trouble if you wait til later in the year. He would have to transition twice..once in September, and once again when he starts using the resource room. I would think his frustration level would be less if he had is IEP from day one...Good luck.

[leenab]

NJ doesn't have online charter schools, just physical ones, none in our county though. So it would put us on the out of county waiting list.

I didn't think about the transition part of it. I know going to school is going to be hard enough on him, let alone changing rooms midway through the year.

Tomorrow R sees his neurologist to get results of his EEG and discuss medication. And we're going to discuss education options with him at that point as well.

We need to decide soon so we can get R used to the idea of some change.

[coy_regina]

We've spent the last 4 years trying to work with the school system to get help for our dd. We homeschool for several reasons, including some physical: she gets migraines under fluorescent lights, has bladder control problems, etc.

Our school district will test (and found that she needed OT and Speech) but will not provide those services. Every therapist we talk to says they will provide services, and then it works its way up the chain to the director and she says "no." In her words, "You chose to homeschool. You have to live with the consequences." (Somebody feeling a little threatened???)

Having said that, the public school therapists that do the testing for us (we've been twice in 4 years) are great. Some have even sent homework and exercises for us and let us call them for more when we finish what we have. They really do care about the kids and are frustrated with the administration.

And when they review with us the help dd is getting (the private reading specialists we have because of her dyslexia, our OT and Speech therapists that work with us when insurance is paying) they are always impressed. Several of them have commented on how great it is that she is getting so much individual attention and that she is avoiding the stigma associated with the classes she would be in if she was in ps.

You might check out www.nathhan.com. It's a website dedicated to homeschooling special needs kids.

Hope that helps. No matter what you chose, you can change later. And I agree about the IEP. The sooner you can get that determined the better.