MCPS Repeating a year in PEP

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have experience in advocating for their child to stay in PEP in MCPS for an additional year before beginning kindergarten? We believe it would benefit our child to have another year in PEP. Our child is flourishing in their current classroom, but has not met all of the current IEP goals and there is still room to grow in the current environment, including steps we have discussed with the teacher. We have visited our kindergarten options and believe that we would risk losing some of the gains we have seen this year in the faster paced kindergarten class that the PEP team is recommending.

Any suggestions for how to frame this request?

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

K is not fast paced. I'd move ahead and ask for supports and get private services if you are not doing them.

[Anonymous]

In the IEP meeting i would say DC hasn’t met all the goals so you don’t feel comfortable moving to K.

[Anonymous]

^^^ you’ll also need to prove a delay by a certain amount for eligibility in the program so I’d make sure to do some research on NT milestones (maybe ages and stages? I’m not sure but google will have something) to pull from.

[Anonymous]

The more pertinent question is whether anyone was ever successful for repeating PEP. In the older grades no one is ever held back in public schools anymore.

[Anonymous]

You can delay K but mcps will not allow your child to remain in PEP. The delay would be at your expense in a private pre-k classroom. This is very common. But mcps will not allow a five year old to stay in pre-k.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the poster who said that K is not fast paced. We got an extra year in PEP Collab because DC missed the cutoff. but when DC went to K, it was very slow paced.

[Anonymous]

This is such a good question! In other parts of the country, some school systems offer transitional kindergarten for kids who aren’t quite ready for fullkindergarten yet. It is also not uncommon for parents to have a child do an extra year of preschool if they will be young for their grade because of the age cutoff. Given that these exist for NT kids, it would seem surprising that such an approach would not exist for kids in special education. It could be worth looking at other districts and bringing that info to MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can delay K but mcps will not allow your child to remain in PEP. The delay would be at your expense in a private pre-k classroom. This is very common. But mcps will not allow a five year old to stay in pre-k.

+1

MCPS will much more readily allow your child to repeat K.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind how much your child will change between now and K. Also keep in mind the classroom you observed is late K. I would not hold a child back due to disability. My son with Apraxia seemed like he would never be ready for K and wow did I lose sleep. The difference from 4-5 was huge. He also had a supportive K teacher. You can call for an IEP meeting with the school in May/June. I did this and told them we wanted him placed with a teacher who could best understand his needs. A few days before school started I met with the teacher and explained his diagnosis and needs directly. He had a wonderful year. He is older now and one of the more mature kids in his grade. I’m glad we didn’t delay.

I also have an older child who struggled in K because we were late in diagnosing his disabilities (no early intervenion). I asked the school if they would let him repeat K if needed and they said they rarely allow it. The IEP team explained that children shouldn’t be retained for disabilities that will follow them. He did move on to first grade with school supports and lots of outside therapy. He is now a very successful high schooler. His disabilities did follow him (one is lifetime) but he learned to adapt and with accommodations he is an all honors A student and socially happy.

[Anonymous]

It is apparently very hard to get this approved. We did a year in a private SN school and also used public services via the private office.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all of the feedback. Just to clarify on the pacing: I am not saying that K is fast paced, but it moves faster than our child's current PEP 5 hour classroom. Our child has severe global development delays, so having time to comprehend and wait time for answering is critically important. The K lesson that I observed would have rushed right past our child (but appreciate the PP point on it being a K class late in the year) and my concern is that in a class that is moving too quickly we will see regression on important but still nascent comprehension/response skills.

With that said, really appreciate the thoughtful feedback here and general font of knowledge that is this board!

[Anonymous]

We did an extra year of pre-k at private school. Forest Knolls ES wouldn't let her stay in the physical disability pre-k program an extra year. They were very clear that they were fine with her doing a second year of kindergarten and that it would be automatic if she missed more than a certain number of days of kindergarten. It seemed to be out of their control.

[Anonymous]

If you are in PEP C or PEP Inc you would likely get a learning center placement in which case the typical K pace would not apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are in PEP C or PEP Inc you would likely get a learning center placement in which case the typical K pace would not apply.

Not true. At all.