PEP logistic questions

[Anonymous]

My 3 year old likely will be in PEP pilot or PEP classic come fall. If your have advice on what worked best for the day in terms of logistics, that'd be greatly appreciated.

What did you find worked best for childcare for the day before or after PEP class? Daycare/nanny?

If it's AM PEP, does the bus pickup from your house and the sends him from PEP class to daycare? If not, do you dropoff yourself? I see that some PEP classes don't start until 930, so trying to see how I would need to modify my work schedule if I had to do dropoff.

If it's PM PEP, how do you handle lunch/nap time? Does the child no longer get to nap or has to nap on the bus?

[Anonymous]

We did PEP for 2 yrs. Yr 1 my child was enrolled in full day preschool/daycare. I dropped off in the morning and picked up in the evening. The bus picked up and dropped off at day care. The daycare worked out the nap and lunch schedule. PEP likes to include lunch if possible. Most full day centers have been through this before and know the routine.

Yr 2 I moved my son to a 1/2 day morning program that had before and after care. The bus picked up and dropped off at the preschool and my son went into aftercare.

My son often napped on the bus but that was not by design. Both yrs he had nap built into his after care schedule.

[Anonymous]

at our PEP Pilot lunch is not a thing. They have a snack but not a meal. At the IEP meeting be sure to request bus. You can also indicate preference for AM or PM, but you can get a far away placement, so the bus ride might be rather lengthy. Also, at 3 he is still pretty young, some people opt to attend PEP not 5 days but 3 or 4 days a week - this needs to be written into IEP.

We ended up in 2 programs (PEP and private one part time) and a nanny to shuttle, since private program is too far.

[Anonymous]

The PEP calendar is not the same as the MCPS calendar. That is the no. 1 thing to know. PEP starts laters, ends earlier and has breaks regular school does not have. If you work you probably want to maintain your current set-up. Also know that there are geographic restrictions if you want a different pick up and drop off site. It all has to be in the cluster. If in doubt put the daycare location in the school locater tool on the MCPS website.