MCPS Repeating a year in PEP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Been there done that and that was coming from classic.

[Anonymous]

I know a few families who have stayed an extra year in PEP, but my sense is that it was a fight.

[Anonymous]

We did. We had to write a letter to the princip of the school where the PEP program is. We just wrote all the reasons why we felt he needed another year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did. We had to write a letter to the princip of the school where the PEP program is. We just wrote all the reasons why we felt he needed another year.

Thanks, and glad to hear you were successful! We have been advised that we'll need to take the same route and write a letter to the principal, so working on that now. Do you have any advice?

And I guess stepping back, are you glad that he had another year? Did it achieve what you hoped?

Thanks for any thoughts!

[Anonymous]

you can keep in PEP, legally allowed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGjze3afTL8

[Anonymous]

The truth is that most kids with IEP in PEP could benefit from another year of PEP. PEP is one of the best things about MCPS. But in reality your child would need to be failing to meet a lot of goals and you would have to push super hard for it. In most cases they encourage you to go to K with "a strong IEP". I think it's BS. Most people who want another year before K end up going to a private junior K (either in SN school or inclusive private environment).

[Anonymous]

Ask for it. Advocate strongly. Use Covid loss if you need and say another year in PEP is really needed. Be prepared to switch to a different program. It is possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask for it. Advocate strongly. Use Covid loss if you need and say another year in PEP is really needed. Be prepared to switch to a different program. It is possible.

Covid loss. These kids were infants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The truth is that most kids with IEP in PEP could benefit from another year of PEP. PEP is one of the best things about MCPS. But in reality your child would need to be failing to meet a lot of goals and you would have to push super hard for it. In most cases they encourage you to go to K with "a strong IEP". I think it's BS. Most people who want another year before K end up going to a private junior K (either in SN school or inclusive private environment).

The reason it's one of the best things is that they limit class sizes. The only way that works is because kids move out when they reach statutory age for kindergarten, making room for newly 3-year-olds. Nothing happens in a vacuum.

[Anonymous]

I speak from my experience. My child had troubles at private daycare with behavior/social emotion.PEP school helped a lot teaching/reinforence kids with more structures and sitting in groups with lower kid/teacher ratio in the first year. Those special teachers know what they are doing. We did PEP school & private daycare combo because we need childcare. I saw less benefits for my child to stay in 2nd year gradually, and my kid would rather stay at private daycare to play longer. She did not get much attention/care at private daycare with 24 kids/2 kids. She told me teachers screaming at every kids. She needed to get used to it since public school ratio was more worse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did. We had to write a letter to the princip of the school where the PEP program is. We just wrote all the reasons why we felt he needed another year.

Interesting. I am a former PEP parent and have never heard of anybody being allowed to stay in PEP rather than moving on to Kindergarten. Always good stuff on DCUM and the one thing that you can count on in MCPS is that there is always an exception! When we explored keeping a kid in PEP, we were told there are too many eligible kids to allow kids to "repeat" rather than moving on to Kindergarten. We were told to go the private pre-k route if we wanted to delay kindergarten.

I am curious about folks' assertion that not meeting IEP goals is a reason to hold back a kid and keep them in PEP for another year. MCPS doesn't generally hold kids back in older grades due to not meeting IEP goals. Why would PEP be different? I know that Principals have a lot of autonomy for placing kids in their schools (like for a COSA), but I did not think that they had the ability to arbitrarily place kids in special ed programs like PEP.

[Anonymous]

I used to work in PEP and know of one, maybe two families that got another year in PEP.....and this was with a fight. And also, this was at least 12 years ago.
It sounds like they think your child can handle it. I would make sure your IEP has lots of supports built in and do Kindergarten.

[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.

Exactly. No school system would.