S/o social accommodations in public school

[Anonymous]

People started to discuss this in the thread about maddux, but I wanted to start its own thread. For those of you who have been successful in public school, what kind of social accommodations do you have? My fear is that in a large classroom, my dd would just shut down and not engage at all with her peers. And the idea of her being out in recess with 50+ kids and no play facilitation gives me nightmares.

But I'd live to feel comfortable sending her to public school -- so tell me how I could make it work! It it matters, dd would be entering public school in 3rd grade.

[Anonymous]

There are social pragmatic goals on my child's IEP so everyone who works with my child knows to tune in and assist as needed. The guidance counselor offers lunch bunches mixed with kids who have good social skills as well as social skills groups.

[Anonymous]

I would look at the individual school. Social accommodations and supporting IEPs in general depends entirely on individuals, administrators and teachers. Go to one that has a reputation for supporting inclusion. Even in the same school, quality can vary widely depending on who is in your IEP team, the Sp Ed Coordinator, the principal as well as individual teacher whose classroom your child gets assigned.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

It also very much depends on what the main educational goals of the IEP are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It also very much depends on what the main educational goals of the IEP are.

I don't understand how this relates. In addition to academic goals, my DS has social goals. We've been so grateful for the assistance of the general and special ed teachers in helping our kids socially. They've been paired up with kids that are good at helping others, the teachers have provided opportunities for our kids to show their strengths, they've accomodated their needs to sit in chairs rather than on the floor and when working with kids in the upper grades (eg reading buddies), they've paired them with kids who are outgoing, kind and helpful. The older kids especially have made extra efforts to say hello to my kids, play with them and look out for them. And, as a PP indicated, the school counselor has peer groups for lunch and the teachers have also invited small groups of students to have lunch them. It's been a really positive experience for us.

[Anonymous]

Our public charter has been great about social accommodations. My child has been assigned NT buddies in his class since preK and his closest buddy is in his K class. Class size in K is 17:3 and I expect it to be about the same or even smaller through the rest of elementary; DS attends an immersion language school which has to always retain an even number of classrooms since they switch languages/classrooms everyday. The teachers facilitate social interactions and most of all there is a nurturing, inclusive atmosphere and my DS loves his school. DS also gets the usual OT, social skills class, SLP observation of classrooms and advice to teachers on helping social interactions.

My child's IEP goals are all social and Sp Ed support is in both languages. The teachers emphasizes his strengths and provide support where needed. Could not be happier. See what your school is willing to do. Public school may surprise you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It also very much depends on what the main educational goals of the IEP are.

I don't understand how this relates. In addition to academic goals, my DS has social goals. We've been so grateful for the assistance of the general and special ed teachers in helping our kids socially. They've been paired up with kids that are good at helping others, the teachers have provided opportunities for our kids to show their strengths, they've accomodated their needs to sit in chairs rather than on the floor and when working with kids in the upper grades (eg reading buddies), they've paired them with kids who are outgoing, kind and helpful. The older kids especially have made extra efforts to say hello to my kids, play with them and look out for them. And, as a PP indicated, the school counselor has peer groups for lunch and the teachers have also invited small groups of students to have lunch them. It's been a really positive experience for us.

My point was simply that without academic goals, schools are sometimes reluctant to put social goals in an IEP. I wasn't in any way denigrating social goals.