Preschool options for Hard-of-Hearing 3 year old?
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Anonymous
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Hello,
I'm a single mom of 2 kids ages 3 and 5, currently living in Idaho. I've got a job offer in DC (currently under-employed doing freelance work) -- and if we move it will be in August right before the new school year. My 3 year old has moderate hearing loss, wears hearing aids, and is doing well, testing age-appropriate for speech and language. She is currently in a language-intensive preschool every morning and a mainstream Montessori preschool in afternoons. Her speech therapist thinks she will do well in any good preschool. I am looking for options in DC. I've inquired into Gallaudet Kendall preschool and am concerned there may not be enough emphasis on auditory-oral skills. I'm open to her gaining fluency in ASL but not at the expense of spoken language. I've tried to inquire about The River School, but unfortunately the message when I call says "we are on summer break and will be back Aug 22nd." -- ugh, so not helpful! Any other options -either geared towards deaf/HOH or just good mainstream options that we might have a possible chance of getting into by September and are either 1) affordable or 2) offer need-based financial aid? My older daughter is entering kindergarten and is confident, independent, and already reading and writing - I expect she will excel at any good school. So the sticking point for making this move happen is finding a good preschool option for my younger child. Any info very much appreciated! |
Anonymous
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OP again:
By "affordable" I think my total childcare costs for 3 yo's preschool and 5 yo's aftercare needs to be less than $1600 per month. |
Anonymous
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OP again:
Job is near Union station and I don't want to commute more than 30 minutes as my main priority is to actually see my children each day. |
Anonymous
| Fairfax County Public Schools have a preschool in McLean, Virginia called Franklin Sherman you should check into. |
Anonymous
| I'm sorry I'm not very familiar with DC preschools, but I thought they had free public preschool (as well as SN preschool). I'm sure others can provide more information. |
Anonymous
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Public preschool is by lottery in DC. Unless there is a priority for sn kids (not sure) there is no chance of finding a spot noe.
Preschools on the hill are all full by now. Also little chance of finding a spot. That leaves you with daycares. They typically do have spots gor 3 year olds, I hear. The cheapest I know of on the Hill is 1200 dollars, and I dont know what kind of services yhey provide. |
Anonymous
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I remember your other thread OP, sounds like you took the job, congrats! Have you called DCPS department of special education or early childhood education. Office of Early Childhood Education, (202) 698-1036. I would look onto that and see about sending them your daughters IEP. It might make sense to see what the youngest's placement options are first and then see if you can get your oldest in the same of nearby, which will cut down on commute.
Worse case scenario might be to use Gallaudet because of the location/understanding of her needs and then supplement once or twice a week with private speech. |
Anonymous
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Move to Annandale, VA and attend Camelot ES. The preschool for hard of hearing is located there and your kindergartner can attend as well. Here is the info for hard of hearing services and for Camelot ES:
http://commweb.fcps.edu/programprofile/students.cfm?ProgramID=121 http://www.fcps.edu/CamelotES/ |
Anonymous
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Arlington County has a deaf and hard-of-hearing option for kids beginning in preschool. It's a county-wide program, meaning they'll bus your child, but it's at Patrick Henry Elementary in south Arlington.
Arlington is right across the river from DC, so 30min to Union Station is theoretically possible based on where you live. I could do it when I lived in south Arlington, probably could not do it now from my home closer to the Falls Church city line. |
Anonymous
| Call Bridges, they are a public charter school in DC that is good with kids with special needs. I think they usually go through their waitlist for PS3. Petworth, where bridges is located, is 15-20 minutes from Union Station. If you rent in the neighborhood your Kindegartner can be in bounds for Powell or see if Bridges has space in K. You should also check with the office of special education in DC to get an IEP and see if they can get you a placement. |
Anonymous
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OP here.
Thanks for the info. My daughter tests age-appropriate for language and so does not qualify for an IEP here in Idaho. I was told the same by Montgomery County, and expect that will be the same elsewhere unless the school district will provide a preschool spot simply due to her hearing loss. Yes, if we go with Gallaudet I'd use some of the $ saved to have her in private speech and hopefully find someone great for both kids' aftercare - maybe a student studying speech therapy or something. Bridges and Arlington Cty are new ideas for me - thank you! Camelot ES sounds great - I've read their website - but the commute is much too long. Top of my priority list is to have 30 min or less commute. Really too bad Camelot is not closer in. The River School is the perfect fit for both girls, just need a wealthy sponsor 
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Anonymous
After care with a nanny will run you at least 300/week including taxes. And what about the summers? |
Anonymous
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On pre-school -- please ask your federal agency what preferences they have for daycare. Many federal agencies have daycare onsite or nearby, and for each one, certain federal agency/agencies have "top" priority, then if there's still open space any federal worker, then to the broader list after that. For example, there is a daycare at the Federal Energy and Regulatory Agency on N. Cap near Union Station that we used (6+ years ago). It is run by Bright Horizons company. We were pretty happy with it. It prioritizes FERC employees, but my DH is Peace Corps and we got in. There are many other federal daycares on the hill (Senate, House, Dept. of Justice and more) plus private ones like at Georgetown Law (a great daycare). Although there are "waiting lists" it really depends on when slots open and who is on the list with what priority. Early infant slots are hard to get and many more have openings at 3,4,5 because parents are pulling kids from the daycare and putting them into preschools in their neighborhood to make neighborhood friends or in public school, i.e. free preschool). It is worth calling around. You might get lucky. Use the OSSE webpage and click on "child care connections" to search by zip code and qualifications (some of which are "deaf," "speech/language impair." etc.)
On River School -- you may be able to get some back door information by contacting "Chattering Children" which is a deaf/speech lang. service provider run by they audiologist who services River School. Her name is Julie Verhoff. Try calling to say you are scoping out services for your child and ask questions about River School and public schools too. Chattering Children clearly has a contract with some area publics to provide speech/language/hearing services. You must have an IEP for early intervention in your home state already, yes? You might also want to look at close-in suburban MoCo schools and what MoCo offers in the way of hearing/language services under an IEP. Ask MoCo specifically for IEP or income eligibility for preschool for 3+ up. My impression is that deaf parents are happy in MoCo -- but not sure if that is accurate. I have an older child with a SLD in writing and expressive language, and have not been impressed with what the school/teachers can actually provide, but that is a different type of disability. I am not sure that any district really knows how to teach to my DS's particular profile. But, whatever he gets is certainly better than what he could've gotten in DCPS. Close-in MoCo requires a metro commute, which I think would fall within 30 minutes if you are in Sil Spring or Bethesda. Trade off would be smaller living space/apartment. Good schools for the 5 y.o. in general though. Many parents say that Bethesda Elementary (mere blocks from Bethesda metro) does really well with special needs kids, so something to think about long term when your 3 y.o. ages up to elementary school. |
Anonymous
OP, you should know that "public preschool" varies in DC -- some schools have programs that start at age 3, some have programs that start at age 4. So, while you might be out of luck for a program that starts at age 3, you could put in to the lottery for either a DCPS or Charter program that starts at age 4. Some of the programs have sibling preference as well, so if your 5 year old is already in a DCPS or charter, then your 3 y.o. may get some kind of preference. Upper NW around Tenleytown metro has some good elementaries (Janney, Murch, Eaton) very close to a metro station if you decide to stay in DC, these are definitely under 30 minute metro commute. |
Anonymous
I'm the SLP from the old thread (and just posted about Gallaudet). Since you don't have an IEP, you may have trouble getting any services at this age, definitely in MOCO. If Gallaudet would take you, then I would definitely go with that, at least for age 3. You can always switch next year when you try the lottery or get sibling preference due to your older daughter. Gallaudet would keep you relatively in the neighborhood. |