Failing K

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to fail K? We received a letter from our K teacher that DS does not complete all his work in class and that he will have some I and N on his report card. He is reading very well and based on my classroom observation he is working hard. Does this mean he will fail K? Does that happen?

[Anonymous]

K is about learning how to get along in a classroom
environment, not reading. Did you skip preschool? I know a kid who was kept back for this reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:K is about learning how to get along in a classroom
environment, not reading. Did you skip preschool? I know a kid who was kept back for this reason.

Uh, maybe 25 years ago. Keep up.

[Anonymous]

Is this a public school? Is this the first you have heard of this? What do you mean 'my classroom observation'?

[Anonymous]

Op here he went to preK but he is having some adjustment issues and also he does not listen to the teacher sometimes. Most of the behaviors are him being silly.

[Anonymous]

Op here yes this is the first I heard of it and I volunteer in the classroom 1-2 a week for about 1 hour.

[Anonymous]

Not OP, but parents are often encouraged to help out on class.
I have observed DS's K class on a few occasions so far.

[Anonymous]

Didn't you have parent teacher conferences after the first quarter? What county is this?

[Anonymous]

This is MoCo we had the conference and there were no concerns raised however now about a month and a half later we received this note.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like some issue that may require psychological testing and a plan or iep. Don't stick your head in the sand and fool yourself into believing he's acting silly. Teachers know the difference.

[Anonymous]

My son is the same except he's in 4th grade!

Seriously, he has ADD and is very slow at everything, which is why he does not complete the work and gets Is and Ns. He has had an IEP since K because of his diagnosis, and ahs classroom accommodations, such as repeated directions, dividing the work into chunks, and going to type his assignments in another, quieter classroom with the special ed teacher.

In K he coasted along reasonably well, but the problems were already there.
My advice to you, OP, is to observe your son and determine if he needs to be evaluated by a development pediatrician, etc.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on the school. Some schools seem to be more aggressive about this than others. At ours, which has four K classes, we've heard 1-2 get "held back" each year. In the cases I know about they were advised by the school to go private for a year to repeat K and then return in 1st. Of course it's a public school so they do have the option to repeat K there but I think most parents seem to have the resources to do private for a year and think it'll make the adjustment easier for the child.

I don't know the children who were in this situation well but it's my understanding that they were behind in terms of behavior/social issues as well as academics.

The case I'm most familiar with because I know the parents is a boy with a late summer birthday(July or August). He's a wonderful, bright kid and I think he just met the county benchmark for reading in K at the end of the school year so he wasn't technically behind but he was very behind as compared to his classmates but I think the main reason he repeated K was because he's very active and had a hard time sitting still and doing his work. We're at a W cluster elementary.

BUT I can't imagine they would hold back a child who can read.

[Anonymous]

Time to schedule another meeting with the teacher for more info

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Time to schedule another meeting with the teacher for more info

I agree. OP, you need to ask your son's teacher about this, not DCUM. After winter break, ask the teacher to schedule an in-person conference to discuss the letter.

[Anonymous]

Listen, get the assessment, but don't freak out. Many kids need help, but also the expectations for kids in K have increased dramatically, but the kids haven't changed. So many kids, especially boys, are challenged.

To the PP that said "teachers know", not always. We had a new K teacher last year who had a lot of "training" but not a lot of sense. We (the parents) only figured out this year that she wound up referring almost all the boys in her class for testing. She couldn't control the class, because she was very passive. Thankfully the school didn't bring her back this year.