Life after Lab School?

[Anonymous]

Hi, we have a rising 2nd grader with language-based issues, specifically slow processing and visual memory challenges. She is also on a trial of ADHD medication for suspected attention issues.
She is reading, though behind her peers and struggling. It would be our hope to send her to a specialized school for a few years and then return her back to her old school.
It seems this is more the mission of Oakwood, yet we have heard great things about Lab "developing the whole child."

Question: how easy/hard was it for your child after leaving Lab? Were they able to acclimate with ease in later grades/middle school or high school?

Thanks in advance for any insights....

[Anonymous]

Current Lab parent here. Most of the people I know who left Lab did so for financial reasons. A few b/c of differences between parents and administration as to approach and/or intervention level. I've known a few who leave b/c they feel their kid is ready for a mainstream public but generally they still had an IEP.

Language based LDs are so hard to gauge. You can be incredibly focused on remediation in the early years and progress can be so incremental. It really depends on the kid and the severity of the LD. Lab does reinforce strategies like flexible thinking or organization/homework skills that will prepare a kid for a different school.

I can highly recommend the Lab summer camp whether or not your child attends. Definitely tour both schools. Oakwood goes through 8th and Lab 12th which may make a difference in how they present themselves. But I've found that most SN focus on independence for every kid, whatever that looks like.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP -

Your question is not really specific to Lab. The goal at most special education schools is to get your child's issues remediated enough so that they can eventually matriculate out and into a mainstream school and still be successful....including graduating with a diploma and going to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP -

Your question is not really specific to Lab. The goal at most special education schools is to get your child's issues remediated enough so that they can eventually matriculate out and into a mainstream school and still be successful....including graduating with a diploma and going to college.

Not the OP, but this (above) has not been our experience in visiting both schools and speaking to the administrators and families with kids at each. Lab and Oakwood both employ first rate multisensory, structured literacy and other evidence based programming for kids with SLDs and ADD. But from everything we have been told, they have a different view on matriculating kids out. The Oakwood administration (and parents, neuropsychologists, etc.) will tell you in no uncertain terms that their goal is to equip kids to mainstream by 6th grade or so; they work toward that goal, expressly. Lab does not express this as a goal. Someone asked the question about how many kids matriculate out before 12th while we were there on our tour, and the administrator replied that a few kids matriculate out by 7th or so, but that it is not the norm (nor one of their expressed goals). Both great schools, though different in their approach on this point, from everything we have heard.

[Anonymous]

I recognize that I am speaking solely based on anecdotal evidence, but does the answer to this question change depending on whether the child entered Lab in early grades vs. middle school? I have friends and colleagues who had children at Lab for middle school (matriculated in after finishing 5th grade someplace else) and then matriculated to a different school for high school. And, I have been thinking that this was a path that could be appropriate for one of my children who is currently at another private (but without any SN emphasis) and receiving lots of outside extra services. I have not tried to make a switch earlier because we are making satisfactory progress with the outside services, and my child is otherwise very socially stable at the current school (and would be extremely distressed at the idea of not finishing school with the peer group we have had for the past several years).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP -

Your question is not really specific to Lab. The goal at most special education schools is to get your child's issues remediated enough so that they can eventually matriculate out and into a mainstream school and still be successful....including graduating with a diploma and going to college.

Not the OP, but this (above) has not been our experience in visiting both schools and speaking to the administrators and families with kids at each. Lab and Oakwood both employ first rate multisensory, structured literacy and other evidence based programming for kids with SLDs and ADD. But from everything we have been told, they have a different view on matriculating kids out. The Oakwood administration (and parents, neuropsychologists, etc.) will tell you in no uncertain terms that their goal is to equip kids to mainstream by 6th grade or so; they work toward that goal, expressly. Lab does not express this as a goal. Someone asked the question about how many kids matriculate out before 12th while we were there on our tour, and the administrator replied that a few kids matriculate out by 7th or so, but that it is not the norm (nor one of their expressed goals). Both great schools, though different in their approach on this point, from everything we have heard.

PP, Oakwood goes through 8th grade which is why they probably focus more on matriculating out than Lab does that goes until 12th. Many kids come to Lab from a mainstream setting and are finally learning strategies that bring out their potential for learning. It doesn't mean that a kid's dyslexia is overcome of cured, but they are definitely focused on making every student independent to the best of their ability.

If a kid went to Norwood vs. GDS, they might stress more in the tour where kids go after Norwood since it only goes through 8th than they do at GDS which goes through 12th. That's not really an "approach."

"Mainstreaming" unto itself isn't a goal b/c if the dyslexia or other LD is severe, a child will need an IEP and continued support in a public school or private school. It's really specific to the child.