Reply to Question about DC EIP vs DC School Public System after 3 year old

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Reply to "Question about DC EIP vs DC School Public System after 3 year old"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We went through this process. At the time we made the choice, we'd gotten into a charter school (through the lottery) that we were very excited about. We did not love our daycare at the time, and both parents work outside the home. So we chose DCPS, and regretted it. Here were the problems we had with our choice:

- our son's disabilities looked less severe at age 2.5, when we made the decision, than at age 3.25, when he started at the charter school.
- our son didn't make much progress in speech his first year in school. There could be multiple reasons for this, but I think the only one we could control is that he just didn't have a good chemistry with the school's speech therapist. IME, you get the therapist the school has on staff or contracts with. Unless that therapist gets fired or quits, you can't switch to a different one.
- we wanted to do private therapy in addition to the ones provided at school, and a full time school schedule made it hard to do this. 
- the placement we were offered by Early Stages (a seat in the PK3 class at our in-bound DCPS with about 3-4 hours of pull out and push in therapy per week) was, in hindsight, woefully inadequate given his needs. We went with a charter school instead (Bridges), who were very willing to increase our son's service hours, so the Early Stages IEP and placement were moot. But I include this information just so you know that if you accept the Early Stages placement, your DCPS may not be very willing to work with you if you find the IEP Early Stages drafted is inadequate. (They may work with, they may not . . . I'm just saying that you don't know.)
- [b]once you take the school option, you can't go back. So if you accept the spot at a DCPS, and then find that's it's not working and withdraw your child, you will not have access to any free therapies. [/b]And you will have to find a new childcare arrangement unless you are already a SAHP. (And Early Stages will not be required to reevaluate you or offer you a different placement, although I've been told that they might, out of the goodness of their hearts, consider that if you ask them.)

Hindsight is 20/20, but if I'd known all these things a year ago, I would have found a special needs daycare/private preschool program for my son, had the Strong Start therapists visit him at that location, and also supplemented with private speech and OT. This would have been more expensive for us, but I think it probably would have been more effective in terms of treating at least his speech delay.

Good luck with your decision.

[/quote]

I think you can still get services if enrolled in a private daycare/preschool, but they are very minimal (and DCPS was mucking with the model last I heard).  We did it for our 4 year old, but mainly just to have the "placeholder" IEP eligibility for Kindergarten.  Since he was already 4, testing was done through Early Stages initially, and the IEP was later developed through the Private and Religious School Office of OSSE.  They also developed a new IEP for us prior to enrolling in DCPS IB for K, and it was really strong - we were very pleased with it.

There's definitely something to be said for opting for private for 3 and 4 year olds.  While you may have fewer hours of services for free, you have a LOT more ability to stay in close contact with the teachers and administration, in my experience.  Also, private preschools/daycares sometimes just have a better and lower-stress atmosphere for kids, if behavior/anxiety/etc are at all an issue.  On the flip side, private schools don't have to accommodate you in cases of bad behavioral issues, but thankfully we did not encounter that.  If you have a kid with mild SN it's definitely something to consider.  OTOH for more intensive needs like an autism diagnosis, I'd likely go with the public placement to get more services sooner.  [/quote]

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