Anonymous
Post 02/25/2023 16:45     Subject: APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
We have a child in K at APS (Tuckahoe) who scored very low at start of year testing. That allowed him to get to work with the reading specialist (he is great with math, just really struggled with reading/letters etc). They just retested him in Jan and he made so much improvement that he tested out of the reading specialist. To help foster more confidence we asked the reading specialist for tutoring recommendations. She doesn’t tutor, but the specialist at Cardinal does and he is working with her once a week after school. I think it’s smart that you are on this - you don't want to let it go on too long. I learned that from some other friends.

What support is the school providing? Pull outs?
Anonymous
Post 02/25/2023 15:19     Subject: Re:APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
The piece about not responding in writing and only responding by phone sounds like the school trying to cover its rear. This is what my school always told us teachers to do when a situation was dicey. Nothing in writing. However, if you ask for an evaluation in writing and date it, the school has 60 business days to complete an evaluation. Yes, that is nearly half the year, but that's the law. Send it to your child's teacher and principal, and let them know you know this law. Date it.

Anonymous
Post 02/23/2023 14:25     Subject: Re:APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation
I would request a meeting with the teacher to go over what she is concerned about - which is what you are going to do anyway. She should have some work samples and testing data to show you to back up her claims.

I used to work with that age group in a public school, and it would take mountains and mountains of data to even get a meeting with intervention team members like the AP, the reading/math specialists, etc. I’m not talking about an evaluation. Just a regular meeting to discuss the what the student is struggling with and what interventions must be put in place.

I don’t know what the teacher is telling you OP. But your description of your kid does not sound like a child who should be struggling in Kindergarten so badly that he needs an evaluation. You’re working on stuff at home, you don’t see any issues, etc.

I suggest you wait until the conference and request to review your child’s data and work samples. What are his test scores like compared to other kids? What is he struggling with? She should have a ton of data if she’s implicitly telling you to ask for an evaluation. Because I’m pretty sure they will ask what interventions your kid has received.
Anonymous
Post 02/22/2023 06:29     Subject: Re:APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
*they must
Anonymous
Post 02/22/2023 06:29     Subject: Re:APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
Email the teacher, principal, and special education coordinator in the same email at your school requesting an evaluation for special education. They just hold a meeting within 10 days of your request to decide next steps.
Anonymous
Post 02/22/2023 06:21     Subject: Re:APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
I agree with many other posters that it sounds like time to request an evaluation for services. You can reach out to AP as they usually manage this at schools or the Special Education Coordinator independent of the teacher. Legally they can't deny you the evaluation. They send in folks from central office APS to do the evaluation pieceand will have a elgibilty meeting when it is all done withehe AP, teacher, you all, and the evaluators. You are also welcome to do a psychoeducational evaluation through private provider as well or in addition to what the school does. Ithink it's important to rule out LD early before engaging in tutoring as it helps to better select the tutor. Also, some K students are not yet mature enough to be ready academicly. Some just need time to be ready after all most of us did half day play based Kindergarten, but some how we decided our 5 year Olds were ready for the academic rigor. So if your DC is doing well at home this might be the case. My DC struggled at home and school. Good luck OP.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 10:43     Subject: APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My DC is currently in kindergarten and starting to show signs of becoming further behind, according to the school and their teacher. We work with our DC at home (there's no homework at their school) on sight words, reading beginner books, writing, and K level math/numbers. At home, DC seems to be doing well and knows their stuff, however, we constantly receive feedback from DC's teacher saying they are not "at grade level" with a lot of skills and they are behind their peers in all areas. We have asked for an evaluation, next steps, what can we do at home, but we are still waiting to hear back. Up until now, we always get a phone call back and the school or teacher is unable to respond to us in writing. Whenever we call directly to speak to someone we get the "we'll take a message and someone will return your call" line. We are not able to just move to another area of Arlington or even outside of Arlington to change schools, which, a friend did suggest. We are more than willing and able to advocate and push for help for our child, however, it seems to be falling on deaf ears. Yet we still receive the same feedback about our child who is behind. Does anyone have a recommendation for a tutor or a program we can use on the side at home that would benefit someone in K? Has anyone else experienced this and maybe can share some tips?


Are you willing to share what school you are at? We received similar vague but, concerning feedback from our DC's Kinder teacher. However, the school's special ed team was responsive and we did have my DC evaluated. No learning disabilities detected, but, I think our kiddo is just not academically inclined, and will always sort of struggle. It sounds like you are doing all the right things at home, which, makes the mismatched narrative even more curious. I would email the teacher/vice principal/principal. APS makes me nuts in that they WILL NOT respond in writing to anything. It is always a call back, but, when we have had a few issues we've had to elevate and have put it in writing, the school admin has been responsive when they should be.


It really is frustrating and sadly, your response makes me feel better in that we are not alone. Ha! We have emailed the teacher multiple times, the principal and vice principal but have not heard back other than a "your email has been received and we are looking into it" type of response. Or we get a phone call letting us know they saw the email and are determining next steps, but those next steps just never come. I'm going to try and do another round of emails this week. At this point I think we need to seek tutoring or some sort of outside program and see how things go for the rest of the year and then reassess and game plan our next steps.


Sorry to hear that. It sounds like you may benefit from also looping in any of the SPED staff at your school and explicitly requesting a student support team meeting with all parties copied on your email in order to discuss your DC's challenges that have been identified by the teacher and how the school can support your DC or if they recommend any sort of evaluation based on what the teacher is flagging. If you continue to receive no response, I'd consider pushing up the chain to Kim Graves or the admin SPED leadership for APS.


This is great advice. If your kinder teacher is flagging issues that suggests a student support meeting is in order to rule out or in specific learning disabilities. Also with conferences coming up, ask teacher if summer school (academic strengthening) would be appropriate for your child. If you do engage a tutor and your child starts responding to that intervention, make sure to document what you are doing outside of school and what you see in your kid. If your child does have SLD, you don't want to undermine the supports that school would/should provide because they will likely need support even if you drop tutoring.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 10:30     Subject: APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
Anonymous wrote:Conferences are coming up next week, this is the best time to address these concerns.

I do find it strange your teacher has been reaching out to you about your child being behind outside of conferences, yet isn't being responsive otherwise.

If your concerns are not addressed at conferences, it's definitely time to start pulling other people in (mainly, CC the principal/vice principal on emails). The teacher should not be throwing stuff over the fence they aren't ready to field.


OP - You are right about conferences. We were the first to sign up in our DC's class and picked a bright and early time. Can't wait! Hahaha
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 10:29     Subject: APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
OP here. Thank you everyone for such thoughtful feedback. This has given me some ideas of who to reach out to next and maybe some other next steps to take prior to setting up tutoring outside of school.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 10:24     Subject: APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My DC is currently in kindergarten and starting to show signs of becoming further behind, according to the school and their teacher. We work with our DC at home (there's no homework at their school) on sight words, reading beginner books, writing, and K level math/numbers. At home, DC seems to be doing well and knows their stuff, however, we constantly receive feedback from DC's teacher saying they are not "at grade level" with a lot of skills and they are behind their peers in all areas. We have asked for an evaluation, next steps, what can we do at home, but we are still waiting to hear back. Up until now, we always get a phone call back and the school or teacher is unable to respond to us in writing. Whenever we call directly to speak to someone we get the "we'll take a message and someone will return your call" line. We are not able to just move to another area of Arlington or even outside of Arlington to change schools, which, a friend did suggest. We are more than willing and able to advocate and push for help for our child, however, it seems to be falling on deaf ears. Yet we still receive the same feedback about our child who is behind. Does anyone have a recommendation for a tutor or a program we can use on the side at home that would benefit someone in K? Has anyone else experienced this and maybe can share some tips?


Are you willing to share what school you are at? We received similar vague but, concerning feedback from our DC's Kinder teacher. However, the school's special ed team was responsive and we did have my DC evaluated. No learning disabilities detected, but, I think our kiddo is just not academically inclined, and will always sort of struggle. It sounds like you are doing all the right things at home, which, makes the mismatched narrative even more curious. I would email the teacher/vice principal/principal. APS makes me nuts in that they WILL NOT respond in writing to anything. It is always a call back, but, when we have had a few issues we've had to elevate and have put it in writing, the school admin has been responsive when they should be.


It really is frustrating and sadly, your response makes me feel better in that we are not alone. Ha! We have emailed the teacher multiple times, the principal and vice principal but have not heard back other than a "your email has been received and we are looking into it" type of response. Or we get a phone call letting us know they saw the email and are determining next steps, but those next steps just never come. I'm going to try and do another round of emails this week. At this point I think we need to seek tutoring or some sort of outside program and see how things go for the rest of the year and then reassess and game plan our next steps.


Sorry to hear that. It sounds like you may benefit from also looping in any of the SPED staff at your school and explicitly requesting a student support team meeting with all parties copied on your email in order to discuss your DC's challenges that have been identified by the teacher and how the school can support your DC or if they recommend any sort of evaluation based on what the teacher is flagging. If you continue to receive no response, I'd consider pushing up the chain to Kim Graves or the admin SPED leadership for APS.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 10:23     Subject: APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
Conferences are coming up next week, this is the best time to address these concerns.

I do find it strange your teacher has been reaching out to you about your child being behind outside of conferences, yet isn't being responsive otherwise.

If your concerns are not addressed at conferences, it's definitely time to start pulling other people in (mainly, CC the principal/vice principal on emails). The teacher should not be throwing stuff over the fence they aren't ready to field.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 10:19     Subject: APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
Anonymous wrote:My DC is currently in kindergarten and starting to show signs of becoming further behind, according to the school and their teacher. We work with our DC at home (there's no homework at their school) on sight words, reading beginner books, writing, and K level math/numbers. At home, DC seems to be doing well and knows their stuff, however, we constantly receive feedback from DC's teacher saying they are not "at grade level" with a lot of skills and they are behind their peers in all areas. We have asked for an evaluation, next steps, what can we do at home, but we are still waiting to hear back. Up until now, we always get a phone call back and the school or teacher is unable to respond to us in writing. Whenever we call directly to speak to someone we get the "we'll take a message and someone will return your call" line. We are not able to just move to another area of Arlington or even outside of Arlington to change schools, which, a friend did suggest. We are more than willing and able to advocate and push for help for our child, however, it seems to be falling on deaf ears. Yet we still receive the same feedback about our child who is behind. Does anyone have a recommendation for a tutor or a program we can use on the side at home that would benefit someone in K? Has anyone else experienced this and maybe can share some tips?


This is not OK. I'd suggest you go the AP next. They are in charge of all the teachers. If that hasn't been successful, join AEM to ask for help. There are advocates that can help you.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 10:18     Subject: APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My DC is currently in kindergarten and starting to show signs of becoming further behind, according to the school and their teacher. We work with our DC at home (there's no homework at their school) on sight words, reading beginner books, writing, and K level math/numbers. At home, DC seems to be doing well and knows their stuff, however, we constantly receive feedback from DC's teacher saying they are not "at grade level" with a lot of skills and they are behind their peers in all areas. We have asked for an evaluation, next steps, what can we do at home, but we are still waiting to hear back. Up until now, we always get a phone call back and the school or teacher is unable to respond to us in writing. Whenever we call directly to speak to someone we get the "we'll take a message and someone will return your call" line. We are not able to just move to another area of Arlington or even outside of Arlington to change schools, which, a friend did suggest. We are more than willing and able to advocate and push for help for our child, however, it seems to be falling on deaf ears. Yet we still receive the same feedback about our child who is behind. Does anyone have a recommendation for a tutor or a program we can use on the side at home that would benefit someone in K? Has anyone else experienced this and maybe can share some tips?


Are you willing to share what school you are at? We received similar vague but, concerning feedback from our DC's Kinder teacher. However, the school's special ed team was responsive and we did have my DC evaluated. No learning disabilities detected, but, I think our kiddo is just not academically inclined, and will always sort of struggle. It sounds like you are doing all the right things at home, which, makes the mismatched narrative even more curious. I would email the teacher/vice principal/principal. APS makes me nuts in that they WILL NOT respond in writing to anything. It is always a call back, but, when we have had a few issues we've had to elevate and have put it in writing, the school admin has been responsive when they should be.


It really is frustrating and sadly, your response makes me feel better in that we are not alone. Ha! We have emailed the teacher multiple times, the principal and vice principal but have not heard back other than a "your email has been received and we are looking into it" type of response. Or we get a phone call letting us know they saw the email and are determining next steps, but those next steps just never come. I'm going to try and do another round of emails this week. At this point I think we need to seek tutoring or some sort of outside program and see how things go for the rest of the year and then reassess and game plan our next steps.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 10:08     Subject: APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
Anonymous wrote:My DC is currently in kindergarten and starting to show signs of becoming further behind, according to the school and their teacher. We work with our DC at home (there's no homework at their school) on sight words, reading beginner books, writing, and K level math/numbers. At home, DC seems to be doing well and knows their stuff, however, we constantly receive feedback from DC's teacher saying they are not "at grade level" with a lot of skills and they are behind their peers in all areas. We have asked for an evaluation, next steps, what can we do at home, but we are still waiting to hear back. Up until now, we always get a phone call back and the school or teacher is unable to respond to us in writing. Whenever we call directly to speak to someone we get the "we'll take a message and someone will return your call" line. We are not able to just move to another area of Arlington or even outside of Arlington to change schools, which, a friend did suggest. We are more than willing and able to advocate and push for help for our child, however, it seems to be falling on deaf ears. Yet we still receive the same feedback about our child who is behind. Does anyone have a recommendation for a tutor or a program we can use on the side at home that would benefit someone in K? Has anyone else experienced this and maybe can share some tips?


Are you willing to share what school you are at? We received similar vague but, concerning feedback from our DC's Kinder teacher. However, the school's special ed team was responsive and we did have my DC evaluated. No learning disabilities detected, but, I think our kiddo is just not academically inclined, and will always sort of struggle. It sounds like you are doing all the right things at home, which, makes the mismatched narrative even more curious. I would email the teacher/vice principal/principal. APS makes me nuts in that they WILL NOT respond in writing to anything. It is always a call back, but, when we have had a few issues we've had to elevate and have put it in writing, the school admin has been responsive when they should be.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 09:59     Subject: APS Kindergarten Help: Anyone have a tutor recommendation?
My DC is currently in kindergarten and starting to show signs of becoming further behind, according to the school and their teacher. We work with our DC at home (there's no homework at their school) on sight words, reading beginner books, writing, and K level math/numbers. At home, DC seems to be doing well and knows their stuff, however, we constantly receive feedback from DC's teacher saying they are not "at grade level" with a lot of skills and they are behind their peers in all areas. We have asked for an evaluation, next steps, what can we do at home, but we are still waiting to hear back. Up until now, we always get a phone call back and the school or teacher is unable to respond to us in writing. Whenever we call directly to speak to someone we get the "we'll take a message and someone will return your call" line. We are not able to just move to another area of Arlington or even outside of Arlington to change schools, which, a friend did suggest. We are more than willing and able to advocate and push for help for our child, however, it seems to be falling on deaf ears. Yet we still receive the same feedback about our child who is behind. Does anyone have a recommendation for a tutor or a program we can use on the side at home that would benefit someone in K? Has anyone else experienced this and maybe can share some tips?