schools?

[T_Mac]

hi, new to this group. Would love any advice on navigating the right school for a child with adhd, mild learning disability in reading in fluency and processing deficit. Also, any advice on executive functioning skills ? Thanks !

[Onthemove1971]

Welcome to the group! We are happy you have joined the group. Parenting a child with ADHD is a challange and we are all here to support each other.

A few things to think about.

Does your child have an educational plan? This would be a 504 plan or IEP, which is like a road map to help the school and teachers know how to support our child.

You could call your local school, private school and any charter school and tour dome of them. When you do this you can meet the principals and some teachers to see what they have to offer.

To some parents it is important to have a social network that is close to home so the kids can follow each other from grade to grade. This can sometimes be great so your child can build a group of friend to help support your child.

Good luck on finding the right fit for your child.

[Alt49]

here is my experience. My son attends public school (a good one with a lot of funding). He has adhd which was not diagnosed until mid way through kindergarten. The start of kindergarten was an absolute disaster for him. He could not follow the status quo and the teacher treated him very poorly due to that. He ended up having behavioral issues including work refusal, destroying the class room a few times, climbing on furniture etc. He did have behavior issues at home but it was no where near how he acted out in school. We ended up getting him an IEP which included spending more than half the day in a self contained class for emotional regulation impairment which his current school had and changing his gen ed teacher. Once that happened and we started meds, his experience at school has been great. He is now in 1st grade and spends less time in the self contained. He has not had any problems this year and is really happy and doing his work. That leads me to now where we are exploring sending him to a private school. While he is doing well in public school there are two concerns we have. 1. They have put him in a box as a bad kid and treat him unfairly due to that. I feel it’s going to be hard for him to get out of that. 2. He has told us he loves the self contained class because they allow for more flexibility. It is also significantly smaller in size (6 kids vs 20+) which enables more catered learning and activities. This class is not available after 2nd grade and so looking to replicate some of what’s offered at a private school (the flexibility and small class size part). There are definitely risks in a private school because they may not be trained to handle kids like him which the special ed he is in now is. I guess time will tell.

[SurvivorFan in reply to Alt49]

Can you look to see if there is another public school in your district that does offer this room for his IEP needs? We were in a very similar situation at our old school last year. Excellent IEP staff and a school with really good funding, but my son had a lot of big behaviors in kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade so was also put in a very small box/made his world very small at school. This year we moved to a different public school in our district. Its farther away and the building itself is not as nice but the fresh start has done wonders for my son. Teachers have been great as well as his IEP team. He has the small IEP room when needed all the way up to 5th grade. I have heard from friends that private school did not go well for their kiddos IEP needs and ended up having to leave.

[Alt49 in reply to SurvivorFan]

I know they have resource rooms throughout which could help when he is overstimulated or needing a different setting. We have our iep meeting in January so I’ll ask what other offerings they have. They may have something else after 2nd grade that I’m not aware of (that’s when they go to a different school - they have different schools for k-2, 3/4, 5-8 and then high school (kinda odd).

[SurvivorFan in reply to Alt49]

It might be getting to the new school in 3rd grade will help out a lot. New enviorment and teachers who could give him a fresh start. That was key for my son. I assumed when we switched schools, they would keep him on a tight leash but they didn't. They gave him the opportunity to see what he could handle. There are days where he doesn't use the resource room other than to do a check in/check out and days where he needs an extra hr in there because he is feeling off. Having the freedom to make good choices for himself vs. Already being told he cant handle xyz has truly made such an awesome difference.

[Alt49 in reply to SurvivorFan]

That’s so great! Thanks for sharing your experience

[Mamamichl]

I’ve worked in many schools over the years. When COVID happened, did he do well online? I was in. Rick and mortar for years and it was a lot of social strife with coworkers and supervisors. I have found refuge in online learning platform. I work as a special education teacher, and have many students online with afhd. Some are thriving because they have made a routine and set alarms for their classes.