I am an adminstrator of a private regular preschool. Before enrollment, our parents are given preschool readiness checklist. Everything sbout the child looks good until developmental delays and autism are discovered mid school year. Now we have several preschoolers with autism and our school can only accommodate one CSN per class. What do I do? How do I inform the parents of the limited accommodations? Do I disneroll?
mtwaites
7
As some of the other posters touched on, if they were diagnosed half way through the year, I would look at the ones who had minor symptoms, or who were able to function primarily on their own, and then the one(s) that were not able to function primarily on their own. For those who are assessed as to having medium to moderate autism, I would ask the parents whether or not they would want to fund a special ed assistant to come in and help their child learn. Some of the parents would probably agree to this, just allowing their child to continue being educated. There are some students that are more severely autistic that will have ABA therapists that work with them not during school hours, and you can request to the parents that they should bring them in to help the child out, and that it is at the parent’s expense.
justmein
7
is this state law-
if they all only have mild symptoms–that weren’t picked up on until mis school year—i would hope that they could all still be accommodated..as opposed to having 1 child who needs constant attention
when you say preschool–I am guessing that they are 2 1/2 to 3 years old to start..
at 3 these children (in the US) are eligible for free school district services—sometime the district will even provide services at a private preschool–as a mainstream class is where these kids would be if the did not have special needs…
tell the parents you are concerned that you cannot provide the services the children need–suggest that they contact the school district for evaluation.
jdeekdee
7
Doesn’t your school have written policies on how to address these situations? You have to follow legal policies and not just do anything you feel or want.
By law, PUBLIC schools are to ‘find and evaluate’ ALL children (not JUST public school children) who are SUSPECTED of having disabilities, to see if they qualify for special ed services.
This is outlined in federal IDEA law ‘individuals with disabilities education act’.
IDEA law doesn’t tell schools HOW to do this. What you should do is inform the parents that they can write to the public school district special ed director and request an evaluation to determine if child can recieve special ed services thru the public school.
They WILL tell the parent they do NOT service private school, but the parents will have to use the laws to get past this lie.
Another thing, if your private school recieves state and/ or federal funds, your school is suppose to provide special ed services to children who have qualified thru the public school.
Here’s a message board with LOTS of help, the BEST on the internet-http://www.millermom.proboards107.com/in…