Anthony is currently attending private typical pre-school (same school big bro attends) AND public pre-school with his IEP. This has been discussed with and recommended by his psychologist.
There are two reasons we are trying the private school.
His current IEP team believes he will fully mainstream for kindergarten next year and I agree he'll be ready for that. They told me this at the IEP meeting in April. He only gets 45 min speech a week and 30 min of social work a month and I had to fight tooth and nail for the social work (the social worker that thinks he doesn't need it is the social worker that will work with him
So, if they plan to fully mainstream him with only speech, what are the benefits of sending him to the public school? Unfortunately, in Chicago, private schools are much better than public schools. They tend to keep an eye on bullying and things of that nature much better than public schools.
If he does have trouble at the private school how hard will it be to get an IEP in place again and go back to the public school?
ETA - We are sticking with both schools for this year. I'm thinking about next year's placement for kindergarten.
I am not from your area. However over here I have been more satisfied with the private school for my DS. This has to do with expectation for the child. The private school deals with the child as though they expect he can learn and would look for ways to teach and get through to him. The public school's attitude especially the administrators is your child is damaged, how much do you think we can help him.
In my own opinion, the speech and OT that the public school would give was not worth my child being in the system whiling away his precious time. If you can afford the private school now and you think it is a better match, I would put him in private. If you should want to go back to public school, I think the worst that can happen is that they would start with the IEP he has now until another can be formulated. Good luck.
Concernedpa.