Transition IEP

Yesterday Tom and I attended a transition IEP meeting for Natalie.  Since Natalie turns 5 three days after the cutoff for kindergarten, she will go into another year of preschool in the fall.  And we've had our eye on the "blended" classroom that is next to Natalie's "special day class" preschool.  The class Natalie is in right now is all kids with IEPs, while the blended classroom is 50% state preschool (typical kids) and 50% kids with an IEP...it's more of a pre-K than the preschool class Natalie is currently in.

We've had discussions with Natalie's current teacher and speech therapist about her moving to that class next year.  The reservation her current teacher has is Natalie's "quality" of being highly distracted.  I thought the teacher of the blended classroom would have the same concern, but her concern is Natalie's wobbliness...she sees Natalie every day when she picks Natalie up from the bus, and the whole environment of coming to the classroom while holding on to a rope of rings makes it difficult for Natalie to stay stable.  But her current teacher vouches that Natalie does great in the classroom with stability...she still does fall, but she gets right back up and isn't bothered by the normal pushing that happens in school.

And Tom and I aren't worried about her stability in the new classroom.  Anyway, we're excited that they are putting her in the blended classroom next year, on a trial basis.  The suitability of the placement will be discussed at her annual IEP in late October/November, after we've all had a chance to see how she's doing.

We are so excited about this opportunity!  It's a great chance for Natalie to have the supports she needs to learn and achieve, while also having the example of typical peers to learn from.  It was also incredible to hear her speech therapist and preschool teacher say things like, "speech and language is now one of her strengths" and "she has very good pre-reading skills" and "she does really REALLY well with letters."  Ok, it's not incredible...we know these things are all true, but it's incredible to imagine how far she's come since her first IEP.