[blindkid] Being held back a grade

Tue May 28 18:16:32 UTC 2013

Sounds good.  Keep us posted on how things go :-).
Warm wishes,
Carol

Carol Castellano
Parents of Blind Children-NJ
Director of Programs
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
973-377-0976
carol_castellano at verizon.net
www.blindchildren.org
www.nfb.org/parents-and-teachers

At 01:33 PM 5/28/2013, you wrote:
>Well, I was not planning on holding her back this year. I wasn't her to
>continue on to 6th grade. If I would have let her go to the county VI
>class, I would of tried to have her do 2 years there. Seeing how it ends at
>6th grade, repeating 6th would have been an option for me.
>This new class is not a "resource room" as I hear. It will be an actual
>classroom of only children with visual impairments(and of course those with
>other underlined issues) to focus on braille and technology. It did sound
>like a great option. But we chose to move her forward to middle school and
>change her curriculum around to best fit her needs to move forward.
>Something about being in one classroom with 10-12 other students ranging
>mostly from kindergarten to 3rd grade just didn't sit well with me.
>On May 28, 2013 10:24 AM, "Carol Castellano" <carol_castellano at verizon.net>
>wrote:
>
> > Hi Julie,
> >
> > Your comments about a new campus for just one year and having to deal with
> > new kids and a new aide put me in the camp of keeping her where she is.
> >  She can certainly gain her blindness and independence skills in her
> > current setting, if people set their minds to it.  What are the reasons in
> > favor of keeping her back?
> >
> > Carol
> >
> > At 10:07 PM 5/24/2013, you wrote:
> >
> >> Thank you all for the advise and input. My daughter is not, as many school
> >> officials like so say, "just blind". On top of having no usable vision,
> >> she
> >> was also born extremely premature and suffered and brain hemorrhage just
> >> after birth. Before becoming extreme, it was able to be stopped and
> >> resolved. But much damage was done. We knew that her comprehension and
> >> short term memory would eventually be affected due to it. Its now showing.
> >> Has for the past 2/3 years.
> >> She can almost easily read a 5th grade passage, but once asked, can't
> >> recall a thing. Her compression is at about a 3rd grade level. Math is the
> >> biggest struggle. No matter what manipulates we use, she can't grasp it.
> >> The class that was offered, the county class for only VI students, will be
> >> starting its first year. It will be a k-6 class. Their ultimate goal is to
> >> focus on independent skills and technology as a baseline for future
> >> education. But seeing how my daughter is going into 6th, she will only be
> >> able to attend one year before being tossed in a middle school to start
> >> all
> >> over with a new 1:1 aid. Her current aid is amazing. We have had her for 4
> >> years now. She's taken the time to take braille classes on her own so she
> >> doesn't fall behind as well. And she is no push over. She makes my kid do
> >> the work and stay on task. But she will be discontinued if my daughter
> >> attends the VI class. So we are kinda lost. Our options are basically:
> >> 1. Attend the VI class for one year, concentrate on technology skills and
> >> independent stills.
> >>
> >> Or
> >>
> >> 2. Attend a special ed class(like she is at now) on a middle school
> >> campus,
> >> continue her 1:1, and make her elective class her braille technology
> >> course.
> >>
> >> There are many pro's and con's to both. I truly wish they would have
> >> started this class years ago. I honestly think it's too late for her to
> >> benefit from it. Its a new campus for just one year and then she'll have
> >> to
> >> start all over 7th grade with a new campus again and new friends. And most
> >> likely a new aid.
> >> On May 24, 2013 6:35 PM, <pburmahln at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Richard,
> >> >
> >> > I find your comments very interesting. My preschooler Jack will start
> >> > kindergarten in 2014 and there is an option to go to another school
> >> with a
> >> > resource room run by a blind TVI who is terrific, or keep him at the
> >> local
> >> > school his sighted brother goes to without a resource room. He would be
> >> the
> >> > only blind child in a large school. I would like to add that although he
> >> > has LCA he has a fair amount of useable vision but will probably be a
> >> > Braille reader and writer. From what you are saying, it's best to keep a
> >> > blind student at the local school with sighted peers? I did read an
> >> article
> >> > somewhere that said it was easier for a blind student to learn all the
> >> > Braille etc. early on in a school with a resource room, and then
> >> mainstream
> >> > them. This of course presumes the resource room and school are doing a
> >> good
> >> > job, and as you pointed out, this may not necessarily be the case. I
> >> > suppose I know that Jack will be fine wherever he goes because I am
> >> willing
> >> > to work with the school to do whatever it takes. I am learning braille
> >> so I
> >> > will be able to Braille his materials if necessary, check his homework,
> >> and
> >> > find resources to put Braille books in the classroom and library. Jack
> >> is a
> >> > very bright child and one of my concerns would be that he is challenged
> >> > enough in class, and god forbid they try to 'dumb' down anything for him
> >> > because he's visually impaired. I just find the question over resource
> >> room
> >> > or not an interesting one, and one that I will keep debating until
> >> > kindergarten.
> >> >
> >> > Thanks for your input,
> >> >
> >> > Pui
> >> >
> >> > Sent from my iPad
> >> >
> >> > On May 24, 2013, at 11:03 AM, Richard Holloway <rholloway at gopbc.org>
> >> > wrote:
> >> >
> >> > > We have been fortunate as far as not having any issues with a need to
> >> be
> >> > held back, but we did have to weigh out having our daughter in a school
> >> > with a "resource room", which I suspect may be similar to having what's
> >> > being called a VI Class in this case?
> >> > >
> >> > > Hi Julie,
> >> > >
> >> > > Is this proposed change a self-contained class in general? Or perhaps
> >> > more of a pull-out for part of the day or to work on particular
> >> subjects as
> >> > needed? I think my primary concern would be what you already mention--
> >> > won't this be likely to reduce the amount of individual support, and
> >> > potentially the overall support for you daughter? That sounds
> >> potentially
> >> > like the opposite of what you may be needing.
> >> > >
> >> > > We had the impression in our situation that our daughter could quickly
> >> > be spending more time out of the typical classroom with her sighted
> >> peers
> >> > with little advantage if we choose the school with a resource room. In
> >> > fact, we quickly noticed that other blind students in the class (we
> >> went to
> >> > observe) ended up in much less well adapted classrooms when not in the
> >> > resource room, with needed items like a brailler too often being left
> >> > across the school in the resource room. Certain classroom support
> >> materials
> >> > were poorly braille adapted. Sighted kids had available "pleasure
> >> reading"
> >> > books in the classroom when the counterparts in braille would require a
> >> > trip to the library or resource room. There was no braille signage of
> >> any
> >> > sort outside of the resource room... There were just a lot of issues...
> >> > >
> >> > > Obviously ours is just once case, but there was a clear mentality in
> >> > this particular school such that braille was a thing to be focused upon
> >> > mainly in the special room where blind kids go much of the time. Shortly
> >> > after this, I spoke with a number of older blind students (recent HS
> >> > graduates or HS-aged kids) at a conference and each of them who had
> >> been in
> >> > a resource room situation said these were rooms where the blind kids
> >> hung
> >> > out and talked and did very little actual "work", often falling being
> >> their
> >> > typically-sighted counterparts. If that is what you're actually looking
> >> at
> >> > it (without knowing it) it surely would be a step in the wrong
> >> direction.
> >> > >
> >> > > Have you observed this potential new setting with blind students at
> >> > work? Have you called for additional IEP meetings to try and remedy your
> >> > daughter's falling left behind? If she is capable of doing the work and
> >> > sufficiently motivated, the issue may be that things aren't being
> >> > sufficiently adapted. Obviously I'm purely speculating, but my question
> >> on
> >> > the matter would be what strategy will be used in the future so that
> >> your
> >> > daughter doesn't keep falling behind. One thing I have heard of rather
> >> > often is that many blind students have less expected of them at school,
> >> so
> >> > they do less work, so they fall behind, then the end of the year comes
> >> and
> >> > they say "well, your student is too far behind", when what needed to
> >> happen
> >> > was they needed to help the student catch up earlier in the year. That's
> >> > poorly worded, but what I'm trying to underscore is the overall pace for
> >> > our students has to be the same all the time as for the other students.
> >> > There's just no way to say that a student can just skip over
> >> subtraction or
> >> > division so they are ready to move onto the next math subject, or they
> >> can
> >> > ignore parts of speech in English class because they were always pulled
> >> out
> >> > to work on braille skills (etc.)
> >> > >
> >> > > In cases where teachers feel badly because things are harder for blind
> >> > kids (which can certainly be true in some situations) so they "give
> >> them a
> >> > break", long-term, that's a huge issue and counterproductive. Short
> >> term,
> >> > it may be necessary as a particular strategy is developed, but when it
> >> > happens, you have to then come back and get caught up. In our case for
> >> > example, we fell behind in math several times in 4th grade and had to
> >> work
> >> > really hard to catch back up because some of the math takes so much
> >> longer
> >> > to accomplish with the required procedures to be done in braille. We
> >> > therefore did math on nights when other kids didn't. We did it over
> >> > weekends and holidays as well, and there was also some after school
> >> > tutoring required. It was a big hassle, but fortunately, it worked out
> >> in
> >> > our situation.
> >> > >
> >> > > There are surely situations where a resource room or a school for the
> >> > blind are the best placement for students-- I have no doubt of that, but
> >> > without a compelling reason to the contrary, I tend to believe that the
> >> > most appropriate, least restrictive environment ("LRE") is a mainstream
> >> > classroom with many typically-sighted peers. The reason being that "the
> >> > real world" (and even middle school, in your case) is filled with mostly
> >> > sighted people, and most of our blind kids are going to need to work and
> >> > interact with mostly sighted people for the rest of their lives.
> >> > >
> >> > > At the school, I would ask them how this suggested option stands to
> >> help
> >> > get your daughter "caught up" and back on grade level, or at least
> >> closer
> >> > to that. This type of situation tends to save school systems money
> >> > (multiple kids with fewer teachers and resources), so they like to move
> >> in
> >> > that direction, but the concept of an IEP is to do what is most
> >> appropriate
> >> > (avoid the use of the tern "best" with school discussions) and least
> >> > restrictive for the student. Cost is not allowed to be a consideration
> >> in
> >> > the IEP process, so if they actually go in that direction, make a note
> >> of
> >> > it and attempt to get them on record with that. Get it in writing or in
> >> a
> >> > recording if you can.
> >> > >
> >> > > And something else to keep in mind, if they can explain to your
> >> > satisfaction how this will be best for your daughter-- being held back
> >> > and/or the change in classroom setting, ask them how it will be
> >> beneficial
> >> > when she gets to middle school as well. There my also be social concerns
> >> > with either being held back or changing classroom  settings which could
> >> > potentially cause further setbacks if your daughter is upset by these
> >> > changes-- just something else to factor in. I know i all gets quite
> >> complex.
> >> > >
> >> > > As far as aides, around here, it is rare to get the same aide two
> >> years
> >> > in a row. A good aide for four years straight would be an amazing
> >> > situation, but I would be really surprised indeed if they can route the
> >> > same aide back to you later if she gets reassigned. Then again, asking
> >> up
> >> > front couldn't hurt.
> >> > >
> >> > > My final thought (sorry to be so verbose) is that (at least in our
> >> > school system) when kids are in danger of falling behind, if you're in
> >> > conventional school calendar situation, IEP kids can be deemed eligible
> >> for
> >> > year-round school. That might not be too exciting for your daughter or
> >> your
> >> > summer plans, but it might be a way to keep her from being held back no
> >> > matter if for this year, or if that is already where you are, it might
> >> help
> >> > in a future year.
> >> > >
> >> > > I'm sorry to hear of your challenge.
> >> > >
> >> > > Good luck,
> >> > >
> >> > > Richard
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > > On May 24, 2013, at 10:30 AM, Julie Yanez wrote:
> >> > >
> >> > >> Good morning fellow listers. There is a possibility that we will be
> >> > >> discussing my blind 11 year old being held back in 5th or holding her
> >> > back
> >> > >> next year in 6th. Overall she's at about a 3rd/4th grade level.
> >> > >> This year the district is adding a V.I. class for K-6 grades. That
> >> is an
> >> > >> option for her. Although I am excited for it, I don't know what will
> >> > happen
> >> > >> for 7th when she has to move to a middle school. Right now she has a
> >> 1:1
> >> > >> aide everyday. She won't have that in the VI class. And I can't
> >> > guarantee
> >> > >> if her same aide whom has become fluent in Braille over the past 4
> >> years
> >> > >> will be with her after the VI class ends in 6th.
> >> > >> Have any of you or your children been held back a grade? Of so, what
> >> > were
> >> > >> the pro's and con's?
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Thank you, Julie.
> >> > >> ______________________________**_________________
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> >> > >
> >> > >
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> >> >
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> >> >
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> >>
> >
> > Carol Castellano
> > Parents of Blind Children-NJ
> > Director of Programs
> > National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
> > 973-377-0976
> > carol_castellano at verizon.net
> > www.blindchildren.org
> > www.nfb.org/parents-and-**teachers<http://www.nfb.org/parents-and-teachers>
> >
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