Private or Public Kindergarten | ADHD Information

Sounds like you have a great plan in place.
Hope your son has a wonderful year in kindergarten. Good luck as you continue on this journey one step at a time.
I'm glad you feel a little better about the direciton you are headed, it feels good to have some sense of security.  Funny you mention that 7 of the 8 in the class are boys, our son's 1st grade class last year was a class of 11----all boys!  We thought that teacher was nuts for taking on the challenge but it worked out really well.  Good luck.

Hi Latemom,

I know exactly how you feel. My son is 5 and was recently diagnosed with Adhd, has signs of odd, and ocd. His preschool experience was not what I had hoped for. Like your son mine was labled and had teachers who were negative towards him and did not try to understnd him and his needs. Even after countless conversations with them they did nothing. I am sending my son to public kindergarten but I met with the principal and had a meeting with her and the school psycologist. My son does better with instructors who are more structured. I wanted to make sure they knew that when making the class assigments. I am terrified of putting him on the school bus but I left with after meeting with the school feeling like I am not alone in wanting him to succeed in his school environment. I will pass on some advice someone told me and I carry this with me everyday. You are your childs advocate. You know them best, do not hesitate to speak up for them. I applaud you for taking your child out of the negative environment and finding one that proved successful. I did not remove my son when I should have and feel horribly guilty for that. It sounds to me like you will do the best thing for yur child.Keep the faith. You are not alone.

My 5 year old son was just diagnosed with ADHD and I'm terrified. He was at a public pre-school and was labeled the trouble maker and was completely made to feel horrible about himself. When we realized what was happening (a little too late) we pulled him and put him in a Christian environment. He has done a lot better there. We still have focus issues but they don't put him down. He can go to kindergarten there but that is as far as the school goes. Or we can put him in public kindergarten. We just moved to this new neighborhood and the move has been extremely hard on him. He has no friends in the neighborhood so I was hoping the he could meet them at the public school. BUT, I'm terrified they won't know how to handle him and in the long run, he won't make any friends. He had none at the public pre-school because of his label of troublemaker. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. And No he is not on medicine. We literally just got diagnosed and my husband and I have not decided. He does have some pretty bad anger issues also... latemom40393.2818634259Since the private Christian preschool has worked well for him, I would vote for keeping him there for kindergarten. It seems like your main reason for possibly wanting to try the public kindergarten is for the purpose of making friends, and, like you said, that may or may not happen. He may be able to meet some neighborhood friends outside of school, or he can have friends from his private school over to play.
Then, since the private school only offers pre-K and and K, during the coming year, I would find out as much as you can about the public school (is it the same public school he was going to before?), about ADHD and what your child's rights are as far as public education goes, and any other school options that may be available in your area, so that you can make the best choice for your son when he goes into first grade. Having a positive kindergarten experience is important, so that's my 2 cents.
Best of luck!
Hi latemom, I understand you believe me, my son five and was diagnosis with autism and adhd. His pre-k year was awful I had to pull him out of school due to lack of experience with his teacher phone calls every minute,sending home notes everyday complaining. he in Kindergarten at a school 20 miles from my home, I search and went to every school over the summer brake to find out who can deal with my baby. It was hard to put him on med but i had too. I couldn't keep seeing my baby struggling in school and not making friend and unable to sit thru and assignment. I went to several private schools and everyone of them gave me that look "we will take him buttt"so i decided to keep him in public school.  He is doing great in school and there are some public schools out there who can accommodate your child you just have to search hard and find the right one. I know cause in my area the  public school system sucks for children with Austin/ADHD  I had to go over to the next county to find a good school for him.    GOOD LUCK   mickey_lucky40393.309375I have to disagree with private schools being a "dead end".  Our son will be starting 2nd grade at the private Catholic school in our community & has been there since Pre-K.  They have been the best place for him & have been amazing to work with.  He is in a smaller class size (literally half of what he would have in the public school) and because of the smaller sizes, we have the ability to work more closely with the teachers & administration.  Some private schools work together with the public school system to provide some services, at least it's this way in our district, so don't be discouraged from private schools for just the reason of not recieving help, look into it.  Latemom, in my personal opinion, if you have struggled as much as you have with the public school system providing his pre-k education, I would consider the private school for kindergarten & maybe look into other private schools in the area and visit with them along with the public schools, to see what you have for options & where you get the better feel.  Just to give you some background of our private vs. public decision, our son attended this school for their pre-k program only because they offered an all day option, which is what worked better for our work days.  It was our intention that he would only go there for pre-k and then move into the public school, for the main reason that we are not Catholic & had no intention of sending him to private school due to the expense & religion.  It was during his pre-k year that he was DX with ADHD and the school was amazing to work with, they went above & beyond for our son and they literally became a part of our family.  Since the school is so small, they really provide a family setting, our son knows everyone (literally!) and everyone knows him and regardless of his issues, they are all friendly w/him & try to help him, even the students...it really is heartwarming.  Needless to say, all of this has made our private school decision.  We struggled at first with thoughts of the expense & the fact that the public school can offer more services, but the smaller class sizes & the fact that he does well & is accepted far outweighed those factors and we have chosen to keep him there as long as we can.  I have read some posts of other parents that have had a negative private school experience and that is unfortunate but I do at least encourage you to interview & visit w/them & maybe even give it a try.  If you are already considering it due to the bad experience you had with the public school, it sounds like you wouldn't go into the public school with very high hopes, so why not at least try another route if given the option.  Good luck.Thank you to all that responded. We have decided to stay with the private school for many reasons. First off I need to say that he continues to thrive this summer at this school, unlike the public pre-school. He is happy to go and I even have a hard time getting him to leave on some days. We went from having "red" stamped on his daily report at least 4x a week to now about twice a month. That is a huge improvement. Not saying he's perfect, they work really hard with him and don't just say "he's having a bad day" and push him off to the side so they don't deal with him. So that is the first reason. I do understand that it's summer though, so he may be a little easier to get along with since he isn't "working" as he would during the school year. A big reason I chose to stay put is that I found out there will only be 8 kids in the kindergarten class. His teacher will have a lot of time to give individual attention if need be. Only bad thing is 7 of the 8 kids is boys! :-) She will have her hands full for sure. I met with her and the director last week and explained my fears and concerns. The teacher has 30 years of experience and he will not be her first ADHD child. She and I are putting together a plan to help him in the classroom. For that, I am grateful. Another development, we are changing counselors. Now that I have the diagnosis, I want to really understand it and help my son in the best way I can without the medication. I've been referred by my pediatrician to a specialist and we meet tomorrow. I am still nervous about the school year but I feel slightly comforted now. I know that public schools have more resources and that is something I may need in the future. I just don't know yet but I appreciate the information. In the beginning I just felt lost and scared. Well I am still scared but can see there is help. Thanks again for all of your comments and stories!You need to go the public school route, because that's where the resources are. If he needs services etc, you can get them. The private school route is a deadend. They can just tell you not to come back, and they do not provide services. Like math tutoring and 1:1 reading, and even an aide. These kids need services often because they don't pay attention in class and therefore do not learn except 1:1 or in a small group. Nothing to do wiht intelligence. It is the ADHD that impedes the learning. Find another public school and do an inter or intradistrict transfer. Research them online. I found the small schools with a community feel to them are best. If he is a problem is class, they need to give him a 504 or an IEP with services (no such requirement in private, they can do whatever they want). If he comes home one day feeling bad, visit the principal the next day. Make your self known, and let them know that your son's needs must be dealt with in a knowledgeable manner. Tell them flat out that you feel he's been labeled and stomp it out.Jessica N40393.8373726852