Cut-Off

I found out a few days ago that Olivia will not be eligible for preschool next fall. She misses the cut-off date, which means she’ll be too old.

Her preschool teacher told me this last Friday. I asked if there is any loophole we can find based on O’s medical diagnosis.

She said we can try.

Olivia is not ready for kindergarten. She’s made amazing progress this year but she’s not going to be ready for the heavy emphasis on academics come August. We’ll work with her until then, but I just have this feeling she needs one more year before being thrown into ‘real’ school.

We’re working on cutting with scissors and tracing. But we’re still in the early stages of these things. She hates tracing because it’s hard on her weak little hands.

She’s doing an amazing job with counting and colors and shapes but she doesn’t always recognize all her letters.

I plan to go to the next IEP meeting armed with questions about the arbitrariness of the cut-off. I want to know what we can do to make sure Olivia reaches her fullest potential. I don’t want to push her too fast too hard because she fights that. I want her comfortable in her school setting so that she’ll continue to work hard.

Kindergarten isn’t our only option for next year. If preschool doesn’t work, if there is no loophole, there is the kinderkids class, which is also half day. I want to research that one a little more before we make a final decision. I just don’t want the final decision to be based on some date that some administrator pulled out of their butt randomly. I want this decision to be the best one for Olivia. She deserves that at the very least.