“He is not bad enough.” This is what I heard for so long for my son through out his elementary time. With my oldest I never had to worry about her education, it seemed to come easy for her. Once my son started first grade is when I really started to see him struggle. The school said he didn’t qualify for any type of help. Fast forward to 4th grade and he has now become 2 grades behind and is “still not bad enough”
Once I was able to get him diagnosed with ADHD the school tested him and he was able to go to the Learning Center. The centers in the schools are for students with a 504 or IEP.
Some schools gets LCAP funds to pay for IEP teachers. These are teacher tutors that can help your child in mainly reading and writing. But if your school doesn’t have the funds or teachers to do this then it’s not an option.
The classrooms are so full here in Elk Grove, that I feel like we have a very wide range of students on the spectrum. Kids that are bored and ahead of their grade, kids that are struggling and grades behind, and then you have the kids in the middle that seem to get lost in the system. Which was my kid that “wasn’t bad enough”
If we wait to help the “wasn’t bad enough” kids it soon snowballs and these kids will really fall behind. If we can catch all of it earlier and have early intervention these kids might have a fighting chance.
As parents we might have to do extra work to keep them up to speed. My 2 daughters have been assessed at school and do not qualify for help. So I had to figure out a way to help them. We have done tutoring centers and work at home, both with their pros and cons. My kids seem to fight me with every thing when it comes to school work, so tutoring centers work great for us.
What it all comes down to as parents we have to be very involved in our child’s education. The schools and teachers don’t have enough resources and time to help every child.
Elk Grove Families 