Why do the schools have the final decision of whether a child is held back or not?

Question

I believe that with extra help next yr. my daughter would do fine in 2nd grade.I don't agree that it should be the school's decision of whether a child can go on or not.I feel as a parent that I should have a say in the matter but that's not the way it seems to work here in MA.I worry how she will handle this and have not mentioned it to her yet. What do others think of this?

My daughter is in a regular classroom setting and receives extra help for her speech delay and academics. She is capable of learning the materials but at her own pace.

Answer 1

First of all, if your child is in special education, she CANNOT be held back. If she is not learning effectively in the general education setting, then she needs additional Resource pull-out. You need to have a new IEP called, her difficulties with academics discussed, and additional instructional supports put in place. If your child is receiving speech, she may need more phonics-intensive reading and writing instruction than what is provided in the regular ed classroom.

Holding a child back in elementary school, who is not receiving special services, is an effort to avoid putting the child in special education. Sometimes a repetition, especially of kindergarten or first grade, allows a child with a mild developmental delay to "find his/her academic feet" and be able to perform effectively at general education instructional styles and pacing.

However, No Child Left Behind limits the number of children that can be held back in any given year, so many students aren't held back when they should be, and end up in special education for "Developmental Delay" or even "Specific Learning Disability" when a simple retention would have kept them out of special ed.

Speech-Language Impairment is not a matter of developmental delay, however. No, retention will not help your child.

An IEP is supposed to be designed so that a child is accessing learning effectively, at his/her potential. A child with an IEP should be making appropriate gains each year compared to him/herself, and it is the IEP that needs to be revised if failure is happening. And yes, a "speech-only" student categorized as Speech-Language Impaired CAN be given Resource room academic instruction, if his/her learning needs warrant it.

You need to have a new IEP meeting, and increase your child's time in special education services, if her academics are that shaky right now.

Answer 2

Well, the teachers are the experts on her education. I know how you feel, as a parent. It certainly hurts to see your child struggling or to be held back. But if you have her go to the next grade when she's really not ready, it'll only hurt her in the long run. She will struggle more, and fall even further behind. If this happens it will also affect her self esteem.

Perhaps what you could do over the summer is get her into a tutoring program that will help her catch up to where she needs to be now (at the end-of-year 2nd grade level). Then, when she starts school, in 2nd grade again, she will be much more confident and her grades will go up. You and the teachers may even discover that she's now actually ready for 3rd grade.

The other option would for you to home school her, although I think that would be a last resort. The kids really do need a lot of socialization on a daily basis.

Best of luck to you and your daughter!

Answer 3

To cover all possibilities for your daughter's struggles you might want to have her hearing and vision checked by a doctor (not the screenings they do at school). Also think about your daughter's age compared to the rest of the class, is she one of the oldest? youngest? or in the middle? If she is one of the youngest, don't worry about it if she is held back because she probably wasn't ready developmentally to move on to the next grade. Also remember that contrary to what we have all been taught, intelligence (I.Q.) is not a fixed quantity. If you want your daughter to improve and be at the top of her class provide a rich learning environment for her. Read to her from a variety of genres and take her on field trips. Everything you can do to increase her exposure to the great things in the world. After you read about something take her to see it.
The school can only do so much and may not be able to provide the extra one on one you think your daughter needs unless she is part of a special education program.

By the way, as a teacher I think it important to say we are not the Great Oz. We are not all wise and all knowing, any teacher that wants you to think that is simply revealing how ignorant they are. We do make mistakes, but when we do it is only because we feel we are acting in the best interst of the child. Please ignore those above that basicly tell you the teacher knows best and you have to live with it. I would be insulted if I were you because they are being very demeaning towards you.

Answer 4

I am an elementary teacher in AZ and school's also have the final say here. Right now retention may not seem positive but, in the long run, it will be. If she's a little behind right now, next year she'll try to play catch-up and learn 2nd grade material. Basically what happens in that situation is every year she will fall behind a little more. Holding her back will allow her to be successful in class rather than always behind. Also, retention is much easier in the lower grades. Kids have a harder time with it when they get older and are dealing with puberty and social issues as well.

Answer 5

I'm not too familiar with MA school system, but here in FL, they give out testing on students to determine if they can promote to the next grade or not.

Extra help from the parent is extremely helpful for teacher, but not all can work out this way. It depends on the teacher's teaching skill. Sometime the teacher can push the child too far on academically and this cause the child fall back when not ready.

My son was held back in kindergarten . It was a maturity thing. He was struggling in all areas but with math being his strongest. It was hard for me to do it because the first reaction was to blame myself for not doing something right as a parent. Plus, the feeling that my child was dumb. After I got over those crazy thoughts, I had to realize that as a parent, I had to give my child every chance I could to see that he could be successful. I knew that if he didn't get the fundamentals down, it would only get worse as he got older. It was the best thing I could have done. He is doing wonderful in school now. He went from the lowest reading level possible to reading on a 6th grade level in the 3rd grade. One of the other things I learned with this experience is that my son didn't like school before and now, because he has the confidence in his abilities, he loves it. I always try to look at it from this angle when deciding something about my kids. I will do whatever I have to do to make sure my kids will have a fighting chance to make it in this world as adults. I constantly talk to them about how important an education is and how they have to work hard now to have an easier life later.

Answer 6

Your daughter is being held back because she couldn't do the work. As a teacher I can tell you that probably 90% of the time this could have been avoided if the school and the parents worked harder and cooperated with each other.

The school knows far more about education than you do. Don't fight this. If you do, you will harm your child far more than being held back will. This year help her with her homework. Make her study. Don't let her watch TV and play too much. She will learn if you make it a priority.

Answer 7

In my district (IL) the decision is left to the parents. There is a form that you have to sign that states you have been advised that your student would do best in ___ grade but you disagree and ask that your child be placed in second grade next year. I am not sure whether they can force you to retain your student. Do some research regarding whether retention really works and take that to your next meeting with the school. In my opinion retention for immaturity is helpful in the early years, such as Kdg. However , as far as academics go, it may not help.

Answer 8

It's not your decision to make. Remember that the educators went to school for years and some a decade to teach and educate children, and it's presumptuous to think that you would know better than they do.

If your daughter is being held back, then it's probably for good reason. You mentioned that she might be able to be successful if she had extra help, but the reality is that in our school system today, we don't have that ability to have that close one on one teaching, and then your daughter would slip behind and she'd be even worse off than before.

The psychological impact will likely be minimal. She's young yet.

But if you're really that convinced you can catch her up, i'd suggest tutoring her on the subjects she was falling back on during the summer, and maybe when school starts up again, see if it's possible to test her and see if she's proficient enough at that point to get back up there. Dunno if it'd work, but it'd be worth a shot. Ask her teacher.

Good luck!

Answer 9

If all your child needs is a little extra help then discuss with the principal about going to summer school to keep her up to speed,or you can demand a placement test to see if it is only in one area or general help needed in all. Sometimes the child being held back in the lower grades is a lot less traumatic than in later times.

Answer 10

I too live in Mass.The reason they don't like to keep kids back is because a child can continue in school until they are 21 unless they receive a diploma.
My son is a special needs kid and I haven't been able to keep him back.In Sept. he'll be in 12th grade but is at 4th to 5th grade level.The way they do it now has to do with MCAS and unfortunately its hard (next to impossible) to get them to change their minds.
If you feel your child might have education issues, you can request SPED services and testing will be done.SPED is not just for emotional or behavioral.Many kids have educational issues.