*sigh* difficult child is repeating the 8th grade next year

[greenrene]

difficult child is graduating (barely) from 8th grade at her current school. However, her new school for next year, and we as well, don't believe she is ready for the 9th grade curriculum, so she is going to be going back into the 8th grade at the new school in the fall. She is NOT happy about it at ALL, but we're running out of options. It's been a rough year, grades-wise, and it's so hard to figure out the balance between medications, ability, and effort. She doesn't seem to care one whit about even trying to make decent grades. We don't expect straight A's, but we do feel she's at least capable of C's, but she's barely passing with D's in most subjects.

Since she already repeated 1st grade, she is probably going to be the oldest and biggest kid in her class. She is very "developed," but she has the maturity of maybe an 11 year old.

I just hope this new school works out, otherwise we're not sure what else to do.

 

[keista]

Since she already repeated 1st grade, she is probably going to be the oldest and biggest kid in her class. She is very "developed," but she has the maturity of maybe an 11 year old.

I wouldn't worry too much. My DD1 is 11 and is developed like a 15 y/o! So is half her class.

I have a young acquaintance who is 3 grades behind. Am I counting right? She's supposed to be in 11th and is in 8th. Apparently there is an accelerated program to get them on track once they get into HS. There's some age restriction for HS attendance/graduation if you are going for a regular diploma in FL.

 

[InsaneCdn]

She should be with her age group for Phys Ed... that's the one that makes the biggest difference. They do that here even with the "lifeskills" kids (high-functioning Downs, etc.) - When you're the "biggest" and you're developing ahead of others in your class for whatever reason... it's easier on everybody to be with your "body age" peers.

 

[Liahona]

I don't know if this will affect your daughter but here if they are sp ed they can receive help transitioning to the non-school (ie. job) world up to age 21. I'm not sure if this is just the low functioning kids or not as I'm not there yet with difficult child 1. As sp. ed. teachers we were told to weigh carefully when deciding to hold a kid back a grade because it would reduce the time they had for that transitioning period. Just a thought.

 

[InsaneCdn]

I wanted to have difficult child held back... school wouldn't do it.
What we DID do, though, was slow school down. difficult child doesn't take a full class-load, and will take an extra year to complete HS (4 instead of 3). If he has to slow down more and do it over 5, that's OK too.
But that is only working because difficult child has really poor subjects (academics) and really strong subjects (music, shop). He is totally age-appropriate in his strengths, so those keep him with his peers.
Because he's not "lock-step" anyway... he's taking some subjects ahead of his official year... and some are delayed.
He started taking off in one subject, doing better, so we adjusted the schedule so he has this subject every term until he has taken all of it. Other subjects will catch up later.

 

[TerryJ2]

Fingers crossed!

My difficult child has already been held back and is too old ... he's 15, so he's GOT to pass 8th grade. Best of luck.