Connecting for Kids - How To: School Questions for Preschoolers

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How To: School Questions for Preschoolers

Choosing a School: Questions for Families with Preschoolers

Before you start looking at schools, it’s a good idea to think about what your child needs. This section of the guide will help you to think about:

School Type: Public. Private, Center-based or Homeschool

The Support Your Child Needs

Amount of Time Spent in School

Peer Exposure

Cost and Funding Sources

Transportation

Public, private, center-based or homeschool?

Begin by deciding whether your family feels most comfortable with a public, private, center-based or homeschool education. Each of these categories has pros and cons:

School Type

Pros

Cons

Public

Free
Must follow IDEA and educate all students
Often close to family home
May offer integrated classes (preschoolers with special educational needs and same-age peers)

May have larger class sizes and fewer resources, depending on district
May not transport to preferred daycare/aftercare or require transportation to/from program

Private

May have smaller class sizes and more resources
May closely integrate with preferred daycare/aftercare

May require out-of-pocket tuition
May decline students
May require transportation

Center-Based Program

Designed to help students with higher support needs
Include specialized therapeutic interventions

Tend to focus less on academics
Can be costly
May require outplacement from the home school district
May require transportation

Homeschool

Family chooses curriculum and pace of learning
Can allow more time for therapies or services

Some families may have difficulty getting started
Some families may have difficulty teaching their own child

Note: Each category has its own variations. For example, public schools can include traditional public schools and public charters/community schools.

Public

Traditional Public Preschool
Integrated Public Preschool
Public Charter/Community Preschool
Head Start

Private

Non-Public Charter
Private Daycare/Preschool
Private Religious School
Private Disability-focused School

Center-Based Program

ABA Centers
Day Treatment Programs

Homeschool

Parent-led instruction
Tutor/professional-led instruction
Co-ops/Pod instruction

Student Support Needed?

Some students need a little bit of support in school. Others need more. Not all schools are set up to offer the same support, so it’s important to think about what your child needs. Some questions you can ask yourself are:

Does your child have behavior or mental health concerns?
Are your child’s independent living skills similar to their peers?
Does your child have a disability that requires an IEP or 504 plan?
Does your child need specialized services, like occupational therapy (PT), physical therapy (PT) or speech?
Does your child need nursing or other professional healthcare services?

If your child already has an IEP or 504 plan, it can help to look at these documents. Your child’s school communication binder can also help you to think about support.

Public schools in Ohio are graded with a Special Education Public Profile. This profile can help families to see how special education services compare across districts.

Time in Program?

Program times for preschools range from a couple hours to full-day. Full-day programming often has an added cost, but may be necessary so caregivers can work.

Does your child have intensive behavioral needs that require more intervention time?
Are you working with a daycare or aftercare program that can provide additional care time for your child?

Young children with autism or some types of developmental delays may use the Autism Scholarship to attend center-based preschool programs. These programs offer more intervention time.

Peer Exposure?

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) is a legal term that means children with disabilities must be educated - as much as possible - in the same school they would have attended if they did not have a disability.

To visualize LRE, it can sometimes help to see it as a continuum. The least restrictive environment (a neighborhood preschool with peers) is at one end, and the most restrictive environment (1:1 learning with just an adult) is at the other. Children with disabilities tend to fall somewhere in between these extremes and can move along the continuum as their needs change.

When deciding how much peer exposure to look for, families may want to consider:

Is your focus more on teaching new behavior than practicing with peers? Some children learn better with fewer distractions and that's okay.
If peers are important for your child's development right now, are there other ways to engage your child? Or are there other ways to get intensive support?

One way that families approach this problem is by enrolling their child in a public preschool for a half day and then scheduling therapies outside of school hours.

Cost?

The next big question for many families is cost. No matter which option you choose, families may need to pay fees and other costs. Costs to consider include:

Student fees (public and private schools)
Tuition (center-based programs and private schools)
Transportation (all schools)
Uniforms (some public and private schools)
Curriculum (homeschool)
Parent time away from work (homeschool and transportation time some schools)
Learning materials (all schools)
Private therapies/tutoring (all schools)

Scholarships, grants and community resources can make some options more affordable. Some center-based programs may also bill health insurance to offset costs (for example, an ABA provider may bill insurance for time spent in therapy).

When a student’s IEP team agrees that the student is unable to receive a free and appropriate education (FAPE) in the public school system, the district may pay for that student to be placed in another school. Often this is the only way for families to access more intensive therapeutic settings.

Distance?

When transportation is not offered by a school, distance can be a deciding factor. Families should ask:

How far can you travel to/from your child’s school? Don’t forget your return trip!
Are carpool options available? For example, does a neighbor’s child also go to that school?
Are there other adults who can drive your child? (grandparent, older sibling, etc.)

Some families are able to get transportation services with the Autism (ages 3+) or Jon Peterson scholarships (ages 5+). Others may have transportation included as part of a district placement.

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