Dear Deri,
Thank you for starting this thread and for your input. I just had Alex's ( 5
yo)IEP this afternoon. He is now too old for the Sp. Ed preschool but
certainly nowhere ready for K. I'm not about to repeat  Alex's medical
history here but let it suffice to say that before he received the spastic
quad dx. at 22 mo he already had a medical chart that was 3 very thick
folders. We are starting # 6 as we speak. The schools have him labeled SXI
and POHI ( severely multiply impaired and physically and other health
impaired)Interestingly in the past year he has had SDR and bilateral
adductor releases and as his legs became less spastic and he gained more
control over balance and could use his hand to work more efficiently he has
gone from profoundly MR to educable MR. His first 2 years of life were spent
literally fighting for every breath and every ounce and pound. He lost the
chance to grow and thrive those two years and they just are not years he'll
ever get back. He does move forward consistently however if we keep the
medical issues under control and no new ones pop up. In fact he has managed
to take his first independent steps this past week as he walked between
parell bars and carried it over and cruised a little bit holding on the
back of the couch :)
Alex will be in a self contained class next year. There will be a wide range
of ages in the class as they teach by  achievement level rather than
age.Mainstream seems to be the rallying cry to special need parents and it
something I want very much for Alex. This program seems to work the best of
both. Academics will be handled with lots of individual attention and yet
social time such as recess, gym, art music etc will be with the rest of the
school. Alex needs the more individual attention, especially at this young
age as we figure out how to teach him. His vision tends to be very
inconsistent with him not being able to "see" a large print picture on a
page but he will see the tiny little page number and correctly identify it.
He tends to "see" things on the right and he has no side vision. He is also
having a surge in seizures and has just had a 24 hr eeg scheduled to take
place. In a totally mainstreamed situation Alex would fall through the
cracks as the teachers would be unable to give him the individual attention
to notice these things. When every thing is working AOK Alex is one smart
cookie just like my other kids ( hey people just stating the facts...not
like I was just a proud mom or anything :-))
I do have a question for you though. How do you move from a Spec Ed school
to mainstream America and leave the stigma of being a spec ed student
behind?
Joanne