The Wrightslaw Way

I went to the school to ask if my son will be promoted to the 6th grade.  They say I must wait till the last day of school to know.  The school will not tell me any thing. They are very rude to me. What should I do? How closely have you monitored your son’s […]

The school wanted to retain my son who has an IEP for OT, PT and Speech. They insisted he repeat second grade. I disagreed. Now in third grade, his teachers want to send him back to second grade. They say his writing is not on par with a “normal” third grader’s writing. He grasps all […]

Social promotion  never works for anyone.  But is retention always harmful?  If the school is going to give the child extra services which were never given before, wouldn’t retention may be a good idea? We get hundreds of emails about retention every year. I don’t recall one in which the school proposed to provide more […]

My son with ADHD will be retained this year.  He did not receive the services I felt he needed to increase his reading skills. He received an IEP only for expressive and receptive  language skills.  I have been paying for a tutor to try and help him increase his reading skills. 1. Can I make […]

My 9 year old son, a child with autism, is in a 3rd grade inclusion class on a Basic Ed diploma path. He is required to take the FCAT to determine whether he will progress to the 4th grade. His teacher told me he will not pass the FCAT and my only recourse was to […]

Parent #1: My son wants to be “left behind”. I feel that another year in the smaller, familiar middle school would be less intimidating and give him some time to mature. Because of the b’day he really wouldn’t be older than the rest anyway. Parent #2: I don’t want my child to be retained. Everything […]