If your child doesn’t qualify for an IEP, a 504 Plan might fit. It may sound like a highway number or a health code, but it’s actually a legal support that ensures students get the access they need to participate in school.
A 504 Plan is a school-based support plan that provides students with disabilities the accommodations they need to access learning alongside their peers. Its purpose is to adjust how a student learns, not what they are taught.
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When you’re navigating support services in the school system, it can feel like an alphabet soup (OT, PT, MTSS). This post is all about the IEP.
An IEP, or Individualized Education Program, is a legal, written plan that explains exactly how a public school will support a student with a disability in order to facilitate their learning and make progress. It’s part of the federal special education law called IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), and it guarantees students access to a free appropriate public education (FAPE).
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It’s kinda serendipitous that I picked this book this month. The Georgia PreK Lottery opens today!
In Fulton County, Georgia, incoming 4-year-olds looking for free, public PreK enter a lottery on March 1st. You apply for the public elementary school that you are zoned in, and each school has a limited number of PreK slots. If you don’t get selected, you can be waitlisted for other schools if space allows.
I have absolutely no frame of reference for the odds of getting selected. When we moved last year, I was satisfied with the elementary school we were zoned for, looking at the GreatSchools scores and stats. From reading The Family Firm, Troy and I were able to weigh our options for how we were going to tackle this very big school year. But still, some of our decisions would be null and void depending the outcome of a lottery that is in no way in our control.
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Child(ish) Advice 