I got this nice little note from my sons teacher saying that "although his grades have improved his behavior as well,the problems that we have had throughout the school year makes it necessary to hold him back and have him repeat 1st grade " now admittedly his grades were horrible in the beginning as well as the behavior, but since his meds have been adjusted right grades have come up as well as the way he acts. She says that it will be the best intervention for him at this time..What I am asking is do you guys think this is right or should I fight it?Thanks for letting me rant. P.S. His averages right now are in the C's. I am really so sad for my child I do not know what to do!

What does your gut tell you?

What kind of feedback has the teacher given you these past few months? It sounds as if her recommendation was a surprise. Maybe you should request a meeting and see if she can back up her opinion with some hard facts. The school should have some kind of document listing the things a first-grader should have learned before moving up to second grade. If she can show that he really hasn't learned the material yet, then holding him back might be best. I think she needs to explain her reasoning a little better!

I don't know about 1st grade but summer school is a good thing IMO. Or just a bit of extra tutoring next semester to get up to speed. I flunked a semester of public high school and was put in a remedial school for a semester to catch up then went on to a good private school and I was fine. I got a whole year caught up in that semester.

So much can happen over a summer. Would the school be amenable to holding off making the final decision until he could be reevaluated closer to the beginning of next year?

I would definitely set up a meeting with the teacher and possibly an EC coordinator. Sometimes the teachers don't understand a child's differences and misinterprets them. I do know some shildren that were held back for their social skills as well as academics. Though they wre givein the option of promotion they were held back and it worked wonders for them.

Thanks for all of your replies, I have been away for a few days, this was not really a HUGE surprise to me but up until now it has been " we aren't going to talk about failing YET" and then this note comes soon after the teacher and I had this conversation.The sad thing to me is the teacher just informed me the other day that she is ADD as well, HA go figure.