Repeating a grade

[beerlover]

How hard is it these days to hold a kid back in a grade? I have a boy in 8th grade who is just not ready to make the transition to 9th. He's had failing grades all year, but I don't think the school will hold anyone back based on grades because of no child left behind or some other such nonsense. If his mom and me want him to repeat the grade to gain a little more maturity and study habits, how hard is that to do? Also, will it affect his eligibility for sports when he does go on to high school?

 

[rockymavia]

How hard is it these days to hold a kid back in a grade? I have a boy in 8th grade who is just not ready to make the transition to 9th. He's had failing grades all year, but I don't think the school will hold anyone back based on grades because of no child left behind or some other such nonsense. If his mom and me want him to repeat the grade to gain a little more maturity and study habits, how hard is that to do? Also, will it affect his eligibility for sports when he does go on to high school?

I d probably do a search for your counties local board of education website to see if it has anything on there, next if that doesnt help maybe consider summer school or sitting down with your childs teacher and get some advice from him/her on what would be the best for him considering they ve had your son in their class all year maybe they could give you a fair unbias opinion on what could help.

 

[backagain39]

How hard is it these days to hold a kid back in a grade? I have a boy in 8th grade who is just not ready to make the transition to 9th. He's had failing grades all year, but I don't think the school will hold anyone back based on grades because of no child left behind or some other such nonsense. If his mom and me want him to repeat the grade to gain a little more maturity and study habits, how hard is that to do? Also, will it affect his eligibility for sports when he does go on to high school?

He sounds like a typical 8th grade boy. You just need to buckle down on him and work with him on his study habits and homework. At this age it's all about the peer pressure and if you hold him back then it will just add to a child's perception of more stress because he got held back. Maturity is an individual thing and holding him back in school will not change that.....but correcting his studing habits will........

 

[Larry Gude]

As far...

How hard is it these days to hold a kid back in a grade? I have a boy in 8th grade who is just not ready to make the transition to 9th. He's had failing grades all year, but I don't think the school will hold anyone back based on grades because of no child left behind or some other such nonsense. If his mom and me want him to repeat the grade to gain a little more maturity and study habits, how hard is that to do? Also, will it affect his eligibility for sports when he does go on to high school?

...as I understand it, you, as his parents, can hold him back at your desretion. Just talk to the principle. His sports eligibility, also as far as I understand it, will be directly tied to his grades and other eligibility factors; being year older won't make him ineligible.

As an alternative, I would also discuss with the principle and some of his teachers sending his azz to summer school instead of holding him back. Either repeat a class or get a better grade in a core class or take an extra class or two. Just make make it clear to him he has to accomplish whatever it is you guys decide he needs to do grade and attendance wise.

You are just about out of time to force and/or coerce him to being a more diligent student.

 

[czygvtwkr]

I went to Jr High with a guy that flunked 8th grade, turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. One grading period in he had a 3.8 out of a 4.0 so they bumped him up to 9th grade. He had to make up the work he missed but ended up making the honor roll every year after that.

Some times a kid just needs a good smack upside the head to straighten out and the prospect of repeating 8th grade was his.

 

[popsicle]

My daughter started school when she was 4. The teacher said she was ready. Well fast forward to seventh grade. It was obvious that she was not going to be mature enough to go to high school in another year, so I decided I wanted to hold her back. The Board of Ed threw a fit. I finally had to agree to move her to a different middle school before they would agree.

I do agree that it will be socially hard for a kid that is held back in middle school. I think middle school kids are some of the meanest!!!!

 

[yankee44]

I have a boy in 8th grade. Middle school is a hard time for all kids. Trying to fit in and also going through puberty is a mess for them and the parents. My son is going through the "I'm King s##T" stage right now. I cant wait till next year when he is the low man on the totem pole again.

 

[poster]

How hard is it these days to hold a kid back in a grade? I have a boy in 8th grade who is just not ready to make the transition to 9th. He's had failing grades all year, but I don't think the school will hold anyone back based on grades because of no child left behind or some other such nonsense. If his mom and me want him to repeat the grade to gain a little more maturity and study habits, how hard is that to do? Also, will it affect his eligibility for sports when he does go on to high school?

Why is he getting failing grades? If he just doesn't care about school I don't think keeping him back would help. Is he bored or is school hard for him? It's harder to make that call the older the kids get. I don't think the school can stop you unless there's no legitimate reason behind it. Good Luck!

 

[beerlover]

Why is he getting failing grades? If he just doesn't care about school I don't think keeping him back would help. Is he bored or is school hard for him? It's harder to make that call the older the kids get. I don't think the school can stop you unless there's no legitimate reason behind it. Good Luck!

He does well on his tests for the most part, but he has a problem getting his homework and classwork completed and turned in. We've restricted him from everything and told him to bring home his books each night, but he always says he has no homework. Then the report cards come out and he has bad grades from not doing his work. The homework access center on the web is not always updated frequently enough for us to keep up with what assignments are due. I can assign him work to do out of his textbooks, but that doesn't count towards his grade. We have just been thinking that it isn't right to allow the system to pass him to the next grade/school without having made the grade, and also holding him back might be a bit of a smack in the head like someone posted earlier. I would rather have him repeat 8th grade with the thought that he will have to do the work (even if he doesn't feel like it) to move up to the next level than to just let him slide on through to high school and continue screwing around there where it matters much more to his future.

 

[poster]

He does well on his tests for the most part, but he has a problem getting his homework and classwork completed and turned in. We've restricted him from everything and told him to bring home his books each night, but he always says he has no homework. Then the report cards come out and he has bad grades from not doing his work. The homework access center on the web is not always updated frequently enough for us to keep up with what assignments are due. I can assign him work to do out of his textbooks, but that doesn't count towards his grade. We have just been thinking that it isn't right to allow the system to pass him to the next grade/school without having made the grade, and also holding him back might be a bit of a smack in the head like someone posted earlier. I would rather have him repeat 8th grade with the thought that he will have to do the work (even if he doesn't feel like it) to move up to the next level than to just let him slide on through to high school and continue screwing around there where it matters much more to his future.

Have you told your son this yet? What is his reaction? I would wonder if he's bored if his tests are ok without actually doing the work maybe he isn't being challenged enough. That might change for him when he goes into 9th depending on his classes.

 

[widget]

Have you had youe child tested for ADHD? My son was about this age when he started having problems. Took him for testing and got many answers that I had no clue about. Apparently the kids learn to cope up to a point and then when they can't use the tricks they have come up with they start to fall behind. Psychologist suggested things like using a planner and having teaches sign off. My son never had an IEP but he had something called a 403B (?).

 

[beerlover]

We've been told he does have ADHD, but he has to learn to deal with getting assignments done (for school now and for life later) regardless of whether or not he has ADHD. Sure, that may make it more difficult for him, but it doesn't excuse him from it. We've tried to do the teacher sign-off thing, but the teachers don't want to do it. He has a planner, and his mom helps him organize that and his backpack every night. Nothing has worked so far. He just doesn't bring home his assigned work and tells us he has no homework. We don't have a way to verify what he tells us. He gets upset and "hates us" for restricting him from playstation, etc., but nothing changes.

I'm sure he is not fully challenged based on the level of the work they give kids in elementary schools today. He is learning in 8th grade things that I remember learning in about 4th. I guess they have to gear the class to the "least advanced" class member. But to me, this makes it even worse because he could easily get the classwork/homework done. They even give them time at the end of class to do the homework so they don't have to do it at home. I believe the bottom line is that he just doesn't feel like doing it, so he doesn't. That is unsat.

I'm sure (I hope, at least) high school will be much more challenging and require more organizational skills and study habits and I don't think he's going to be able to handle it if he can't pass easy 8th grade. It's not a learning issue, because I know he could make A's and B's if he applied himself. We don't even tell him he has to make A's and B's, just pass. In my view, repeating 8th because he wouldn't put out the required effort would be better than going on to 9th and failing because he isn't prepared and gets left behind.

Repeating the 8th grade may not even be enough of a "wake-up call" to make him start to pay attention and apply himself, but I just feel like letting him slide through isn't the right thing for him. Sorry for the long post.

 

[poster]

We've been told he does have ADHD, but he has to learn to deal with getting assignments done (for school now and for life later) regardless of whether or not he has ADHD. Sure, that may make it more difficult for him, but it doesn't excuse him from it. We've tried to do the teacher sign-off thing, but the teachers don't want to do it. He has a planner, and his mom helps him organize that and his backpack every night. Nothing has worked so far. He just doesn't bring home his assigned work and tells us he has no homework. We don't have a way to verify what he tells us. He gets upset and "hates us" for restricting him from playstation, etc., but nothing changes.

I'm sure he is not fully challenged based on the level of the work they give kids in elementary schools today. He is learning in 8th grade things that I remember learning in about 4th. I guess they have to gear the class to the "least advanced" class member. But to me, this makes it even worse because he could easily get the classwork/homework done. They even give them time at the end of class to do the homework so they don't have to do it at home. I believe the bottom line is that he just doesn't feel like doing it, so he doesn't. That is unsat.

I'm sure (I hope, at least) high school will be much more challenging and require more organizational skills and study habits and I don't think he's going to be able to handle it if he can't pass easy 8th grade. It's not a learning issue, because I know he could make A's and B's if he applied himself. We don't even tell him he has to make A's and B's, just pass. In my view, repeating 8th because he wouldn't put out the required effort would be better than going on to 9th and failing because he isn't prepared and gets left behind.

Repeating the 8th grade may not even be enough of a "wake-up call" to make him start to pay attention and apply himself, but I just feel like letting him slide through isn't the right thing for him. Sorry for the long post.

I have a very close friend who has this EXACT problem with her son of about the same age. I'm sorry to say that she has not been able to get him motivated. He went into 9th last year and she kept him back. This year he's still in jeopardy of failling again.

There was one unusual thing that happened. When speaking with his doctor about this it was decided, I'm not sure why, to cut his medicine back. After that is seems to help. He's still not doing well but he seems to be better and they don't argue at home as much. And just to give you a heads up, high school teachers have not been helpful with the IEP or communication home. It's been a real job for her to keep or even get the teachers communicating with her. I think it might be because they see her son as a "don't care" type of student and they don't want to waste much effort on him. Good luck - I don't know what I would do in her shoes or yours.