Options for pre-school for 4y autistic and deaf boy

Do you know about The Center for Early Education on Deafness?  They run a preschool in Berkeley.  I would start there.  Good luck

https://www.ceid.org/

Look at this amazing preschool:  https://www.ceid.org/

Center for Early Intervention on Deafness.

It is in Berkeley, right near the Berkeley Bowl West. It has both a deaf/hard of hearing classroom and a preschool for typically developing kids-- so it might work for both your kids (both my kids went at the same time, they are both typically developing).

It is possible that some of the cost for the deaf/hard of hearing kid might be subsidized-- but since it was not the case for my kids, I don't know about that aspect of the situation.

The school was fantastic for my kids, we loved the school-- and the parents of the Deaf/Hard of hearing students thought the place was amazing.

The place you're looking for is CEID (Center for Early Intervention on Deafness). There's a deaf/hard of hearing preschool that meets in the mornings and also includes OT and speech from your child's IEP. Also on site is a preschool that your deaf child could attend before and after their DHH program and your hearing child could attend all day. They are phenomenal with deaf children who have additional needs!

Contact them to get more info about how to enroll (your hearing child should be easy, but there may be a wait list; your deaf child would probably need your local school district to place him at CEID and pay, so which district you move to will be critical as many districts want to keep kids at local schools). The DHH program would be free to you as long as it's your child's IEP placement. Their website (ceid.org) has tuition rates posted for the 2020-2021 year, so they may be different now, but as of then the cost of childcare for your hearing child would be $1400/month for 5 day/week 8am-5pm; afternoon only care is $830/month for 5 days/week 

Have you looked at the Center for Early Intervention on Deafness in south Berkeley? They have a couple of classrooms for deaf and hard-of-hearing students and one class for  mostly “typically developing” students, with all the classrooms playing together on a shared playground as well as engaging in other activities together. My child (not deaf or HOH) attended for one year (we moved her for reasons unrelated to the school - we were very happy there), and it was an extremely sweet and wonderful experience. As I recall, there was at least one other family in a similar situation to yours, with twins of differing development, and they loved the school. The staff there is extremely helpful, so even if it’s not a great fit they could likely point you to other resources/options in the Bay Area. 

CEID has preschool programs that I believe would cover both of your kids. My daughter goes to their Sunshine classroom, which is for hearing kids. Highly recommend them. It’s a wonderful organization. https://www.ceid.org/
You can reach out to Anna to see if it’s a good fit. 
anna [at] ceid.org

CEID in Berkeley has what you are looking for.

https://www.ceid.org/

I don’t have any personal experience with this or recommendations of specific schools, but in the process of researching east bay schools in general I’ve learned that the public system is far, far better equipped and set up to deal with special needs than any singular private school or preschool. Therefore, if you’re eligible to start TK next year (if your kids were born between September 1 and December 31, 2017), I’d strongly advise you to look closely into the various public systems and maybe even let that guide your choice of geography. Good luck! 

This might be easier to talk about by phone - hapoy to that, so please just let me know. We went through a similar move with a deaf/HH child a few years ago. There are only a couple of specialized options that I would recommend - one in Redwood City and one in Berkeley. We decided to come to Berkeley, and our kids attended the Center for Early Intervention on Deafness (CEID) on Grayson Street in Berkeley.  This school serves kids from birth through to Kindergarden. They serve children with all kinds of complex conditions, including D/HH, and they teach both sign language and focus on spoken/oral skills. For the preschool age group, they generally have a ratio of 4:1 for the D/HH teacher’s classroom. There is also a regular preschool (Sunshine) onsite, but we chose to keep our twins together in the D/HH classroom. Our child with normal hearing served as the “language model” for that class. We did the evaluation for services through our local school district (Berkeley Unified), so that fees for the affected child were 100% covered. You can also go through one of the “Early Intervention” “Regional Centers” for children with special health needs: https://www.dds.ca.gov/rc/

Public preschool will be far and away your best option as far as cost (and likely also as far as services). In California, public school districts provide preschool for children with disabilities beginning at age three. Assuming you have some flexibility in where you live, I'd choose based on how well you feel the preschool and elementary options in cities you're considering will serve your child. Reach out to the Special Education departments and explain your child's diagnoses; you will likely need to do a full assessment once you arrive, but most districts have designated programs at particular schools for both Deaf children and for ASD, and you'll want to know where those are as you choose a district and a place to live. Some public preschool program are also open to developmentally typical children for a fee, so you could opt to send your daughter there as well if that's an option. If not, you can try posting again with information on which neighborhood you plan to live in once you decide. Also note that California offers Transitional Kindergarten to children who will be five years old by February 2, 2023, so if your children qualify, that will be a good option to explore too. TK is offered in the elementary schools, while PreK is often separate. Welcome!