DCPS special ed policy?

[Anonymous]

My DS is in pre-k at a DCPS. There is a child with special needs in the class and the school said at the beginning of the year they were trying to find a specialized placement for him.

Now the school says the child's parents are refusing to put the child in special ed.

It has been very disruptive for the class and looking ahead to kindergarten and beyond, what is DCPS policy for this situation? Does it vary from school to school? At a certain point, the child won't be able to meet any academic benchmarks, but maybe that doesn't matter in DCPS.

I thought I would ask here. Please do not lecture me on being elitist or awful, I'm really just asking to be informed, and it has not been good for the class or the child, who clearly needs more support.

[Anonymous]

The first DCPS policy is that they shouldn’t talk about this with other parents.

[Anonymous]

There's no DCPS policy; there's federal law. Federal law does not enable DCPS to identify a student as eligible for special education if the parent does not consent. Consent can be overridden for some issues related to evaluation, but not provision of services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's no DCPS policy; there's federal law. Federal law does not enable DCPS to identify a student as eligible for special education if the parent does not consent. Consent can be overridden for some issues related to evaluation, but not provision of services.

This is very helpful, thank you. What happens if the child hits others, disrupts the class, etc? Does it then become an issue of the school needing to do more so that child is more supported or does federal law speak to that?

[Anonymous]

The school can provide a classroom aide or behavior tech who in practice just deals with that kid, but it's not easy to fit that in a school budget and the aide is unlikely to have any particular training. The best thing to do is start complaining to the teacher, then principal, then instructional superintendent and try to get your kid in a different class next year. Although there may be more than one kid like that per grade...

[Anonymous]

The school better hope that the kids parents don’t find out what was said. They broke the law and could get in a LOT of trouble

[Anonymous]

None of this is your business. It is egregious that the school has shared this information with you and I'd be furious if I were there child's parents.

DCPS self contained classrooms are generally terrible.

Focus on your own child's needs, not on whether this other child will be academically successful.

[Anonymous]

If the school is telling you this information, that is a massive breach of FERPA. I would doubt the school is doing anything correctly with respect to supporting and placing the child.

[Anonymous]

All you can do is request your child be in a different class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the school is telling you this information, that is a massive breach of FERPA. I would doubt the school is doing anything correctly with respect to supporting and placing the child.

To be clear, the school hasn't said any of this directly. Its other parents talking/surmising. I have no idea if the school has said anything. I'm sorry for the short hand. Thank you for the mostly helpful responses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of this is your business. It is egregious that the school has shared this information with you and I'd be furious if I were there child's parents.

DCPS self contained classrooms are generally terrible.

Focus on your own child's needs, not on whether this other child will be academically successful.

It is my business when my kid gets hit repeatedly. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the school is telling you this information, that is a massive breach of FERPA. I would doubt the school is doing anything correctly with respect to supporting and placing the child.

To be clear, the school hasn't said any of this directly. Its other parents talking/surmising. I have no idea if the school has said anything. I'm sorry for the short hand. Thank you for the mostly helpful responses

So, you're gossiping and making up something about someone else's child? That's a really hateful thing to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the school is telling you this information, that is a massive breach of FERPA. I would doubt the school is doing anything correctly with respect to supporting and placing the child.

To be clear, the school hasn't said any of this directly. Its other parents talking/surmising. I have no idea if the school has said anything. I'm sorry for the short hand. Thank you for the mostly helpful responses

OP, you wrote "the school said" twice in your initial post. It's also inappropriate that you and other parents are speculating without building a relationship with this child's family. Regardless, there could be lots of reasons why a self-contained classroom isn't a good fit for this child, all reasonable under the IDEA federal law governing special education. DCPS and the school could still be providing special education services in the general education setting - you don't know the details of this child's services or needs, nor should you. All you can do is focus on the ways that it is impacting your child and the best way to do that is to discuss it with your child's teacher, not take everything that your 3 or 4-year old tells you at face value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this is your business. It is egregious that the school has shared this information with you and I'd be furious if I were there child's parents.

DCPS self contained classrooms are generally terrible.

Focus on your own child's needs, not on whether this other child will be academically successful.

It is my business when my kid gets hit repeatedly. Thanks.

Protecting your kid is your business. But your original OP said nothing about that. It said that the school told you they were trying to move him and the school told you the parents were refusing and that you were concerned about the child's academic progress. None of those things are your business.

If you want thoughts about how to approach the school about your child being hit, start a different thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this is your business. It is egregious that the school has shared this information with you and I'd be furious if I were there child's parents.

DCPS self contained classrooms are generally terrible.

Focus on your own child's needs, not on whether this other child will be academically successful.

It is my business when my kid gets hit repeatedly. Thanks.

So focus on YOUR kid not the other kid. Don't ask what their plan is for the OTHER kid, that's not your business.
Ask how they plan to keep your kid safe.