Mcps special ed shake up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you educate a child who is at home in two leg casts unable to walk for three months?

You set them up at home for virtual learning.

That is different because there is a specific home medical program. Additional depending on where the guardian works they are eligible for FMLA leave in that case. A kid that needs sustained therapy and potentially long term different educational needs may require a separate facility and ratio of teacher to student interaction. This requires a special classroom/school model equipped to handle. This requires resources (funding and personnel).

To give an idea what we’re talking, many private schools that have these small classes and staff are $50k/yr per student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you educate a child who is at home in two leg casts unable to walk for three months?

You set them up at home for virtual learning.

If this is true, why can't it be done for those with behaviors that can't be handled in school? Is it due to the Dept of Education or something else? What used to happen with the out-of-control students? Because school was not like this when I went and I hate that my DD is suffering the way she has.

Violent children certainly can be barred from school in order to protect everyone else from assault.
The Dept of Education, however, has unfortunately decided to allow violent kids prevent other children from learning.
The obvious result is no one gets an education, not the classroom full of students wanting to learn, and certainly not the perpetrator of the violence.

This is how the Department of Education is spending our tax dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you educate a child who is at home in two leg casts unable to walk for three months?

You set them up at home for virtual learning.

That is different because there is a specific home medical program. Additional depending on where the guardian works they are eligible for FMLA leave in that case. A kid that needs sustained therapy and potentially long term different educational needs may require a separate facility and ratio of teacher to student interaction. This requires a special classroom/school model equipped to handle. This requires resources (funding and personnel).

To give an idea what we’re talking, many private schools that have these small classes and staff are $50k/yr per student.

No, it is not different. Any sick child can get a home medical program. You people are full of endless excuses.

[Anonymous]

Violent kids must have their medical problems addressed before they are able to safely integrate into the public school system.

This is basic common sense. No one should want injuries at school.

[Anonymous]

I work in the department of special ed and I can tell you that the current chief and superintendent do not understand the complexities of our system. They recognize there is a problem but have done essentially zero fact finding to pinpoint what would actually help. Taylor is just shifting positions from one spot to another or two in central office, often with the same people who may or may not be competent, and expecting everything to still get done and more. Taylor seems to give deference to principals first and foremost and their cry us always to get any high needs special ed kid out of their school. They don't want help from a "cross functional team." I expect a big crash and burn next school year. We need more programs and more support for the programs we already have, this plan seems woefully inadequate to solve that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s crippling is the expectation that teachers should be medical professionals. The violent kids need medical care, not defenseless teachers.

What’s crippling are all the nice white parents demanding MCPS give them k-12 access to language immersion programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
How do you educate the kids who are raging every day? You simply can’t.

They first require medical intervention.

Schools are NOT medical facilities.

No one has addressed this.

Next time there’s classroom violence, parents must come together and demand the suspension of the perpetrator. He requires professional medical care. School children have a right to basic safety at school.

Now is a great time to connect with other families. Let teachers know we care about their safety, as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard the same, but don't know the specifics. I know there is a big push to get kids mainstreamed regardless of whether that hurts the child or mainstream classroom.

This is the worst possible option for everyone involved. It hurts everyone, so will that make the leadership happy?

Costs less money.

[Anonymous]

Administrators are laser focused on destroying education, as they enrich themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The amount of identified kids is high. The severity of needs has exploded. Yet, the student-teacher ratio has increased- especially in the discrete programs. My understanding is that the new superintendent wants to close down discrete programs in elementary and limited them in middle and high. Unfortunately, we need more programs, not fewer.

Does that include closing down the SESES programs in elementary schools? Has he visited those?

Visiting these programs should be required. If you aren’t in a building that houses an SESES program you have absolutely no idea what this looks like or sounds like. The staff are physically and verbally attacked regularly. The entire school (staff and students) is impacted daily as well. The screaming and vulgar language alone is like nothing you can imagine.

Yes, and/or visiting a mainstream class with out of control kids who used to be placed in SESES but are now forced to stay because the Supervisors don’t want to move anyone. We finally got 1 moved after 2 years of “working” with the supervisor on strategies. 2 years while this kid forcibly held kids heads in trashcans, started fist fights in the classroom just because, threw staplers and other hard objects across the classroom, but his teachers, and terrorized every student and teacher daily. He was also on a pre-k reading level in 4th grade so it wasn’t like academics were okay. But move him? No! Not until a really bad incident happened. We have kids like this in every grade now. HSM is ridiculous.

This is our reality too (Title I Elem School in Germantown). SO MUCH BURN OUT trying to deal with these extreme students only to be told they can’t be placed in a special program (even with documented mood disorders and daily destruction of classrooms and/or violent episodes. This is in every grade at our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The amount of identified kids is high. The severity of needs has exploded. Yet, the student-teacher ratio has increased- especially in the discrete programs. My understanding is that the new superintendent wants to close down discrete programs in elementary and limited them in middle and high. Unfortunately, we need more programs, not fewer.

Does that include closing down the SESES programs in elementary schools? Has he visited those?

Visiting these programs should be required. If you aren’t in a building that houses an SESES program you have absolutely no idea what this looks like or sounds like. The staff are physically and verbally attacked regularly. The entire school (staff and students) is impacted daily as well. The screaming and vulgar language alone is like nothing you can imagine.

Yes, and/or visiting a mainstream class with out of control kids who used to be placed in SESES but are now forced to stay because the Supervisors don’t want to move anyone. We finally got 1 moved after 2 years of “working” with the supervisor on strategies. 2 years while this kid forcibly held kids heads in trashcans, started fist fights in the classroom just because, threw staplers and other hard objects across the classroom, but his teachers, and terrorized every student and teacher daily. He was also on a pre-k reading level in 4th grade so it wasn’t like academics were okay. But move him? No! Not until a really bad incident happened. We have kids like this in every grade now. HSM is ridiculous.

This is our reality too (Title I Elem School in Germantown). SO MUCH BURN OUT trying to deal with these extreme students only to be told they can’t be placed in a special program (even with documented mood disorders and daily destruction of classrooms and/or violent episodes. This is in every grade at our school.

How are teachers tolerating this?

[Anonymous]

It’s awful because we have multiple kids who need a 1:1 or a placement in a special program but were denied by MCPS (Central Office SpEd NOT our teachers / admin). These kids routinely bite, punch, pinch, kick, destroy posters, classrooms, bulletin boards, etc. We have done FBA’s and have analyzed the meaning behind the behavior but very few of the solutions suggested have worked because these kids need more support than what we can provide. I am sure parents would likely sue for a private placement if we were at a wealthier school but sadly many parents at my school are completely unaware of this process. Because the 1:1 requests/funding are denied, we have to constantly rotate paras and SpEd teachers in and out acting as the 1:1 for the students that need this level support. his obviously reduces the ability of the paras, teachers, cafeteria workers, etc. needed to help ALL the students in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

News Flash:
These kids need professional MEDICAL intervention at a MEDICAL facility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More facilities such as RICA, a partnership between the state of MD and MCPS, which provides special education and intensive therapeutic services, are badly needed. The increase of students with significant mental health needs, including serious aggression, is crippling our system’s schoolhouses.

Sick kids running a fever are not allowed to be at school. Mentally sick kids who are violent should not be at school either.

But where should they be?

I'm not being contradictory- I agree with you. But what do we do with the children who are unable to safely stay in a classroom. We have programs with smaller group sizes of 5-15, but those are really hard to get into. Do we need more of those programs? For a child needing mental health services, should social services provide the services?

Children with a fever are sent home.
Children with violent behaviors must also be sent home.
Sick children do not belong in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amen! We've long needed an overhaul in special ed in CO. Given the federal and state and local funding trends, I'm not sure what exactly they'll be able to do, but the current bunch is awful. Overcrowded discrete classrooms because there aren't enough of them, long-term subs instead of teachers, not enough special ed paras, the list is endless.

If the problem is staffing, it’s a tough one to fix unless you have a lot of money to throw at it.

Liar. The problem is policy.

Policy is a HUGE problem, but so is money. Without proper funding, school systems can’t afford more restrictive environments.

What’s a more restrictive environment? Every kid gets their own personal teacher?