FCPS is in big trouble

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

While children with special education needs were disproportionately affected, closing schools as long as they did had a detrimental effect on most students. I have relatives who lived in states where their children went back to full time in-person school during the Fall of 2021 while FCPS school board whined about how dangerous it was to open schools and kept delaying opening schools. I have a child with a learning disability with an IEP and needs a tremendous amount of help. My other child has executive functioning deficits and would succeed in school with some help. However, if you don't have an IEP, it's very difficult to get the extra help. Therefore, I pushed and pushed until that child got an IEP. It's unfortunate that there's no in-between. You either have an IEP and get help, or you don't have an IEP, and then there's very little or no help. There are lots of students in the in between stage that could use extra support but the system is not set up to help those children.

Students were in person from day 1 in the fall of 2021.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If fcps doesn't hire or can't retain staff , give them vocuhers to chose a competent private school

+1 The problem is not that providers don’t exist. The problem is that public school compensation is so low that providers are staying in private areas of employment.

In MCPS, they offer a below market salary and routinely only offer part time hours with no benefits. I also think that large public school systems are not adjusting their hiring practices to intentionally keep Special Education jobs vacant. They are saving milk of dollars on the salary that was not spent for the vacant positions.

There is no incentive for public school systems to provide FAPE. A lot of permanent damage was done over the last three years which school systems are not adequately addressing. They received ESSR funding which is largely unspent yet students are still waiting for compensatory services.

[Anonymous]

Should be millions of dollars not milk

[Anonymous]

I just can’t believe they are going to overburden everyone with more stupid iep and 504 meetings.

[Anonymous]

So we're talking about one year of virtual schooling that kids need to be offered compensatory services for. We left in March 2020 and kids were allowed to come back in person around the same time in 2021. Then we were back in school full time in person in Fall of 2021 and have been ever since. Compensatory services have already been offered to some families and it's virtually impossible to find someone willing to do the job. Special education is a ginormous, unwieldy beast that is grossly underfunded. Not a chance in hell all of these compensatory services are going to happen even if they promise it (see previous MCPS poster's anecdote).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Office of Civil Right’s investigation “found that the School Division inappropriately reduced and limited services provided to students with disabilities, based on considerations other than the students’ individual educational needs, and failed to adequately remedy these denials of FAPE.” OCR said it also “identified concerns with staffing shortages and other administrative obstacles that may have limited the School Division’s provision of FAPE, as well as its ability to sufficiently track its FAPE services."

So FCPS was unable to provide FAPE because of staffing shortages and other obstacles - because there was a pandemic.

I have saved an email from the school reading specialist who was working 1-on-1 with my daughter per her IEP that basically said she couldn’t do the 1-on-1 virtually because she was watching her own children.

It still makes me laugh that she put it in writing and thought that was a valid reason to not do her job.

Yup. I’m a lawyer. I can’t imagine telling my clients I can’t write the brief because I’m watching my kids.

Seriously? As a lawyer, you make the kind of salary where you can find a good sitter during a pandemic. No wonder teachers are leaving in droves. I am a mom of a child with autism and even she understands finances play a role here.

Do you realize that not all lawyers are well-paid? Many lawyers doing government work, especially at the state level (public defenders, prosecutors, other government attorneys), make comparable salaries to teachers in the DMV and are granted few accommodations when it comes to getting the job done. They don't get to use low wages as an excuse not to do their jobs.

Hmm....could you show us a pay scale. And please tell us how often you are with clients-is it all day. We are with students all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

While children with special education needs were disproportionately affected, closing schools as long as they did had a detrimental effect on most students. I have relatives who lived in states where their children went back to full time in-person school during the Fall of 2021 while FCPS school board whined about how dangerous it was to open schools and kept delaying opening schools. I have a child with a learning disability with an IEP and needs a tremendous amount of help. My other child has executive functioning deficits and would succeed in school with some help. However, if you don't have an IEP, it's very difficult to get the extra help. Therefore, I pushed and pushed until that child got an IEP. It's unfortunate that there's no in-between. You either have an IEP and get help, or you don't have an IEP, and then there's very little or no help. There are lots of students in the in between stage that could use extra support but the system is not set up to help those children.

This is very true and not ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If fcps doesn't hire or can't retain staff , give them vocuhers to chose a competent private school

I wonder if that’s what they’ll have to do for those who no longer live in Fairfax County.

Because private schools are really eager to take SN students with 10k vouchers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

While children with special education needs were disproportionately affected, closing schools as long as they did had a detrimental effect on most students. I have relatives who lived in states where their children went back to full time in-person school during the Fall of 2021 while FCPS school board whined about how dangerous it was to open schools and kept delaying opening schools. I have a child with a learning disability with an IEP and needs a tremendous amount of help. My other child has executive functioning deficits and would succeed in school with some help. However, if you don't have an IEP, it's very difficult to get the extra help. Therefore, I pushed and pushed until that child got an IEP. It's unfortunate that there's no in-between. You either have an IEP and get help, or you don't have an IEP, and then there's very little or no help. There are lots of students in the in between stage that could use extra support but the system is not set up to help those children.

This is very true and not ok.

I mean the no in-between for help. You should not have to have an IEP to get an intervention. I do believe schools were open in 2021 but some kids really struggled with virtual while others did just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If fcps doesn't hire or can't retain staff , give them vocuhers to chose a competent private school

You want to remove the SN kids from public school? I can't imagine how much more attention gen ed kids would get once teachers aren't absorbed with documenting IEPs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just can’t believe they are going to overburden everyone with more stupid iep and 504 meetings.

Yup-what parents don't take in consideration is all these meetings take teachers away from the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So we're talking about one year of virtual schooling that kids need to be offered compensatory services for. We left in March 2020 and kids were allowed to come back in person around the same time in 2021. Then we were back in school full time in person in Fall of 2021 and have been ever since. Compensatory services have already been offered to some families and it's virtually impossible to find someone willing to do the job. Special education is a ginormous, unwieldy beast that is grossly underfunded. Not a chance in hell all of these compensatory services are going to happen even if they promise it (see previous MCPS poster's anecdote).

the elephant in the room

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Office of Civil Right’s investigation “found that the School Division inappropriately reduced and limited services provided to students with disabilities, based on considerations other than the students’ individual educational needs, and failed to adequately remedy these denials of FAPE.” OCR said it also “identified concerns with staffing shortages and other administrative obstacles that may have limited the School Division’s provision of FAPE, as well as its ability to sufficiently track its FAPE services."

So FCPS was unable to provide FAPE because of staffing shortages and other obstacles - because there was a pandemic.

I have saved an email from the school reading specialist who was working 1-on-1 with my daughter per her IEP that basically said she couldn’t do the 1-on-1 virtually because she was watching her own children.

It still makes me laugh that she put it in writing and thought that was a valid reason to not do her job.

Yup. I’m a lawyer. I can’t imagine telling my clients I can’t write the brief because I’m watching my kids.

Seriously? As a lawyer, you make the kind of salary where you can find a good sitter during a pandemic. No wonder teachers are leaving in droves. I am a mom of a child with autism and even she understands finances play a role here.

I'm a lawyer too and while I would never say this directly to a client, I did have to take on fewer clients when my children were home during distance learning. I found it understandable when teachers were put in this impossible situation because they didn't have the option to take on fewer kids. It was not their fault. My own kids speech therapist did virtual sessions with him while her baby sat next to her in a high chair. She occasionally had to take a few minutes to tend to her baby, we didn't mind at all. She was doing the best she could and was clearly dedicated to her students to try to balance it all. It was the fault of FCPS and other school divisions that cut service hours and intentionally did not follow IEPs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just can’t believe they are going to overburden everyone with more stupid iep and 504 meetings.

Yup-what parents don't take in consideration is all these meetings take teachers away from the kids.

I'm sure some think that the meetings will be mean more attention for their children. Maybe they have a point. Any kid without an IEP or 504 who has a teacher with kids who do have IEPs is certainly getting less time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just can’t believe they are going to overburden everyone with more stupid iep and 504 meetings.

Yup-what parents don't take in consideration is all these meetings take teachers away from the kids.

I'm sure some think that the meetings will be mean more attention for their children. Maybe they have a point. Any kid without an IEP or 504 who has a teacher with kids who do have IEPs is certainly getting less time

I think all the kids lose out. Teachers are not getting planning time and already have so much paperwork. Should teachers have to work at night to help FCPS pay their damages. I don't think so. All kids will lose out on teacher time and energy as SPED and gen ed teachers run around with added meetings and paperwork. I see the SPED teachers leaving.