PEP changes in MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Looking for some info as to when PEP has become a multi-age classroom and when the class size max was revised upwards. Is there some document by MPCS or Board of education that gives details and rationale? Is there a PEP teaching manual/curriculum? Based on some outdated info I thought Collab was for 4 yo and Pilot for 3 yo only, but my kiddo is in a large classroom of kids who are between almost 5 and newly 3.

How do they differentiate instruction and content if it's 1 sped teacher and 1 para for such a wide range of ages and some of the younger kiddos don't even follow directions yet and are working on very basic things?

[Anonymous]

Most likely it is a staffing issue and there has been no official change- though that’s only a guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most likely it is a staffing issue and there has been no official change- though that’s only a guess.

Do they have this much flexibility in the system to be able to create a multi-age class room and raise enrollment cap for SN kids based on staffing issues? Wouldn't there still be some sort of document recording this, and an announcement, even if it's solely due to staffing? This is not a 1 school thing, it's system wide from what I understand.

[Anonymous]

OP, how did you find out the ages of other kids? I don't even know how many or the names of kids in my child's PEP Pilot class. She is 3.

[Anonymous]

Given that pep is for children with developmental delays, there's going to be a wide range of abilities regardless of age. The teachers know how to differentiate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, how did you find out the ages of other kids? I don't even know how many or the names of kids in my child's PEP Pilot class. She is 3.

At drop off one kid is 2 heads taller than mine, another one - mom volunteered that they have a Bday this month and age the child will turn, also I know someone from our street whose kid is in the class, age difference with mine is 1.5 years. So, all anecdotal, but enough to know it's not all same age kiddos.

Are you receiving any kinds of communications from school on how your child is participating, etc? It seems to vary from school to school, ours is a black box.

[Anonymous]

Is your child in collab or pilot?

Collab classes are students who are in their pre-k year meaning they are going into K next year. I think pilot can be a combination of ages.

[Anonymous]

PILOT is only open to 3-year-olds, as of last year. Collab is students expecting to go to kindergarten the next year, so mostly 4-turning-5. INC, etc, is now mixed ages 3-5. One of the teachers in our building has voiced a lot of frustration because it was difficult to tailor instruction to such an age range

[Anonymous]

You should get instructor/child ratios written into the IEP. No more than 1:4.

[Anonymous]

They used to separate the kids out more (younger kids in the AM classes and older in the PM) and Collab used to be for 4's, but they stopped a few year ago. All the classes are mixed ages. Technically the IEP's are individualized so it shouldn't matter.

You should definitely have communication going home! I would ask about that. At minimum, you should have a notebook going back and forth so you know what is going on during the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should get instructor/child ratios written into the IEP. No more than 1:4.

How do you justify it and back up with data so that they agree to it? I would love to know. The child is HFA and well regulated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They used to separate the kids out more (younger kids in the AM classes and older in the PM) and Collab used to be for 4's, but they stopped a few year ago. All the classes are mixed ages. Technically the IEP's are individualized so it shouldn't matter.

You should definitely have communication going home! I would ask about that. At minimum, you should have a notebook going back and forth so you know what is going on during the day.

The bolded part is the core of my question. If you have 20 3-5 year olds, one teacher and one para, how do you deliver "individualized" according to IEP?

If they do a smaller group activity, let's say a subset of kids needs that as part of their IEP, what happens to the kids not in that subgroup? They float around the classroom?
My child tends to self isolate quietly, how do i know how much of PEP time they are engaging him in something and how much time he is just in his own world?

[Anonymous]

I am the one with 3 year old at PEP pilot. There is a notebook, and I can communicate thru notebook or email or phone. I rarely contact them. They send me a list of email and name of pep teams , and there is orientation & back to school night this school year in person.

My kis is bused to there, so i don't know other kids/parents from pep. My kid is quite behind. I have trusted pep team because i think i see a huge improvement in my kid from their free program than the expensive daycare/private therapies I pay for. They seem to know what they are doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the one with 3 year old at PEP pilot. There is a notebook, and I can communicate thru notebook or email or phone. I rarely contact them. They send me a list of email and name of pep teams , and there is orientation & back to school night this school year in person.

My kis is bused to there, so i don't know other kids/parents from pep. My kid is quite behind. I have trusted pep team because i think i see a huge improvement in my kid from their free program than the expensive daycare/private therapies I pay for. They seem to know what they are doing.

Thank you for responding! how long did it take you to see the improvements? If your child is 3 they started this month for the first time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the one with 3 year old at PEP pilot. There is a notebook, and I can communicate thru notebook or email or phone. I rarely contact them. They send me a list of email and name of pep teams , and there is orientation & back to school night this school year in person.

My kis is bused to there, so i don't know other kids/parents from pep. My kid is quite behind. I have trusted pep team because i think i see a huge improvement in my kid from their free program than the expensive daycare/private therapies I pay for. They seem to know what they are doing.

Thank you for responding! how long did it take you to see the improvements? If your child is 3 they started this month for the first time?

My child is technically 3.5, so she started PEP in late March 2022. She had many behavior challenges at private daycare and she was not talking much. She was in private daycare & private therapies since summer 2021.

After a few weeks bused to the PEP program, we noticed that she would sit at circle time, cried less/whined less, talked more & interacted more at the private daycare. It could be just a coincidence, but we parents think that she learned some skills from pep program and applied it at private daycare environments. I don't know what or how she did at PEP program, but I have been happy to see the positive changes & improvements that I can see at private daycare. Even daycare teacher was amazed by the change.