504 and HS Magnets
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Anonymous
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How do kids normally do at magnets of they have health issues (not adhd) that hinders their ability to do work as quickly? Does it makes a difference if it's Blair or RM or Poolesville?
I don't want to discourage DD to decline until after she explores her options, but a part of me is fearful that she will struggle socially, get poor grades, and compromise her health even further. Can parents of kids who have 504 or IEP chime on on their child's experience at the high school magnets? Was there appropriate support from counselors and teachers? How would her high performing cohort view her? DD is bright, curious and is hardworking. I am just not sure if this is enough to advise her to enter an environment where it can be a pressure cooker. Her older sister attends the local school. We are not impressed by the teachers nor counselor at our local school, and so was hoping that the magnet teachers and admin might be of better quality. |
Anonymous
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I think RM would be a good choice, honestly. There's less group work, but also the RMIB kids tend to be more political than the SMCS kids.
That is, if your child has a visible disability, or willingness to talk about their health issues, the RM kids are going to see it as a political issue to include her. |
Anonymous
| The kids at Blair both in the stem program and CAP are extremely friendly. They include people not because it's politically palatable but because they are just nice kids. Especially the girls |
Anonymous
| My child obtained a 504 plan halfway through her time at Richard Montgomery in the IB program. The teachers were completely supportive and she has used her accommodations many times without incident. She is a dedicated and hard-working student who achieves high-performance. But she needs a couple of accommodations to do so. |
Anonymous
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Socially do not give it another thought. It won't be an issue either at RMIB or Blair. We had kids in both and a kid who is bright, curious and hardworking will do great.
The pace of the work is really rough, though, so I do think you are right to be concerned about that. DC missed one week of school at Blair one year due to flu and it was horrible to make it up. The teachers were nice and accommodating but there was just so much work. They pack a lot of info into each class and then they have homework on top of that. It's not like regular schools where they give you time to do work in class and then you do whatever's left for homework. Most kids already do work on the weekends so there's not a lot of catch up time there either. The homework isn't busy work so I wouldn't advise you to ask for reduced work either. If you can't do the homework you won't do well on the tests and they are usually not retakable unlike at your home school. |
Anonymous
| If Poolesville Global's an option I'd do that in your situation. Homework load is much more manageable. |
Anonymous
| Just had a thread on this recently. |
Anonymous
would not consider stem program "friendly"... all pretty cliquey to me |
Anonymous
| My kid has a 504 at the Blair magnet. It’s NBD. Great teachers. Not a “pressure cooker” - just good science and math instruction and a cohort that cares/is into the topic! |
Anonymous
| My kid has a 504 in Blair CAP. Counselors, school nurse, and teachers have been understanding. We’ve also received help from the administrator for those teachers who didn’t give the accommodations. Lots of kids have accommodations. |
Anonymous
| IEP at a regional IB. Socially, a non-issue, except for the aspects of socialization an ND kid can struggle with. But the other kids are very kind. There's one subject that's consistently been a problem, and I'm not sure DC will pass the exam for it, but doing badly in one subject is balanced out for me by how well they're doing with the rest. I think the small cohort really helps DC not feel overwhelmed. Class sizes in 11th and 12th have all been small as well, which also helps. |
Anonymous
Do all kids do the same rigorous classes? Or can a student opt for a lower level in some subjects to decrease the load? |
Anonymous
| My kid has a 504 at Wheaton. Teachers are for the most part very accommodating, though some need reminding. Counselor was great setting up meetings and recommending accommodations. Kid has excelled in the magnet program. |
Anonymous
Yes students can opt for a lower level in some subjects and this type of individual consideration is really encouraged by the administration! I said some subjects because I don't think you can do that for the 4 core science classes which are taken in 9th and 10th. But there are regular and higher tracks for computer science. There are also two standard math tracks, one regular and one higher one, but the program will work with your child if your child wants to do an alternate path. Most people don't know this, but there are kids every year who opt for a different, slower/easier sequence. In 11th and 12th almost everything is an elective so your child will have a lot of choices. Suggest you teach out to Mr. Ostrander or one of the magnet teachers to discuss different options. They are really supportive and want to make sure every child is successful. They really emphasize trying to find the right balance for a specific child. |
Anonymous
If the health condition makes it challenging for them to work as quickly I would think very carefully about Blair. The main appeal of the program is that many classes go twice as fast regular courses - one-year courses are compressed into a half year in addition to going more in depth. Physics, bio, chem all take 1 year but are covered in a semester in the program and it's the same for stats. I think math can go two times as fast or 1.5 times as fast depending on the track. RM is not like that. It will be more rigorous and may add additional topics but no classes cover twice the material as regular classes, based on experience with our children. |