What neighborhood should I move my boys to?

[Anonymous]

I’m a single, lesbian mom moving to the DMV soon with my wonderful young boys (3 and 5). Both have ASD diagnoses but fall on the less-supports-needed part of the spectrum. We are Asian.

With all that in mind, if you were me and were prioritizing schools, specifically where would you live? I’m looking for advice on specific schools/neighborhoods, as opposed to something general like “MoCo.”

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Try Boston suburbs.

[Anonymous]

What is your budget and commute?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try Boston suburbs.

This is not helpful for OP. presumably she has to move here for work.

But OP - yes you’re not going to find the kind of diverse and prominent Asian population here as you’d find in Boston and surrounding suburbs. You have to go into one of the lesser attractive suburbs and most of those are associated heavily with one type of Asian: rockville for Chinese population, Annandale/centreville for Korean, falls Church for Vietnamese, MocO for Japanese (and some Chinese). Most of these suburbs will not have great public schools with the support for two special needs kids. The nicer DC and Moco neighborhoods are heavily white.

[Anonymous]

My child is slightly older, but has 3 friends with 2 mom households. All live in close in MoCo Bethesda/Chevy Chase area. Also know several 2 dad families in the close in MoCo and upper NW/ Chevy Chase DC area.

One 2 mom fam I know spent a year in Nova, but decided to move to MoCo due to not feeling comfortable in Nova. This was mentioned to me casually so take it for that……..

Not sure if you want public or private. Some people seem happy with services in MCPS, some not.

Good luck with your search.

[Anonymous]

Lots of lesbian families with child-centered attitudes in Takoma Park. It’s pricey though and I can’t speak particularly to the Asian population. It’s reasonably multicultural but majority white.

Also MCPS is frankly overwhelmed with Special Ed needs and less likely to target services to autistic kids with less support needs. Are you coming in with an IEP in place from another district? Given your description you’ll want to target the autism connections program for middle school. It’s good to start the iep process as early as possible.

But I don’t know that any other school district in the DC area has the wealth of options for special needs kids. That MCPS has Your kids could look to become part of the connections program or the GTLD (gifted and talented learning disabled) program - though admittedly the elementary part of the GTLD program has been pretty gutted.

[Anonymous]

This page may be useful to you: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/special-education/programs-services/autism/

If anybody on here knows which elementary schools are supposed to have the autism connections program for next year that could be key info. Even if you started in that elementary school in general population it would be easier to switch into connections within the same school once the IEP is in place.

[Anonymous]

Not MoCo, if you have a choice. I would say McLean VA.

MCPS doesn't do much at all for ASD kids that need fewer supports. Gen ed class and expect to need a private educational advocate to get any services (as well as private evaluations, MoCo has very lax standards as to what qualifies as a need) and also to supplement privately.

If you do decide to do MCPS pick smaller elementary schools, the difference in the same MS/HS pyramid can be ES with 16 kids per class vs ES with 25 kids per class.

[Anonymous]

I would say Bethesda, and the specific neighborhood would depend on what you are looking for in terms of community, other Asians, budget. The housing stock in TP is probably better for a family of 3. Do you want privacy? Very educated neighbors? On my street all the families with school age kids seem to have one kid with needs of some sort and everyone seems to be a physician, attorney or other Phd. But it's not close-knit and people keep to themselves. Have a look at the website for XMinds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This page may be useful to you: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/special-education/programs-services/autism/

If anybody on here knows which elementary schools are supposed to have the autism connections program for next year that could be key info. Even if you started in that elementary school in general population it would be easier to switch into connections within the same school once the IEP is in place.

I think it’s Walton for middle school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This page may be useful to you: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/special-education/programs-services/autism/

If anybody on here knows which elementary schools are supposed to have the autism connections program for next year that could be key info. Even if you started in that elementary school in general population it would be easier to switch into connections within the same school once the IEP is in place.

I think it’s Walton for middle school

Anybody know elementary? Even better if we can determine if that elementary has Pre-K that the younger son could eventually go to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not MoCo, if you have a choice. I would say McLean VA.

MCPS doesn't do much at all for ASD kids that need fewer supports. Gen ed class and expect to need a private educational advocate to get any services (as well as private evaluations, MoCo has very lax standards as to what qualifies as a need) and also to supplement privately.

If you do decide to do MCPS pick smaller elementary schools, the difference in the same MS/HS pyramid can be ES with 16 kids per class vs ES with 25 kids per class.

Agreed- my ASD kid went to Chesterbrook (five years ago at this point) and had a good experience there.

[Anonymous]

What is your budget and commute location

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is your budget and commute location

This is key for advice. Advice like "takoma park!" is insane if your budget doesn't match.

[Anonymous]

I'd say Takoma Park. It's close-in, tight-knit, very friendly to LGBTQI+ families, and the in-school gifted at the ES and MS levels mean that they have clubs that tend to appeal to kids on the spectrum. Not to paint with a broad brush, but things like D&D and trains tend to be pretty big hits with that demographic.