Taylor addressing special education debacle

[Anonymous]

Kudos to Superintendent Taylor!
The way MCPS has treated Special Education has been especially shameful. I'm pleased to see him correction course.
https://montgomeryperspective.com/2025/02/03/on-taylors-first-budget-special-education/

[Anonymous]

What will happen to the teachers from the Philippines?

[Anonymous]

Thank goodness! My SN kid sat in the office for the better part of two years. Principal scolded us to basically fix DS' autism at home...go to more therapies, more workshops, read more books, and bring him back better in the fall.

[Anonymous]

The question posed at the end of how exactly they are going to find enough staff to fill these positions is the key one. Expanding the budget is great and giving more permanent paraeducator roles is needed. But having the positions is one thing and filling them with actual people who want to do them is another.

[Anonymous]

I am a special education teacher in a middle school. I am given one 50 minute period a week to work on case management duties. It is unsustainable. I would love to be able to have better communication with parents or time to write better IEPs. But we just aren't given the time. My regular planning time is used to plan for the 3 different classes/preps that I teach. There just isn't enough time in the day to get it all done. I will probably resign at the end of this year, unless things drastically.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate his words. I do believe he is trying and wants to help. I agree with the workload/caseload management being unsustainable. I wish we had caseload managers like they do at other districts who would take care of some of the paperwork and logistics because even if they built in more caseload time it seems to get eaten up by other things - like being asked to sit in on meetings, helping out with things around the school, etc. I also wish we used more boiler plate reports/goals and that our technology was better/quicker. Medical assistance and the paperwork for that takes quite a bit of time too. - Speech Pathologist

Anonymous wrote:I am a special education teacher in a middle school. I am given one 50 minute period a week to work on case management duties. It is unsustainable. I would love to be able to have better communication with parents or time to write better IEPs. But we just aren't given the time. My regular planning time is used to plan for the 3 different classes/preps that I teach. There just isn't enough time in the day to get it all done. I will probably resign at the end of this year, unless things drastically.

[Anonymous]

Nobody will fill those roles. The pay and workload still don’t line up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question posed at the end of how exactly they are going to find enough staff to fill these positions is the key one. Expanding the budget is great and giving more permanent paraeducator roles is needed. But having the positions is one thing and filling them with actual people who want to do them is another.

The answer to this is contract services with external agencies. They have to separate the services from the school politics.

[Anonymous]

The cuts to central office special education positions will help fill some of them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question posed at the end of how exactly they are going to find enough staff to fill these positions is the key one. Expanding the budget is great and giving more permanent paraeducator roles is needed. But having the positions is one thing and filling them with actual people who want to do them is another.

People keep asking this question and no good answers have been provided.

Is the pay scale going to be higher? Are they going to reduce the administrative workload? Is case load going to be reduced? Where are they going to recruit from? etc

[Anonymous]

Its all for show. Where is the money coming from when we have a deficit and he's complaining about funding. The county council is clear no more. Last year the board cut the MVA, an early education program, auto trade and an Autism program. All focusing on SN and kids who have specific needs outside the norm.