Public schools in Fairfax, McClean, or Arlington elementary schools for Kindergarten / ASD

[Anonymous]

Apologies in advance as I’m sure this has been asked a million times in a million different ways, but here I go. Our 4.3 year old son has ASD - generally, he’s verbal, engaged, able to be part of the group, likes to joke, gravitates toward adults, is reading at a 1st grade level, and loves numbers. Though he can be with a group at pre-school, he has very limited ability to play with peers and he can be extremely sensitive, anxious, and/or fearful. He was just tested and his development (leaving aside social skills) is average or above average, except his expressive speech is below average (he’s very talkative but not really conversational and social speech is lacking). He functions well enough at pre school - they’ve figured out strategies to help his emotionality - and right now he’s not particularly disruptive or distracting.

We are relocating from California to Northern Virginia in a year when he is scheduled to start kindergarten. Based on what I’ve read here, it sounds like finding a regular private school for him will be an uphill battle, even though they claim to accept neurodiverse kids. So, with that in mind, what public elementary schools do you recommend in the districts I listed. We can basically choose to live anywhere in Northern Va. We will just go where is best for my son. I’ve heard these districts are well funded and potentially a good option for kids like mine, but I also understand the districts are large and there’s lots of variation. Therefore, specificity would be immensely appreciated as we go through this journey.

Thank you in advance.

[Anonymous]

The link below is a great start. Most parents do not think public schools in the area can properly support most ASD kids.

I recommend renting and see if it a right fit. If I had to do it over, I would have bought a townhouse and send my kid to private school. Good Luck with your move.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1280683.page

[Anonymous]

Thank you. Yes the more I read the more it seems public school isn’t necessarily a great option given the feedback on this site. I’ve seen discussion of Newton, Linder, and a few schools in Maryland too. Perhaps those are better options…so hard to know what’s best.

[Anonymous]

I believe the biggest problem with public schools is the class size, FCPS just increased class size (didn’t see the official numbers) due to budget constraints.

My son’s first grade class had 27 kids last year, at least 6 kids with an IEP (my child is one of them, I know because they go to pull out together). The special education teacher is split between 2 grades, so at best she has 1/2 the day. However, with pullouts and meetings, I would be surprised if she is in the classroom more than 1/3 of the time.

I feel bad for a child like yours, with more programmatic language issues. There is child like yours in my son’s class. The other children know he is different and he is rarely invited to birthday parties (we invited all the boys in the class including him).

I believe a small classroom would greatly benefit a child like yours.

On another note. The schools mentioned that don’t accept kids with ASD (McLean, Lab, Sienna, Oakwood. These are schools for mostly for kids with language disorders like dyslexia not ASD). I would look into Commonwealth Academy in Alexandria. Our neighbors have a child with ASD and are very happy. I believe they only accept ASD kids without behavioral needs like your child.

[Anonymous]

If your child can function well in general ed settings with minimal support, public would probably be fine. The local school divisions are moving (slowly) towards more inclusion. The problem is that no one is all the way there yet, so you have kids with ASD "included" in gen ed but the gen ed teachers don't really know how to support them, and there are often not enough push in teachers or ones with the right training. And even if all that falls into place, the classes are still large, and some kids can't handle that. If this doesn't work, you're in a self contained special ed setting. Those classes are smaller but they are often mixed grade, it's hard to know if they are still providing grade level content, and sometimes the peer mix can be challenging.

I think there are a lot of kids with disabilities who could do well in a gen ed setting if the classes were smaller and they had good support. But that doesn't exist in public. You have to go private for that.

Consider your options carefully. If you really can live anywhere, then you can live in a less expensive area with worse schools and pay for private.

[Anonymous]

I should clarify - we don’t prefer public, we would gladly do private. I have contacted various typical “elite” private schools and they all claim to have and admit neurodiverse kids. But I’m sensing that may not be quite accurate and it’ll be very hard if not impossible to get admitted, even if our son doesn’t have any behavioral issues. I’ve also now heard of the schools I mentioned above, which seem to cater to high functioning ASD kids with social challenges. Those sound like they could be okay options. I’m wondering where the people on this site would send a kid like mine, assuming you could live anywhere around DC and afford any private school. As noted above our kid is smart, very verbal, and motivated to socialize albeit with adults. He is behind in his social language (but progressing), anxious, and can’t figure out his peers yet (although he can function as part of a group, as he does now while attending a regular private pre school)

[Anonymous]

Maddox - it’s in Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Hi op I’m not sure if this is helpful, my son has ADHD so of course I won’t speak to being a parent of a child with ASD in Arlington (so far so good with special ed services for my child but again realize that is not necessarily relevant) but wanted to share that my child’s Arlington 1st grade had 18 students this year and my son’s class had at least two children with asd who had support in the classroom (sometimes two aids, one for each) much of the time I visited though they often line support up for big events so again maybe this isn’t helpful since I can’t say for sure how much they are there but the smaller class size seemed a helpful point compared to Fairfax. Not all 1st grades would be that small, they added a 5th classroom because it went over some number but they would never be 27 in Arlington I don’t believe (Fairfax is great overall I just think class sizes may be a bit bigger right now). Class sizes do go up in second grade though.

[Anonymous]

Adding for K my son had 21 in class in Arlington which is pretty typical for an Arlington K class and 1st class I think then up a little in second because kids are older and more independent

[Anonymous]

Look into Sycamore School in Arlington.

If it is a mild/moderate case of ASD, then also maybe look into Montessori School of McLean, which is slightly north of Arlington on Kirby Road. This is age 3 - 6th grade. Typical class size used to be 18-20, but Iam not sure what it is now. They will not have explicit supports for SN kids, but Montessori's focus on individual learning, open classroom, hands-on learning, and the smaller-than-public class sizes might work for a kid with less severe ASD.

Both of these are private. In both cases, I would be open with the school about where the child is academically and socially

[Anonymous]

Fairfax County schools often have elementary classes with 25-30 kids. This might vary by school. Redistricting is underway which also might impact elementary class sizes there.

I have no experience with ASD parenting, so cannot speak to that aspect. For our neuro-typical daughters we went private purely to get smaller class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look into Sycamore School in Arlington.

If it is a mild/moderate case of ASD, then also maybe look into Montessori School of McLean, which is slightly north of Arlington on Kirby Road. This is age 3 - 6th grade. Typical class size used to be 18-20, but Iam not sure what it is now. They will not have explicit supports for SN kids, but Montessori's focus on individual learning, open classroom, hands-on learning, and the smaller-than-public class sizes might work for a kid with less severe ASD.

Both of these are private. In both cases, I would be open with the school about where the child is academically and socially

Thanks for this. Sycamore sounds great - unfortunately it’s for 5th grade or older, according to the website. But a typical elementary school like that could work for our kid, if it attracts some ND kids and the school is user friendly in that regard.