FCPS - Getting Elementary Age Child Exempt from Spanish

[Anonymous]

Has anyone here had success getting their elementary school child with dyslexia exempt from taking a foreign language in FCPS?

If so, I’d love to hear about the process and what steps you had to take. Trying to figure out the best way to go about this for my child. The IEP team is pushing back hard.

Any advice or experiences would be so helpful—thank you!

Things I know so far: Foreign language is not part of the elementary school curriculum. FCPS does not have a policy against receiving pull out services during special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone here had success getting their elementary school child with dyslexia exempt from taking a foreign language in FCPS?

If so, I’d love to hear about the process and what steps you had to take. Trying to figure out the best way to go about this for my child. The IEP team is pushing back hard.

Any advice or experiences would be so helpful—thank you!

Things I know so far: Foreign language is not part of the elementary school curriculum. FCPS does not have a policy against receiving pull out services during special.

Are you trying to get your kid pull out time during the language "instruction"? Why are they pushing back? Your kid has to be supervised during this time, so it could result in your child siting on their computer in the hallway...,like when you exempt your kid from SEL stuff.

I'd pick my battles and this isn't one of them.

[Anonymous]

What’s your concern here? Lack of instructional time in other areas? Just don’t want them learning Spanish? There’s no reason your kid can’t learn just because of dyslexia. You’ll have to come up with a better reason than that, and you should if you don’t want them to learn it you’re the parent, I’m just saying that excuse probably won’t get you far. If you approach it from a learning angle like they are behind in x,y, or z, and require additional instruction or if you can find an independent skill they can do like a typing program, then you might have something to go on. Anything mentioned in the neuropsych? Any ability to provide outside professional in the school?

[Anonymous]

We tried. Foreign languages are SUPER hard for dyslexic kids but FCPS will absolutely not allow you to pull a kid from foreign languages or PE for that matter, if you wanted extra instructional time. I get it. We tried. FCPS will tell you it is against the law, and all sorts of other BS.

We stopped fighting it and I just looked at that time as a chance for his little brain to rest because he wasn't learning anything and the teacher did not expect anything of the class except to stay seated. Elementary foreign language, at least at our FCPS elementary school, is crap anyway. My kids have had both Chinese and Spanish and have not been taught more than to say hello, goodbye, and count to ten. (I now have a 7th and 4th grader.)

You have enough on your plate, let this one slide. Don't worry about the grading or whether he is learning anything. Just let it be.

[Anonymous]

What are the reasons the IEP team is pushing back?

[Anonymous]

OP Here:

Answering a couple of questions.

1) Child is severely dyslexic in second grade, can’t read in English. They will likely not ever take a foreign language in High School.

2) Spanish is 1 hr a week. He hates it, I don’t think he understands most of it. I think it is waist of time.

3) IEP team says they can’t use specials for intervention time. However, I can’t find any policy in this regard.

4) Ideally the school would use this time for intervention. However, I would be happy if he could go to a different special with a different class or do anything else.

[Anonymous]

They can’t use specials for intervention time? That would piss me off so much. So dyslexic kid can be pulled from English but not Art?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP Here:

Answering a couple of questions.

1) Child is severely dyslexic in second grade, can’t read in English. They will likely not ever take a foreign language in High School.

2) Spanish is 1 hr a week. He hates it, I don’t think he understands most of it. I think it is waist of time.

3) IEP team says they can’t use specials for intervention time. However, I can’t find any policy in this regard.

4) Ideally the school would use this time for intervention. However, I would be happy if he could go to a different special with a different class or do anything else.

You need to be proactive here and find something he can do that takes very minimal effort by a teacher. A typing program, hear builder, earrobics, an outside professional that can come for isolated instruction, etc. And hire yourself a lawyer if they’re being this ridiculously difficult.

[Anonymous]

I believe FCPS told us there was a federal guideline that said they could not use specials for intervention. We were denied every time we asked. I’ve tried for seven years to get my kids the intervention they need during specials and even with an advocate failed every time. Now I have a child in middle school, and the interventions are only offered during electives so all of the things he wants to do like band he can’t because the interventions come during their “specials“

[Anonymous]

There is no federal guideline that outright prohibits using "specials" for intervention under IDEA. You need a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone here had success getting their elementary school child with dyslexia exempt from taking a foreign language in FCPS?

If so, I’d love to hear about the process and what steps you had to take. Trying to figure out the best way to go about this for my child. The IEP team is pushing back hard.

Any advice or experiences would be so helpful—thank you!

Things I know so far: Foreign language is not part of the elementary school curriculum. FCPS does not have a policy against receiving pull out services during special.

We know of kids taking sign language as their foreign language. It is an online class, which is a bummer, but it has worked well for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP Here:

Answering a couple of questions.

1) Child is severely dyslexic in second grade, can’t read in English. They will likely not ever take a foreign language in High School.

2) Spanish is 1 hr a week. He hates it, I don’t think he understands most of it. I think it is waist of time.

3) IEP team says they can’t use specials for intervention time. However, I can’t find any policy in this regard.

4) Ideally the school would use this time for intervention. However, I would be happy if he could go to a different special with a different class or do anything else.

You are talking about FLES? It is a joke and your kids grade in it doesn't matter. The entire class goes so he should be able to sit through it with no real expectation. The Chinese FLES program I know of repeats the same lessons every year because new kids join the class. No one learns anything, it is generally seen as a waste of time. I have no idea why they bother with FLES because it doesn't seem to accomplish anything.

[Anonymous]

I believe that specials are blocked from being used for pullouts because they are one of the venues for inculsion, a palce where the SPED kids are able to interact with less pressure with everyone. Denying a kid art, music, PE, library, FLES in favor of individualized support means that they don't get to participate in the "fun" classes and is seen as a punishment, not a venue for services. I could be wrong though.

[Anonymous]

Specials are also when teachers take their legally mandated planning time. Teachers are required to have 300 hours of planning time a week in order to plan the lessons, interventions, differentiation, write IEP’s ETC in order to ensure your child gets the instruction they require.

[Anonymous]

Think about it this way, would you rather the special education teacher be the one supporting your child during academics or take their planning then or, if your child requires support during specials usually that’s an IA. For my kid, I would much rather an IA in FLES than an IA during language arts.