Why do principals seem to be against IEPs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The IEP is not just for a student below grade level. It could just be bc of how they learn.

My neighbor's kid scored below average on a standardized test, so they got a private diagnosis and it turns out they have a 504 now. They seem like a regular kid to me but thank goodness they can afford to have this done to ensure their kid doesn't score appear average on a standardized test. This is very traumatic at a W feeder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's a pain in the ass that requires extra work, so not everybody can be accommodated.

This is the real reason.

But how is it extra work? There is a teacher at my kids’ school whose sole job is to do these type of assessments and work with kids who have special needs. It’s her job.

Special Education Teachers have been swapped out for Para Educators and their educational training is not the same. A Para Educator only needs a high school diploma. Most Para Educators are just babysitters and don’t teach any skills.

MCPS has come up with a discriminatory model where to access to a Special Educator, students have to drop a credit period and take a Resource Class. Even though these classes are presented at IEP teams that they are General Ed classes, the number of students with disabilities show that the placement is a pull out class for students with disabilities. MCPS is not meeting Federal standards for teaching students in the least restrictive environment, especially when students in these Resource Classes are calculated.

Why isn’t there a lawsuit? I’m not litigious generally, but it’s shameful to deprive kids of the educational support they need.

Lawsuits against MCPS cost families $35,000 to $75,000. Realize families who fight either through Due Process or Civil Suits are up against a government agency that has unlimited financial resources for the legal fight. The MCPS legal fees do not come out of the school budget, they come out of the Montgomery County Government budget. It’s a truly lopsided fight in which families are at a disadvantage.

Most families with resources have to make a financial choice to either pay for private services to meet their child’s needs or pay to fight MCPS. The children of parents with a lack of financial resources and a lack of understanding of the laws protecting students with disabilities are truly left behind. MCPS Special Educational Services is a dysfunctional and often a deceptive process that ultimately has the goal to deny services to students. Parents are dragged to meetings after meetings and if an IEP is actually written, often schools drop the ball for the implementation.

It is something that would be a great Netflix documentary or 60 minutes expose because people don’t know how broken public education is till they are stuck in the muck with MCPS for a child with disabilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's a pain in the ass that requires extra work, so not everybody can be accommodated.

This is the real reason.

But how is it extra work? There is a teacher at my kids’ school whose sole job is to do these type of assessments and work with kids who have special needs. It’s her job.

Because then the student has accommodations in the classroom that can be hard to manage when you have many in each class! You’re teaching one lesson to 20 kids and then 5 separate plans for the 5 kids with different accommodations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably because every other parents wants one for their student?

Oh yes, a child with learning delays and an IEP is a very desirable club to be in. 🙄

There is absolutely a trend among upper middle class parents to get their kids extra time and ADHD meds.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/us/extra-time-504-sat-act.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's a pain in the ass that requires extra work, so not everybody can be accommodated.

This is the real reason.

But how is it extra work? There is a teacher at my kids’ school whose sole job is to do these type of assessments and work with kids who have special needs. It’s her job.

Because then the student has accommodations in the classroom that can be hard to manage when you have many in each class! You’re teaching one lesson to 20 kids and then 5 separate plans for the 5 kids with different accommodations.

There is the best practice of universal design that would minimize the need for different lesson plans.

Also, I agree that general education teachers are burdened by the excessive number of students in the classroom. That’s a core MCPS problem not necessarily tied to Special Education. However, MCPS makes the job of a general education teacher impossible when a child with a disability is denied special education services. MCPS has gravitated to 504 Plans and IEPs that requires a general education teacher to do things for a child instead of the child receiving special education services so they can learn skills for independence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably because every other parents wants one for their student?

Oh yes, a child with learning delays and an IEP is a very desirable club to be in. 🙄

There is absolutely a trend among upper middle class parents to get their kids extra time and ADHD meds.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/us/extra-time-504-sat-act.html

It’s definitely a trend that MCPS ignores students with ADHD and it takes private evaluations for an IEP. In MCPS, only students with parents who can afford the private testing will be accommodated and receive special education services. The services are important to teach organizational skills and strategy to cope with executive functioning difficulties. These problems start in elementary school but have a greater impact as a child progresses through middle school and high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's a pain in the ass that requires extra work, so not everybody can be accommodated.

This is the real reason.

But how is it extra work? There is a teacher at my kids’ school whose sole job is to do these type of assessments and work with kids who have special needs. It’s her job.

Special Education Teachers have been swapped out for Para Educators and their educational training is not the same. A Para Educator only needs a high school diploma. Most Para Educators are just babysitters and don’t teach any skills.

MCPS has come up with a discriminatory model where to access to a Special Educator, students have to drop a credit period and take a Resource Class. Even though these classes are presented at IEP teams that they are General Ed classes, the number of students with disabilities show that the placement is a pull out class for students with disabilities. MCPS is not meeting Federal standards for teaching students in the least restrictive environment, especially when students in these Resource Classes are calculated.

Why isn’t there a lawsuit? I’m not litigious generally, but it’s shameful to deprive kids of the educational support they need.

Lawsuits against MCPS cost families $35,000 to $75,000. Realize families who fight either through Due Process or Civil Suits are up against a government agency that has unlimited financial resources for the legal fight. The MCPS legal fees do not come out of the school budget, they come out of the Montgomery County Government budget. It’s a truly lopsided fight in which families are at a disadvantage.

Most families with resources have to make a financial choice to either pay for private services to meet their child’s needs or pay to fight MCPS. The children of parents with a lack of financial resources and a lack of understanding of the laws protecting students with disabilities are truly left behind. MCPS Special Educational Services is a dysfunctional and often a deceptive process that ultimately has the goal to deny services to students. Parents are dragged to meetings after meetings and if an IEP is actually written, often schools drop the ball for the implementation.

It is something that would be a great Netflix documentary or 60 minutes expose because people don’t know how broken public education is till they are stuck in the muck with MCPS for a child with disabilities.

All sad but true. MCPS spent 11 million in outside counsel in 2017. They don’t really have to / they have nearly every judge in Maryland in their back pocket according to recent Baltimore sun investigation. You have a 15% chance of winning a due process appeal in Maryland - even if you have unlimited funds. So the system never gets any better. We simply moved / and it got a whole lot better. What a ridiculously corrupt and unethical place! Not sure how most MCPS admins look at their faces in the morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably because every other parents wants one for their student?

Oh yes, a child with learning delays and an IEP is a very desirable club to be in. 🙄

There is absolutely a trend among upper middle class parents to get their kids extra time and ADHD meds.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/us/extra-time-504-sat-act.html

It’s definitely a trend that MCPS ignores students with ADHD and it takes private evaluations for an IEP. In MCPS, only students with parents who can afford the private testing will be accommodated and receive special education services. The services are important to teach organizational skills and strategy to cope with executive functioning difficulties. These problems start in elementary school but have a greater impact as a child progresses through middle school and high school.

Even then an IEP is just words on paper. We paid for private testing but they never gave child much but uneducated first generation paraeducator. Lady could barely string a sentence in English together. Utterly a lost year before we went private - then simply moved. We’ve noticed MCPS now pays for testing to look good to the Feds but then doesn’t do anything further in good faith. Supreme Court decision said just not de minimus so kid can just languish. MCPS just wants fed money so they can redirect funds anyways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's a pain in the ass that requires extra work, so not everybody can be accommodated.

This is the real reason.

But how is it extra work? There is a teacher at my kids’ school whose sole job is to do these type of assessments and work with kids who have special needs. It’s her job.

Because then the student has accommodations in the classroom that can be hard to manage when you have many in each class! You’re teaching one lesson to 20 kids and then 5 separate plans for the 5 kids with different accommodations.

The 300% increase in 504 accommodations in UMC areas has changed teaching over the past decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's a pain in the ass that requires extra work, so not everybody can be accommodated.

This is the real reason.

But how is it extra work? There is a teacher at my kids’ school whose sole job is to do these type of assessments and work with kids who have special needs. It’s her job.

Because then the student has accommodations in the classroom that can be hard to manage when you have many in each class! You’re teaching one lesson to 20 kids and then 5 separate plans for the 5 kids with different accommodations.

The 300% increase in 504 accommodations in UMC areas has changed teaching over the past decade.

In MCPS, 504 accommodations are given for children in lieu of an IEP. A sign that a child needs an IEP so they can learn skills for independence is a 504 plan that has increasing accommodations that go into double digits.

I agree giving a child a 504 plan with a long list of things that the general educator needs to do for the child is an impossible situation for the general education teacher and a disservice for the student. In those cases, the general education teacher should be speaking up and advocating for the child to have an IEP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's a pain in the ass that requires extra work, so not everybody can be accommodated.

This is the real reason.

But how is it extra work? There is a teacher at my kids’ school whose sole job is to do these type of assessments and work with kids who have special needs. It’s her job.

Because then the student has accommodations in the classroom that can be hard to manage when you have many in each class! You’re teaching one lesson to 20 kids and then 5 separate plans for the 5 kids with different accommodations.

The 300% increase in 504 accommodations in UMC areas has changed teaching over the past decade.

In MCPS, 504 accommodations are given for children in lieu of an IEP. A sign that a child needs an IEP so they can learn skills for independence is a 504 plan that has increasing accommodations that go into double digits.

I agree giving a child a 504 plan with a long list of things that the general educator needs to do for the child is an impossible situation for the general education teacher and a disservice for the student. In those cases, the general education teacher should be speaking up and advocating for the child to have an IEP.

With an IEP, the student should have special education services including service hours with a special education teacher that would meet the child’s needs versus adding to the incredibly large workload of general education teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's a pain in the ass that requires extra work, so not everybody can be accommodated.

This is the real reason.

But how is it extra work? There is a teacher at my kids’ school whose sole job is to do these type of assessments and work with kids who have special needs. It’s her job.

Because then the student has accommodations in the classroom that can be hard to manage when you have many in each class! You’re teaching one lesson to 20 kids and then 5 separate plans for the 5 kids with different accommodations.

The 300% increase in 504 accommodations in UMC areas has changed teaching over the past decade.

In MCPS, 504 accommodations are given for children in lieu of an IEP. A sign that a child needs an IEP so they can learn skills for independence is a 504 plan that has increasing accommodations that go into double digits.

I agree giving a child a 504 plan with a long list of things that the general educator needs to do for the child is an impossible situation for the general education teacher and a disservice for the student. In those cases, the general education teacher should be speaking up and advocating for the child to have an IEP.

With an IEP, the student should have special education services including service hours with a special education teacher that would meet the child’s needs versus adding to the incredibly large workload of general education teachers.

If every child how needed an IEP (including those with 504s) got one, MCPS would be lucky to get them 15 minutes a week with a special education teacher. There is a massive shortage, so everything would just fall back on the classroom teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably because every other parents wants one for their student?

Oh yes, a child with learning delays and an IEP is a very desirable club to be in. 🙄

There is absolutely a trend among upper middle class parents to get their kids extra time and ADHD meds.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/us/extra-time-504-sat-act.html

It’s very common even in local private K-8 schools for kids to get private testing the summer before 7th or 8th grade so they can get extended testing time on the SSAT. Our old learning specialist said it was akin yo the College Admissions Scandals

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's a pain in the ass that requires extra work, so not everybody can be accommodated.

This is the real reason.

But how is it extra work? There is a teacher at my kids’ school whose sole job is to do these type of assessments and work with kids who have special needs. It’s her job.

Because then the student has accommodations in the classroom that can be hard to manage when you have many in each class! You’re teaching one lesson to 20 kids and then 5 separate plans for the 5 kids with different accommodations.

The 300% increase in 504 accommodations in UMC areas has changed teaching over the past decade.

In MCPS, 504 accommodations are given for children in lieu of an IEP. A sign that a child needs an IEP so they can learn skills for independence is a 504 plan that has increasing accommodations that go into double digits.


I agree giving a child a 504 plan with a long list of things that the general educator needs to do for the child is an impossible situation for the general education teacher and a disservice for the student. In those cases, the general education teacher should be speaking up and advocating for the child to have an IEP.

With an IEP, the student should have special education services including service hours with a special education teacher that would meet the child’s needs versus adding to the incredibly large workload of general education teachers.

If every child how needed an IEP (including those with 504s) got one, MCPS would be lucky to get them 15 minutes a week with a special education teacher. There is a massive shortage, so everything would just fall back on the classroom teacher.

And services are rarely provided 1-1. At best your kid is in a small group and even then they don’t meet consistently because of scheduling and staffing issues

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's a pain in the ass that requires extra work, so not everybody can be accommodated.

This is the real reason.

But how is it extra work? There is a teacher at my kids’ school whose sole job is to do these type of assessments and work with kids who have special needs. It’s her job.

Because then the student has accommodations in the classroom that can be hard to manage when you have many in each class! You’re teaching one lesson to 20 kids and then 5 separate plans for the 5 kids with different accommodations.

The 300% increase in 504 accommodations in UMC areas has changed teaching over the past decade.

In MCPS, 504 accommodations are given for children in lieu of an IEP. A sign that a child needs an IEP so they can learn skills for independence is a 504 plan that has increasing accommodations that go into double digits.


I agree giving a child a 504 plan with a long list of things that the general educator needs to do for the child is an impossible situation for the general education teacher and a disservice for the student. In those cases, the general education teacher should be speaking up and advocating for the child to have an IEP.

With an IEP, the student should have special education services including service hours with a special education teacher that would meet the child’s needs versus adding to the incredibly large workload of general education teachers.

If every child how needed an IEP (including those with 504s) got one, MCPS would be lucky to get them 15 minutes a week with a special education teacher. There is a massive shortage, so everything would just fall back on the classroom teacher.

And services are rarely provided 1-1. At best your kid is in a small group and even then they don’t meet consistently because of scheduling and staffing issues

MCPS has staffing shortages for students with disabilities because they choose to have staffing shortages. They are using special education staff as substitutes. They are underpaying virtually all staff who work with students with disabilities. Then because principals know that there are staffing issues, in the pre-IEP meetings before parents are invited in, staff members are told what the decision at the meeting will be. Special Education is a dog and pony show in MCPS.