FCPS is in big trouble

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was one of the parents who immediately emailed the email in the announcement and to our kids case manager about- how are these meetings going to be scheduled- just because I wanted to see the response.

Well, just got the response. The school has no guidance and doesn't expect any guidance until January. And the auto-email from the announcement said thet staff will be trained on the meetings and compensatory services in the next "2-3 months."

So short answer- FCPS has no plan for this.

of course they don't. Their lawyers agreed to and someone signed off on an agreement that they do not even remotely have the resources to implement

[Anonymous]

Free ride to lab school is a good start

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

We have all suffered because of COVID. Lots of things aren’t fair. We all lost a lot.

Some more than others. Some of us still have to be cautious and have our kids in virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So how are sped teachers supposed to go find every kid who graduated in the last two years and hold an IEP meeting for them A general Ed teacher has to be there. As well amd try to remember the student from up to 2 1/2 years ago? Who is getting subs for these teachers to hold these meetings?

The logistics to do this are so time consuming and for what? What compensatory services? More speech sessions? Well the speech teachers are going to be busy holding IEP meetings. And the only way to do this is to add even more kids to speech groups so how effective is a 30 min speech session with 5-6 kids? Same for academic compensatory services? It’s an awful cycle- the current kids in special Ed are going to suffer while this is cleaned up. So will they get compensatory services too?

This was before Covid too. Many of us had to do outside services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Free ride to lab school is a good start

Sure, FCPS is going to give thousands of kids 55k a year vouchers. Does the superintendent just hold a town hall where they announce that gen ed class size will now be set to the state limit, all specials cancelled, all after school activities cancelled, all improvements and maintenance cancelled, but impacted students with IEDs get a free ride to the SN school of their choice? I'm sure that would go over really well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Free ride to lab school is a good start

Sure, FCPS is going to give thousands of kids 55k a year vouchers. Does the superintendent just hold a town hall where they announce that gen ed class size will now be set to the state limit, all specials cancelled, all after school activities cancelled, all improvements and maintenance cancelled, but impacted students with IEDs get a free ride to the SN school of their choice? I'm sure that would go over really well

There aren't enough seats in the private contract schools NOW. Kids sit out of school for months waiting for a seat to open up at Lab, or Phillips, or APTS even when FCPS is willing to pay.

There is NO CAPACITY in the public OR quasi-private sped schools or actual private special ed school system for any of this. No classroom seats, no staff, no STs, no psychologists.

The only possible solution is direct payments to families so they can hire their own private tutors/therapists/etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Free ride to lab school is a good start

Sure, FCPS is going to give thousands of kids 55k a year vouchers. Does the superintendent just hold a town hall where they announce that gen ed class size will now be set to the state limit, all specials cancelled, all after school activities cancelled, all improvements and maintenance cancelled, but impacted students with IEDs get a free ride to the SN school of their choice? I'm sure that would go over really well

I think Lab is more like 80k a year.

[Anonymous]

Cut from Lab's website:

Lower School Tuition (through 6th Grade) $56,220
Junior High $56,850
High School $58,200

I fear my. kid is headed here on my dime. In 7th, doing 4th grade math, spelling, writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cut from Lab's website:

Lower School Tuition (through 6th Grade) $56,220
Junior High $56,850
High School $58,200

I fear my. kid is headed here on my dime. In 7th, doing 4th grade math, spelling, writing.

They tack on a ton of extra fees for things like ST, OT, counseling, etc. Just a warning. Plus transportation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Free ride to lab school is a good start

Sure, FCPS is going to give thousands of kids 55k a year vouchers. Does the superintendent just hold a town hall where they announce that gen ed class size will now be set to the state limit, all specials cancelled, all after school activities cancelled, all improvements and maintenance cancelled, but impacted students with IEDs get a free ride to the SN school of their choice? I'm sure that would go over really well

I think Lab is more like 80k a year.

You might be thinking of Ivymount, which is around that price. I don't know if they take FCPS kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forcing all these pointless meetings on staff and parents os so stupid. This "deal" just passes the buck back to families and teachers when the SCHOOL ADMIN and school board are to blame.

Just award families lump sums to hire private tutors and therapists to compensate.

It’s good PR for OCR. It makes it look like they are doing something. However, there will be no follow up to check for compliance or enforcement of the agreement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Families have been in the media reporting what was happening to students with disabilities for the past 3 years. What took the US Department of Education so long to take any action? Will they even follow up to protect the rights of students for the implementation?

It was a pandemic. I'm sure the US Department of Education was short staffed, and working from home, just like every other agency. So they couldn't get as much work done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Families have been in the media reporting what was happening to students with disabilities for the past 3 years. What took the US Department of Education so long to take any action? Will they even follow up to protect the rights of students for the implementation?

It was a pandemic. I'm sure the US Department of Education was short staffed, and working from home, just like every other agency. So they couldn't get as much work done.

News flash - they are still working from home along with state department of education employees. Same for many central office employees.

[Anonymous]

The US Department of Education is short staff thanks to positions being cut under the Trump administration. The Biden Administration didn’t do anything to bring back positions that were lost. People retired or transferred during COVID and they never were replaced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Free ride to lab school is a good start

Sure, FCPS is going to give thousands of kids 55k a year vouchers. Does the superintendent just hold a town hall where they announce that gen ed class size will now be set to the state limit, all specials cancelled, all after school activities cancelled, all improvements and maintenance cancelled, but impacted students with IEDs get a free ride to the SN school of their choice? I'm sure that would go over really well

I think Lab is more like 80k a year.

You might be thinking of Ivymount, which is around that price. I don't know if they take FCPS kids.

They did back in the day but I heard FCPS is no longer contracting with them. It was hearsay though. They are very different schools. But both ver