MCPS is executing significant changes to special education that directly affect autistic students and their families.
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Anonymous
Seriously? Your kid isn’t passed up and you can supplement at home. Many kids are gifted. |
Anonymous
It takes so long because international families often don't know how to advocate through the thicket of special education. They have no idea that their students may be entitled to something different than what is offered in a mainstream classroom. They don't have the funds to hire an attorney and they would be afraid to cause a stir. These are the students that are very easy for MCPS to ignore. MCPS just directs the mainstream classroom teacher will differentiate. It's obscene for students with needs, exhausting for teachers, and unfair to classmates who deserve an education. |
Anonymous
But don't the classroom teachers notice and flag that the kids don't belong in a mainstream classroom and get the process started? Why would that take years rather than months? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Can’t that be said to families with SN kids? Could you imagine? |
Anonymous
Teachers are ignored. We are told to document, so we do, but it goes into a paper file, looked at 14 months later, when the school's special ed staff gets around to doing something about it. And then, the IEP evaluation process can be delayed because MCPS has trouble holding on to psychologists, or other staff that participate in the process. I've had multiple students who, even after receiving an IEP that would call for a different placement, remain in my classroom. |
Anonymous
School based teams are also charged with determining if the challenges are language fluency based or due to a lack of (or inconsistent) schooling, before evaluating for a disability. All the data collected from school based assessments is in English and it’s expected that students not fluent in English will struggle with material/ have academic deficits. I believe the 18 months quoted above aligns with when language learners move from conversational language to academic managed. For better or worse, the intent is to prevent over identification of English Language Learners as special needs students. In practice it’s super frustrating when the whole team knows something big is going on and it can’t be addressed in a timely fashion. |
Anonymous
It is said. We have been denied services for years. We have spent a lot of money on private services and tutoring. What do you think is really happening? |
Anonymous
Teachers are absolutely ignored. The MCPS psychologist at our school should be fired. She arbitrarily denies IEP's and 504's regardless of the need. We had a private top professional evaluate and come to our meetings and they still refused any help despite clear documented needs and testing. They never once talked to us, the child, the evaluator, the guidance counselor or teachers. The teachers who have shown up have fought hard (other teachers in the past were terrible and didn't help but the recent ones have tried). |
Anonymous
Which mcps school? Our school psychologist was also terrible-- i have spent thousands on private tutoring for many years |
Anonymous
| The school psychologist is only one member of the IEP team. If teachers and the parent are both advocating for different level of services how if this being denied by the school psychologist? What school is this? Sounds horrible and very out of compliance. I am sorry for the parent, the teacher, and all the students. |
Anonymous
SN families coordinate and pay for many extra services outside of school to address medical issues, support social skills and executive functioning, remediate academics, etc. Every child has a legal right to be able to access the curriculum. Gifted children that do not have disabilities (yes, I am aware many gifted children do have disabilities that can include ADHD, autism, anxiety and depression and therefore may need supports to access the curriculum) can access the general education curriculum without supports. It may be they can benefit from a different curriculum and there are some programs that offer this, but that is not the same as not being able to access the standard curriculum. |
Anonymous
You must be from central office with your gaslighting lies. The staff that screens international students in central office doesn't even check for home language literacy, which is an indicator of interrupted education, and will greatly challenge language-learning of a second language. Instead, MCPS staff take a scared parent's word for it that their child has been continually in school until arriving in the US. That is the extent of screening. It takes just a few minutes on the first day in class that a student to determine that, in secondary school, they can't read or respond to "My name is____________," in their home language because they do not possess literacy skills. It is obvious on day one that some students have significant special education needs. These students with obvious needs, eg, profound intellectual disability, wait 18 months to receive an IEP and then, they are still not placed in the appropriate setting, because they are international students and their parents do not have the social or financial capital to demand better. So these students remain in mainstream classrooms. I remember one father, who could not speak English, had a neighbor write a tortured letter in English to the school begging for his child to get better help, because didn't we realize that she is disabled? |
Anonymous
They say no with no explanation. We have a bad ap who is very bias against helping some kids and the two of them refuse to listen or look at evidence. They are not well trained. |
Anonymous
Mcps should be using translators. |