How to heal relationship between schools and families.

[Anonymous]

OP, you can't heal it.

Logs are demanded when there is sketchiness about provision of services. My child missed 16 weeks of Speech, and principal sent a letter that they are in the process of replacing SLP and then they will determine IF children need make-up services. No m'am, you don't determine it, it's already in IEP.

I think there are many well intentioned special education professionals, but admin requirements and constraints make them complicit. Not flagging additional issues or downplaying existing issues in order not to provide extra services. Being tight lipped with feedback on anything, even some behavioral issues so we don't request FBA, etc.

There was a good thread at the beginning of the year in MCPS forum on here, where teachers shared what they secretly wish parents knew. One of the things is that IEPs are not getting implemented as written. So no, that's not something you can "heal" with more trust.

I am taking my child out of the public school system, but good luck to you and to parents who stay.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate your interest in understanding and desire to improve the relationship between schools and families. I think, though, that you haven't identified all the players in the dynamic and are conflating two of them (teachers and schools). To really understand the issues, we have to understand individual parts of 'the system' and how the parts affect/effect each other. It's not as simple as parents are angry, don't trust teachers and make teachers' lives miserable - which is what I took away from your post.

Law
Funding
School systems
Individual Schools
Principals
Teachers
School Teams
Parents
Students

I think most everyone agrees that special education is an underfunded entitlement and if there were more funding available, conflict would be reduced as there would be fewer battles for limited resources.

School systems, schools, prinicipals, teachers and school teams will not/cannot tell parents that the services they are required, by law, to provide, are unfunded and, therefore, unavailable. Parents know their children need and are entitled to those resources and, understandably, get angry/frustrated/desperate when denied. Teachers often recognize students needs aren't being fulfilled, feel parents' demands/anger/frustration, put in a lot of time/effort/care into their jobs and, understandably, become dissastisfied with teaching......you see where I'm going with this simplistic systems analysis.

Throw in poor school leadership, low pay, etc. and it makes things that much worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate your interest in understanding and desire to improve the relationship between schools and families. I think, though, that you haven't identified all the players in the dynamic and are conflating two of them (teachers and schools). To really understand the issues, we have to understand individual parts of 'the system' and how the parts affect/effect each other. It's not as simple as parents are angry, don't trust teachers and make teachers' lives miserable - which is what I took away from your post.

Law
Funding
School systems
Individual Schools
Principals
Teachers
School Teams
Parents
Students

I think most everyone agrees that special education is an underfunded entitlement and if there were more funding available, conflict would be reduced as there would be fewer battles for limited resources.

School systems, schools, prinicipals, teachers and school teams will not/cannot tell parents that the services they are required, by law, to provide, are unfunded and, therefore, unavailable. Parents know their children need and are entitled to those resources and, understandably, get angry/frustrated/desperate when denied. Teachers often recognize students needs aren't being fulfilled, feel parents' demands/anger/frustration, put in a lot of time/effort/care into their jobs and, understandably, become dissastisfied with teaching......you see where I'm going with this simplistic systems analysis.

Throw in poor school leadership, low pay, etc. and it makes things that much worse.

I am one of the PPs. It's not unfunded. MCPS and FCPS are some of the richest school districts in the country. It's about how they use the resources, and what they chose to prioritize instead of special education (hint: equity window dressing).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate your interest in understanding and desire to improve the relationship between schools and families. I think, though, that you haven't identified all the players in the dynamic and are conflating two of them (teachers and schools). To really understand the issues, we have to understand individual parts of 'the system' and how the parts affect/effect each other. It's not as simple as parents are angry, don't trust teachers and make teachers' lives miserable - which is what I took away from your post.

Law
Funding
School systems
Individual Schools
Principals
Teachers
School Teams
Parents
Students

I think most everyone agrees that special education is an underfunded entitlement and if there were more funding available, conflict would be reduced as there would be fewer battles for limited resources.

School systems, schools, prinicipals, teachers and school teams will not/cannot tell parents that the services they are required, by law, to provide, are unfunded and, therefore, unavailable. Parents know their children need and are entitled to those resources and, understandably, get angry/frustrated/desperate when denied. Teachers often recognize students needs aren't being fulfilled, feel parents' demands/anger/frustration, put in a lot of time/effort/care into their jobs and, understandably, become dissastisfied with teaching......you see where I'm going with this simplistic systems analysis.

Throw in poor school leadership, low pay, etc. and it makes things that much worse.

I am one of the PPs. It's not unfunded. MCPS and FCPS are some of the richest school districts in the country. It's about how they use the resources, and what they chose to prioritize instead of special education (hint: equity window dressing).

I don't think this is true. MCPS spends millions in both state and local dollars on special ed, much more so than on equity initiatives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fundamental problem is that IDEA has created a bottomless pit of unfunded entitlements. The federal government has imposed huge requirements on school systems while not covering even a fifth of the cost, and the percentage of students covered by the law has doubled and then tripled. The gap between what parents very reasonably feel they are legally entitled to for their child (since that's what IDEA says), and what the school system is actually physically capable of providing, and the tension of trying to magically make 1+1=3, is driving parents crazy and burning out staff. And then the problem snowballs because less staff makes it all worse. Everyone is in a no-win situation.

I think the system is fundamentally broken, possibly beyond repair, we just haven't realized it yet. Special education staffing shortages are going to keep getting worse and bring it to its knees. No other country on earth provides such a vast well of education entitlements, for the reason that it fundamentally can't be supported. There HAS to be a limit--all public systems have to ration care and have a cutoff point at which they say "no more, the costs outweigh the benefits." It's brutal, but what we have now isn't working anyway and at least this way there would be some honesty about it instead of a shell game. And nothing is stopping the private sector from filling in the gaps. Either you have to vastly increase the funding so that all these entitlements can actually be provided and staff actually want to do the job, or you have to limit the entitlements, or some combination of the two.

I'll probably get tomatoes thrown at me but I am really alarmed at how the staffing shortages just keep getting worse and worse in some of the local districts and how fast they burn through new staff. If you don't have anybody to do the job the law sets out, you have nothing. That is the first and biggest problem, and something drastic has to be done.

This in a nutshell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate your interest in understanding and desire to improve the relationship between schools and families. I think, though, that you haven't identified all the players in the dynamic and are conflating two of them (teachers and schools). To really understand the issues, we have to understand individual parts of 'the system' and how the parts affect/effect each other. It's not as simple as parents are angry, don't trust teachers and make teachers' lives miserable - which is what I took away from your post.

Law
Funding
School systems
Individual Schools
Principals
Teachers
School Teams
Parents
Students

I think most everyone agrees that special education is an underfunded entitlement and if there were more funding available, conflict would be reduced as there would be fewer battles for limited resources.

School systems, schools, prinicipals, teachers and school teams will not/cannot tell parents that the services they are required, by law, to provide, are unfunded and, therefore, unavailable. Parents know their children need and are entitled to those resources and, understandably, get angry/frustrated/desperate when denied. Teachers often recognize students needs aren't being fulfilled, feel parents' demands/anger/frustration, put in a lot of time/effort/care into their jobs and, understandably, become dissastisfied with teaching......you see where I'm going with this simplistic systems analysis.

Throw in poor school leadership, low pay, etc. and it makes things that much worse.

I am one of the PPs. It's not unfunded. MCPS and FCPS are some of the richest school districts in the country. It's about how they use the resources, and what they chose to prioritize instead of special education (hint: equity window dressing).

I don't think this is true. MCPS spends millions in both state and local dollars on special ed, much more so than on equity initiatives.

It's not true, and this is not just a local problem. Special ed nationwide is woefully underfunded given the level of mandates in IDEA and the increase in students covered by the law since it was written. The entitlements simply cannot be unlimited, drawing from a restricted supply of funds. And there's never going to be an unrestricted supply of funds, ergo there have to be some limits set so there is transparency about what can be actually being provided without being sued and schools stop churning through staff. It doesn't matter how well the IEP is written or what services you theoretically should get if there is no one to provide it. This is the number one problem and it has to be ameliorated somehow or everybody loses. Special education teacher retention is a national problem and the roots and costs are much deeper than any fringe item in the MCPS/FCPS budget.

[Anonymous]

I have been teaching for 20 years, and have been a special education teacher for the last 6. I have definitely noticed a more adversarial trend in the last few years, which has resulted in significant increases in spending time in many meetings and perfecting the IEP documents. This is taking up the bulk of my time, and the general ed teachers are left to do the actual special ed services in their classrooms alone. It's a vicious cycle, because students aren't getting the quality of services they deserve, and many of the parent concerns are understandable, but can't be fixed by more meetings that take the special ed teachers away from the students. Today, one of the special ed teachers in my building told me she is resigning at the end of the year. She is very young, has been teaching for 2 years, and is an amazing young teacher. She's great with the kids, caught onto the paperwork very quickly, is responsive to parents, and plans quality lessons and interventions. But she's already burnt out. She can't see herself sustaining this for the long-term, given the workload, demands from central office and demands from parents.

I guess the point I'm trying to get across, is that having more quality special ed teachers and staff in the building would absolutely help, but we are understaffed, and we can't find teachers to take the jobs even if they are given to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been teaching for 20 years, and have been a special education teacher for the last 6. I have definitely noticed a more adversarial trend in the last few years, which has resulted in significant increases in spending time in many meetings and perfecting the IEP documents. This is taking up the bulk of my time, and the general ed teachers are left to do the actual special ed services in their classrooms alone. It's a vicious cycle, because students aren't getting the quality of services they deserve, and many of the parent concerns are understandable, but can't be fixed by more meetings that take the special ed teachers away from the students. Today, one of the special ed teachers in my building told me she is resigning at the end of the year. She is very young, has been teaching for 2 years, and is an amazing young teacher. She's great with the kids, caught onto the paperwork very quickly, is responsive to parents, and plans quality lessons and interventions. But she's already burnt out. She can't see herself sustaining this for the long-term, given the workload, demands from central office and demands from parents.

I guess the point I'm trying to get across, is that having more quality special ed teachers and staff in the building would absolutely help, but we are understaffed, and we can't find teachers to take the jobs even if they are given to us.

But it is a budget problem. And a union problem too. If there was better pay for sped teachers and paraeducators, it would be easier to retain talent. and if there were funds for additional positions then they wouldn't be spread so thin, but that's not the case. Meanwhile central offices are bloated and districts spend tens of millions litigating with parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate your interest in understanding and desire to improve the relationship between schools and families. I think, though, that you haven't identified all the players in the dynamic and are conflating two of them (teachers and schools). To really understand the issues, we have to understand individual parts of 'the system' and how the parts affect/effect each other. It's not as simple as parents are angry, don't trust teachers and make teachers' lives miserable - which is what I took away from your post.

Law
Funding
School systems
Individual Schools
Principals
Teachers
School Teams
Parents
Students

I think most everyone agrees that special education is an underfunded entitlement and if there were more funding available, conflict would be reduced as there would be fewer battles for limited resources.

School systems, schools, prinicipals, teachers and school teams will not/cannot tell parents that the services they are required, by law, to provide, are unfunded and, therefore, unavailable. Parents know their children need and are entitled to those resources and, understandably, get angry/frustrated/desperate when denied. Teachers often recognize students needs aren't being fulfilled, feel parents' demands/anger/frustration, put in a lot of time/effort/care into their jobs and, understandably, become dissastisfied with teaching......you see where I'm going with this simplistic systems analysis.

Throw in poor school leadership, low pay, etc. and it makes things that much worse.

I am one of the PPs. It's not unfunded. MCPS and FCPS are some of the richest school districts in the country. It's about how they use the resources, and what they chose to prioritize instead of special education (hint: equity window dressing).

I don't know what you mean by the school districts being 'rich'. Could resources be better/more efficiently utilized, sure. There are few, if any, organizations that couldn't realize some improvements but in the case of our local school districts, they wouldn't be enough to be meaningful.

It is a fact that special education is underfunded. The law states that Congress will fund up to 40% of the cost educating students with disabilitites. The best they've ever done was 18% in 2004-2006. Fairfax and MontgomeryCounties may be among the richest counties in the US but receive disproportionately less from the state for education. They make up for it from local property taxes.

If you have data sources indicating otherwise, please share.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/news/study-analyzes-virginias-k-12-education-funding

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/more-money-is-not-enough-the-case-for-reconsidering-federal-special-education-funding-formulas/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been teaching for 20 years, and have been a special education teacher for the last 6. I have definitely noticed a more adversarial trend in the last few years, which has resulted in significant increases in spending time in many meetings and perfecting the IEP documents. This is taking up the bulk of my time, and the general ed teachers are left to do the actual special ed services in their classrooms alone. It's a vicious cycle, because students aren't getting the quality of services they deserve, and many of the parent concerns are understandable, but can't be fixed by more meetings that take the special ed teachers away from the students. Today, one of the special ed teachers in my building told me she is resigning at the end of the year. She is very young, has been teaching for 2 years, and is an amazing young teacher. She's great with the kids, caught onto the paperwork very quickly, is responsive to parents, and plans quality lessons and interventions. But she's already burnt out. She can't see herself sustaining this for the long-term, given the workload, demands from central office and demands from parents.

I guess the point I'm trying to get across, is that having more quality special ed teachers and staff in the building would absolutely help, but we are understaffed, and we can't find teachers to take the jobs even if they are given to us.

The paperwork alone! I’m a parent and all that paperwork and signing and forms and permissions take up so much time. The spec ed teacher has to handle it all. How can teachers do all that and then have any time at all to actually provide for the kids themselves?

I’m a strong proponent of going private if you can afford it and not use the public schools because the system is impossible. The teachers have all that bureaucracy to deal with and it would drive me crazy. Even if I can get a little salty at times in an IEP meeting (the PLOP makes zero sense and shows nothing useful), I still totally appreciate them.

[Anonymous]

I’m a special Ed teacher and almost all of our training meetings are on the paperwork. How to make an air tight IEP, just in case the case goes to mediation. Meanwhile paras and gen ed teachers are desperately trying to provide services, interventions and accommodations. The IEPs can look amazing, but the quality of the services can’t be guaranteed, even if the team is delivering the required services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a special Ed teacher and almost all of our training meetings are on the paperwork. How to make an air tight IEP, just in case the case goes to mediation. Meanwhile paras and gen ed teachers are desperately trying to provide services, interventions and accommodations. The IEPs can look amazing, but the quality of the services can’t be guaranteed, even if the team is delivering the required services.

And to add to this, the advocate matters greatly. If you have an advocate who helps encourage collaboration with a team who is truly doing their best, and supporting the parents in advocating for the most the school can provide, along with helping parents find outside sources of support, then that is wonderful. If you have an advocate who insists on multiple meetings in a row to keep rewording the IEP and convinces you that will be the magic bullet that “fixes” your child, then they are just wasting your money. I’ve seen both scenarios and the former ends up being the most beneficial for the child and the family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a special Ed teacher and almost all of our training meetings are on the paperwork. How to make an air tight IEP, just in case the case goes to mediation. Meanwhile paras and gen ed teachers are desperately trying to provide services, interventions and accommodations. The IEPs can look amazing, but the quality of the services can’t be guaranteed, even if the team is delivering the required services.

And to add to this, the advocate matters greatly. If you have an advocate who helps encourage collaboration with a team who is truly doing their best, and supporting the parents in advocating for the most the school can provide, along with helping parents find outside sources of support, then that is wonderful. If you have an advocate who insists on multiple meetings in a row to keep rewording the IEP and convinces you that will be the magic bullet that “fixes” your child, then they are just wasting your money. I’ve seen both scenarios and the former ends up being the most beneficial for the child and the family.

I completely agree. I support the idea of advocates in principle, but in reality I’ve worked with some folks who barely know the child and clearly get paid by the hour.

[Anonymous]

I feel for the teachers, but sometimes it feels like they don't feel for the parents. Frankly, the biggest issue I have is that it rarely feels like we're really a team. I feel judged when they call or email about some kind of issue. It's not always clear what they are telling me for and what they want from me - like, okay, this thing happened and it feels like you want me to promise to work with him at home on it, but I doubt anything I'm going to do at home is going to solve this thing that happened in school, and it's also not that this thing happened at school due to my poor parenting at home... So, what is it I'm supposed to do about it? I'm not calling the teacher to complain about things at home like it's her fault (maybe some parents do - I don't know). If I really felt it was a brainstorming session where we were all willing to work on something, change, and support, I might be more open to it. TBH, I feel like way about all the professionals in our lives when they call/msg about stuff - therapist, doctors, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fundamental problem is that IDEA has created a bottomless pit of unfunded entitlements. The federal government has imposed huge requirements on school systems while not covering even a fifth of the cost, and the percentage of students covered by the law has doubled and then tripled. The gap between what parents very reasonably feel they are legally entitled to for their child (since that's what IDEA says), and what the school system is actually physically capable of providing, and the tension of trying to magically make 1+1=3, is driving parents crazy and burning out staff. And then the problem snowballs because less staff makes it all worse. Everyone is in a no-win situation.

I think the system is fundamentally broken, possibly beyond repair, we just haven't realized it yet. Special education staffing shortages are going to keep getting worse and bring it to its knees. No other country on earth provides such a vast well of education entitlements, for the reason that it fundamentally can't be supported. There HAS to be a limit--all public systems have to ration care and have a cutoff point at which they say "no more, the costs outweigh the benefits." It's brutal, but what we have now isn't working anyway and at least this way there would be some honesty about it instead of a shell game. And nothing is stopping the private sector from filling in the gaps. Either you have to vastly increase the funding so that all these entitlements can actually be provided and staff actually want to do the job, or you have to limit the entitlements, or some combination of the two.

I'll probably get tomatoes thrown at me but I am really alarmed at how the staffing shortages just keep getting worse and worse in some of the local districts and how fast they burn through new staff. If you don't have anybody to do the job the law sets out, you have nothing. That is the first and biggest problem, and something drastic has to be done.

Excellent points and very well said. There is not enough funding, not enough staff, and 1+1 does not equal 3. ALL PUBLIC SYSTEMS HAVE TO RATION CARE and yet parents here don't understand that and demand more than that, which staff cannot give.

I will add- many many parents just do NOT understand special education laws or guidelines, and do think their children should receive services when they do not meet the eligibility requirements. This does not minimize that many parents DO have children who DO need services who did NOT get them when they should have. Many parents also don't understand that private/medical world is not the same as education world, and just will NOT listen to school staff.

As a special education staff AND parent of TWO children with disabilities, for me, what would be the most helpful to repair the relationship, would be if parents would start by presuming positive intent, treat special educations staff with respect, be open minded that the education world and medical world are different, be open minded that public education may not meet ALL of your needs and be prepared to do some work/expenses to support your child, and please stop trashing education professionals every chance you get. Recognize what you don't know, recognize that you have your own emotional baggage, recognize that it is hard for all. Recognize that if you continue to be so hostile and critical of special education staff, there will literally be NONE left because staff is tired of being treated like $$%^# by schools, government, AND parents.