2E kid middle school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really appreciate this post. My 2e child is doing very well at an HGC this year. In fact, it is his best school year ever. I really worry about middle school.

Gifted kids come in many forms. I have been incredibly pleased with our HGC for our 2E. I think they just have more 2E experience than our home school (which is excellent if you are not 2E and mainstream). The issue becomes middle school.

[Anonymous]

Our 2E DS got an IEP only after we hired an advocate - it was a very contentious process unfortunately. ES was great (GT/LD program), but now that he's in MS it has fallen apart. We are pulling him next year for private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our 2E DS got an IEP only after we hired an advocate - it was a very contentious process unfortunately. ES was great (GT/LD program), but now that he's in MS it has fallen apart. We are pulling him next year for private.

Which one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our 2E DS got an IEP only after we hired an advocate - it was a very contentious process unfortunately. ES was great (GT/LD program), but now that he's in MS it has fallen apart. We are pulling him next year for private.

Would you recommend your advocate? Who did you use? Why did you choose an advocate instead of a lawyer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our 2E DS got an IEP only after we hired an advocate - it was a very contentious process unfortunately. ES was great (GT/LD program), but now that he's in MS it has fallen apart. We are pulling him next year for private.

Our DC was in MCPS and got an IEP for GT/LD. Unfortunately, we thought the elementary didn't know how to teach DC, despite the IEP, and we placed DC privately. DC has made great progress at the MS, but it is unlikely that we can manage the tuition for private school for more than a couple of years, and we were hoping that we could bring DC back to public school for middle school. We hope that DC can self-advocate more when older, and that we will be able to support DC with private tutoring outside of school.

Can you elaborate on why MS has "fallen apart"? Did your DC go to a MS with any special support for GT/LD kids or is he/she at your home middle school? What kind of private did you select -- one specifically for special needs or a private school with more generic support for 2E and smaller class sizes or something else?

[Anonymous]

We hired Michelle Davis' group - they were great. We didn't feel we needed an attorney, and it worked well. We came prepared with a full neuro-psych eval from Stixrud, and the advocate observed him at home and at school (a small private that was great, but couldn't give him the supports he needed). To get the IEP we had to go through our home school, which he had never attended. It was a unnecessarily arduous process. But we got him a very thorough IEP and a rec for the GT/LD program. We loved the ES GT/LD program. It was life changing for him.

The MS GT/LD program he is currently in is woefully inadequate, and the supports he needs are not available. They are not following his IEP, and we've decided rather than take this fight to the next level (we've been fighting with them all year to give him what he is legally entitled to per his IEP, they won't budge), we are leaving. We haven't been accepted yet, so we don't know where he's headed, but we were impressed with Burke, St. Andrew's, McLean, Sienna, and Lab. We think that he would do well in a mainstream school that offers the supports he needs with executive functioning and a mild language based LD. I've posted before, but I'll say it again as a word of warning (and we are NOT the only GT/LD parents who are leaving, the program is a mess): no textbooks, tests not sent home for review (pretty standard I know, but that leaves us without any way to gauge his progress and without any source material), Edline is barely updated, so no info there, no electives or specials or sports due to scheduling of the GT/LD program (which we were not told before we enrolled him in the school, in fact they told us he had a full complement of electives to choose from), no adaptive technology allowed in school, no assistance in binder or planner organization, utter disarray and disorganization of the GT/LD "team" to the point where we regularly receive other childrens' reports by mistake. I could go on and on. But suffice it to say that I have never seen such incompetence in my life. We use online resources at home a lot, although because he rarely has homework, and never has projects, it's rather academic at this point. Pardon the pun.

And as you know, 2E kids tend to be slower to mature, and therefore have a more difficult time navigating the switch to MS. My advice is to go private for MS, then revisit public after your child has matured a bit and maybe caught up to his/her peers in social/emotional growth. It's a lot more difficult that I ever imagined, and I completely regret sending him to the GT/LD MS program. It's been a wasted year. He has learned some colorful language however. Bonus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We hired Michelle Davis' group - they were great. We didn't feel we needed an attorney, and it worked well. We came prepared with a full neuro-psych eval from Stixrud, and the advocate observed him at home and at school (a small private that was great, but couldn't give him the supports he needed). To get the IEP we had to go through our home school, which he had never attended. It was a unnecessarily arduous process. But we got him a very thorough IEP and a rec for the GT/LD program. We loved the ES GT/LD program. It was life changing for him.

The MS GT/LD program he is currently in is woefully inadequate, and the supports he needs are not available. They are not following his IEP, and we've decided rather than take this fight to the next level (we've been fighting with them all year to give him what he is legally entitled to per his IEP, they won't budge), we are leaving. We haven't been accepted yet, so we don't know where he's headed, but we were impressed with Burke, St. Andrew's, McLean, Sienna, and Lab. We think that he would do well in a mainstream school that offers the supports he needs with executive functioning and a mild language based LD. I've posted before, but I'll say it again as a word of warning (and we are NOT the only GT/LD parents who are leaving, the program is a mess): no textbooks, tests not sent home for review (pretty standard I know, but that leaves us without any way to gauge his progress and without any source material), Edline is barely updated, so no info there, no electives or specials or sports due to scheduling of the GT/LD program (which we were not told before we enrolled him in the school, in fact they told us he had a full complement of electives to choose from), no adaptive technology allowed in school, no assistance in binder or planner organization, utter disarray and disorganization of the GT/LD "team" to the point where we regularly receive other childrens' reports by mistake. I could go on and on. But suffice it to say that I have never seen such incompetence in my life. We use online resources at home a lot, although because he rarely has homework, and never has projects, it's rather academic at this point. Pardon the pun.

And as you know, 2E kids tend to be slower to mature, and therefore have a more difficult time navigating the switch to MS. My advice is to go private for MS, then revisit public after your child has matured a bit and maybe caught up to his/her peers in social/emotional growth. It's a lot more difficult that I ever imagined, and I completely regret sending him to the GT/LD MS program. It's been a wasted year. He has learned some colorful language however. Bonus.

Can you share which MS? Or if you don't feel comfortable doing so now, please share when you know your out-placement. It is very hard for parents of GT/LD kids to assess programs because it is much harder for us to find peer parents.

I'm sorry to hear that your child did not have access to electives, specials or sports due to the scheduling of the GT/LD program. Can you elaborate a little more why this is? Is the GT/LD program just one resource class or is it a special set of the 4 core classes that the GT/LD student must take? Did your child have access to a foreign language? Did he/she take PE? Sports are normally after school, so why would a child in the GT/LD program not have access to that? I'm not doubting you -- just trying to understand how the program works. There is very little information on the MCPS websites.

[Anonymous]

There are only a handful of middle school programs with GT/LD in MCPS. I have heard of programs at Lee MS in Silver Spring and North Bethesda MS in Bethesda. Anything else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We hired Michelle Davis' group - they were great. We didn't feel we needed an attorney, and it worked well. We came prepared with a full neuro-psych eval from Stixrud, and the advocate observed him at home and at school (a small private that was great, but couldn't give him the supports he needed). To get the IEP we had to go through our home school, which he had never attended. It was a unnecessarily arduous process. But we got him a very thorough IEP and a rec for the GT/LD program. We loved the ES GT/LD program. It was life changing for him.

The MS GT/LD program he is currently in is woefully inadequate, and the supports he needs are not available. They are not following his IEP, and we've decided rather than take this fight to the next level (we've been fighting with them all year to give him what he is legally entitled to per his IEP, they won't budge), we are leaving. We haven't been accepted yet, so we don't know where he's headed, but we were impressed with Burke, St. Andrew's, McLean, Sienna, and Lab. We think that he would do well in a mainstream school that offers the supports he needs with executive functioning and a mild language based LD. I've posted before, but I'll say it again as a word of warning (and we are NOT the only GT/LD parents who are leaving, the program is a mess): no textbooks, tests not sent home for review (pretty standard I know, but that leaves us without any way to gauge his progress and without any source material), Edline is barely updated, so no info there, no electives or specials or sports due to scheduling of the GT/LD program (which we were not told before we enrolled him in the school, in fact they told us he had a full complement of electives to choose from), no adaptive technology allowed in school, no assistance in binder or planner organization, utter disarray and disorganization of the GT/LD "team" to the point where we regularly receive other childrens' reports by mistake. I could go on and on. But suffice it to say that I have never seen such incompetence in my life. We use online resources at home a lot, although because he rarely has homework, and never has projects, it's rather academic at this point. Pardon the pun.

And as you know, 2E kids tend to be slower to mature, and therefore have a more difficult time navigating the switch to MS. My advice is to go private for MS, then revisit public after your child has matured a bit and maybe caught up to his/her peers in social/emotional growth. It's a lot more difficult that I ever imagined, and I completely regret sending him to the GT/LD MS program. It's been a wasted year. He has learned some colorful language however. Bonus.

PP, three thoughts. This may sound crazy, but - have you considered your local public MS? Not sure where you are zoned, but I've heard good things about Westland's new counselor in special ed and about Pyle. They both have a resource class to help with organization. Your DC would be challenged academically and make friends before HS.

2. Have you talked to marisa Stemple? Was she able to be helpful at all?

3. Have you gone outside of school staff to special ed supervisors?

4. Have you filed a complaint on MD website that school is not implementing IEP? They will investigate school.

[Anonymous]

There are two GT/LD MS in MoCo - Lee and North Bethesda.
To answer other questions - if private doesn't work out we will pull him from the GT/LD program and put him in our local (Newport Mill, so not too thrilled about that) MS. At least he will have electives and friends from the neighborhood. We haven't heard back from the privates yet.

The GT/LD program has one resource class, and the rest of his classes are advanced classes and include kids outside the GT/LD program. When we registered him for the GT/LD MS program at the end of 5th grade (the ES GT/LD), he signed up for electives. It was only after he started that we realized he didn't have an elective in his schedule. Only after asking several times were we told was that he was not able to take electives due to the resource class. But the resource class does not give him the supports (exec functioning etc) that he needs and that are written into his IEP. He usually does some homework or reads. So again, no foreign language, no art, no sports (except for two quarters of PE), no electives. Just core classes.

We've tried all the things that 12:03 suggested. We've had a long and positive relationship with Marisa, and we are very disappointed by the failure of the county to continue to meed our son's GT/LD needs in MS. Apparently at Lee (and maybe all MS's), afterschool sports are not available to 6th graders.

[Anonymous]

I believe there is also a GT/LD program at Roberto Clemente MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are two GT/LD MS in MoCo - Lee and North Bethesda.
To answer other questions - if private doesn't work out we will pull him from the GT/LD program and put him in our local (Newport Mill, so not too thrilled about that) MS. At least he will have electives and friends from the neighborhood. We haven't heard back from the privates yet.

The GT/LD program has one resource class, and the rest of his classes are advanced classes and include kids outside the GT/LD program. When we registered him for the GT/LD MS program at the end of 5th grade (the ES GT/LD), he signed up for electives. It was only after he started that we realized he didn't have an elective in his schedule. Only after asking several times were we told was that he was not able to take electives due to the resource class. But the resource class does not give him the supports (exec functioning etc) that he needs and that are written into his IEP. He usually does some homework or reads. So again, no foreign language, no art, no sports (except for two quarters of PE), no electives. Just core classes.

We've tried all the things that 12:03 suggested. We've had a long and positive relationship with Marisa, and we are very disappointed by the failure of the county to continue to meed our son's GT/LD needs in MS. Apparently at Lee (and maybe all MS's), afterschool sports are not available to 6th graders.

Couple of comments. The resource class would take the place of an elective in any middle school for a kid with an IEP, not just in the GT/LD program. It's not a punishment -- it's just that there are only so many periods during the day.

I'm surprised the resource class doesn't provide supports, as I thought they were uniform across the county. At Westland, the resource class does cover executive functioning issues, and the teacher works with kids to manage their agenda and work schedule. What does Marisa say about your child's resource class being basically a study hall? That's not acceptable IMO.

And no MS allows after school sports for 6th graders -- I'm talking about the school teams like soccer and basketball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are two GT/LD MS in MoCo - Lee and North Bethesda.
To answer other questions - if private doesn't work out we will pull him from the GT/LD program and put him in our local (Newport Mill, so not too thrilled about that) MS. At least he will have electives and friends from the neighborhood. We haven't heard back from the privates yet.

The GT/LD program has one resource class, and the rest of his classes are advanced classes and include kids outside the GT/LD program. When we registered him for the GT/LD MS program at the end of 5th grade (the ES GT/LD), he signed up for electives. It was only after he started that we realized he didn't have an elective in his schedule. Only after asking several times were we told was that he was not able to take electives due to the resource class. But the resource class does not give him the supports (exec functioning etc) that he needs and that are written into his IEP. He usually does some homework or reads. So again, no foreign language, no art, no sports (except for two quarters of PE), no electives. Just core classes.

We've tried all the things that 12:03 suggested. We've had a long and positive relationship with Marisa, and we are very disappointed by the failure of the county to continue to meed our son's GT/LD needs in MS. Apparently at Lee (and maybe all MS's), afterschool sports are not available to 6th graders.

Couple of comments. The resource class would take the place of an elective in any middle school for a kid with an IEP, not just in the GT/LD program. It's not a punishment -- it's just that there are only so many periods during the day.

I'm surprised the resource class doesn't provide supports, as I thought they were uniform across the county. At Westland, the resource class does cover executive functioning issues, and the teacher works with kids to manage their agenda and work schedule. What does Marisa say about your child's resource class being basically a study hall? That's not acceptable IMO.

And no MS allows after school sports for 6th graders -- I'm talking about the school teams like soccer and basketball.

Curious to hear more about Westland's resource class. What does the teacher do, specifically, to manage the "agenda" and "work schedule"? Based on our older child's (who is GT but not 2E) experience with middle school, I am worried about DC#2. DC#2 will need teachers who pause at the end of every class and give clear homework assignments orally and check DC's planner or who hand out written assignments or who post HW by the end of the day. DC#2 will also need someone who explicitly asks for homework to be turned in every day. DC will also need someone in the classroom to help with writing organization. Does the "resource" class mean that the individual teachers are not providing these services in the classroom? If so, I can't imagine how it will be effective for DC.

Maybe it is better to be a GT/LD kid in a school that still has an 8 period block schedule like Takoma Park or SSIMS? In an 8 period block, a kid with an extra, required class (resource or otherwise) will still have time for an elective, yes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are two GT/LD MS in MoCo - Lee and North Bethesda.
To answer other questions - if private doesn't work out we will pull him from the GT/LD program and put him in our local (Newport Mill, so not too thrilled about that) MS. At least he will have electives and friends from the neighborhood. We haven't heard back from the privates yet.

The GT/LD program has one resource class, and the rest of his classes are advanced classes and include kids outside the GT/LD program. When we registered him for the GT/LD MS program at the end of 5th grade (the ES GT/LD), he signed up for electives. It was only after he started that we realized he didn't have an elective in his schedule. Only after asking several times were we told was that he was not able to take electives due to the resource class. But the resource class does not give him the supports (exec functioning etc) that he needs and that are written into his IEP. He usually does some homework or reads. So again, no foreign language, no art, no sports (except for two quarters of PE), no electives. Just core classes.

We've tried all the things that 12:03 suggested. We've had a long and positive relationship with Marisa, and we are very disappointed by the failure of the county to continue to meed our son's GT/LD needs in MS. Apparently at Lee (and maybe all MS's), afterschool sports are not available to 6th graders.

Couple of comments. The resource class would take the place of an elective in any middle school for a kid with an IEP, not just in the GT/LD program. It's not a punishment -- it's just that there are only so many periods during the day.

I'm surprised the resource class doesn't provide supports, as I thought they were uniform across the county. At Westland, the resource class does cover executive functioning issues, and the teacher works with kids to manage their agenda and work schedule. What does Marisa say about your child's resource class being basically a study hall? That's not acceptable IMO.

And no MS allows after school sports for 6th graders -- I'm talking about the school teams like soccer and basketball.

Curious to hear more about Westland's resource class. What does the teacher do, specifically, to manage the "agenda" and "work schedule"? Based on our older child's (who is GT but not 2E) experience with middle school, I am worried about DC#2. DC#2 will need teachers who pause at the end of every class and give clear homework assignments orally and check DC's planner or who hand out written assignments or who post HW by the end of the day. DC#2 will also need someone who explicitly asks for homework to be turned in every day. DC will also need someone in the classroom to help with writing organization. Does the "resource" class mean that the individual teachers are not providing these services in the classroom? If so, I can't imagine how it will be effective for DC.

Maybe it is better to be a GT/LD kid in a school that still has an 8 period block schedule like Takoma Park or SSIMS? In an 8 period block, a kid with an extra, required class (resource or otherwise) will still have time for an elective, yes?

TBH my DS isn't in the resource class -- he just has a 504. But this is what I was told was the primary purpose of the class during the last EMT meeting.

My experience is that the teachers are not at all compliant with the agenda/check and request for homework every day. This gives me CONSTANT heartburn. DS' grades in a specific course often swing between E and A throughout the quarter because he isn't aware of assignments, doesn't hear the call to hand them in, etc. etc. It is a nightmare and the school does very little to enforce the accommodation.

For that reason, I wanted to consider the resource class but we have been unable to change from 504 to IEP so he's not eligible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


TBH my DS isn't in the resource class -- he just has a 504. But this is what I was told was the primary purpose of the class during the last EMT meeting.

My experience is that the teachers are not at all compliant with the agenda/check and request for homework every day. This gives me CONSTANT heartburn. DS' grades in a specific course often swing between E and A throughout the quarter because he isn't aware of assignments, doesn't hear the call to hand them in, etc. etc. It is a nightmare and the school does very little to enforce the accommodation.

For that reason, I wanted to consider the resource class but we have been unable to change from 504 to IEP so he's not eligible.

I am very sorry to hear this. I have a child at another school who had a 504 plan. We had similar difficulty getting teachers to comply with 504 accommodations. It was an ugly experience. I was hoping to hear that a school with a good reputation, like Westland, would be better at this than our east MoCo high FARMS school. The accommodations mentioned above are very simple ones, that can be implemented for all students, not just the sped students and are part of best teaching practices.