Is being mainstreamed ever NOT what you desired?
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Anonymous
Ask for someone from the county who is a certified behaviorist. Our charter school used someone from DCPS whose job it is to do FBA/BIP. That is all she does. Most SN teachers don't have the expertise, ours did not, and only made DS's behaviors worse with the behavioral plan she came up with. |
Anonymous
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MCPS? Next to impossible unless you're willing to go to court. FCPS and DCPS have behaviorists on staff. MCPS doesn't. Even for the ED cluster they use school psychologists.
You have to pay out of pocket. Could be $1500-$3000 depending on how much time they need to spend talking to people and observing and reviewing the records. It was well worth the money IME.
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Anonymous
| OP, I think you could push for an FBA by a BCBA at your upcoming IEP mtg. Our charter contracts for BCBA services (not through DCPS). No reason why a system as big as MCPS couldn't! |
Anonymous
They just don't have them on staff and won't pay for them. You could try but it would probably be a waste of valuable time.
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Anonymous
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Is there a way to push for a 1-1 aide when you only need behavioral support and not academic? What qualifies as deserving of an aide?
Thank you! |
Anonymous
Getting a 1-1 aide for a 2nd grader will be harder than getting a FBA/BIP done by a BCBA |
Anonymous
| Do they do an aide before moving a kid to a new program? Is it something you can at least propose to keep the child in his LRE? |
Anonymous
1. No 2. You can propose anything. Does not mean you will get it. |
Anonymous
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I think you should consider getting an advocate/ educational consultant. I have an HFA kid and I feel like this population of kids is easy to ignore.
We got my HFA kid out of home school and into the next level of class, the LAD class. Not great but much better than his home school would have been. It sounds like you need help. The school is not going to offer anything without you coming at them with data. Do you have a neuropsych eval you can present? Can you get someone in there to do an observation and then supply the school with the report? The school should do an FBA, but if they aren't going to, then you need to take control of the situation. You aren't going to get an aide, an FBA or BIP or another placement without forcing their hand by presenting your own reports and evalaon data. |
Anonymous
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I'm the pp who toured Ivymount and whose son had a FBA/BIP which worked in 2nd grade. It sounds like it will be easiest to get placement into an ED classroom but you need a well done FBA/BIP first to see if that is the right placement.
We are in DC and getting a FBA/BIP is part of the administrative process in getting public funding for private placement. Maybe MoCo is not as strict bc they are placing kids within their own system but in the scheme of things a FBA/BIP is not a big deal for a kid who only needs some behavioral supports to stay in a mainstream classroom where he is more than capable of doing the academics. I agree with pps that you should pay out-of-pocket for a well designed FBA/BIP if need be. The academics is just not on the same level in self contained classrooms as there are in mainstream classrooms. FYI, the behaviorist interviewed me for close to two hours (we do not have behavior problems at home), spoke with ALL his teachers from prek4 - 2nd (only had behavioral problems in 2nd grade), as well as doing observations for the FBA/BIP. For all that, the plan is surprisingly simple, easy to follow and it worked. During this fiasco, DS also had a neuropsych eval that diagnosed ADHD, combined type, in addition to the ASD. He is medicated for ADHD but the behavioral plan is what made the most difference. Many kids with ASD also have ADHD. For DS, the ADHD causes more issues than the ASD. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| We are in DC and got a FBA and BIP, with extensive interviews and observations. But one one ever mentioned private placement. It took months for the behavior to get better. And I suspect we are at the same school as PP. just want you know that an FBA/ BIP may not be a magic answer. But it does sound worth doing even if you have to pay out of pocket. Do you also have other services in place like counseling etc? |
Anonymous
| Since most of the commenters here seem to advice against an ED class, I wanted to share our experience (although not in MCPS). My son was moved to an ED classroom for behavior problems. He does not have HFA, but I think some of his classmates may. The experience has been wonderful. The program itself is great, with a number of knowledgeable, caring, professional teachers and staff. Some students are partially mainstreamed. I have seen some students return to full time mainstreaming. In a regular class, my son would not learn, because he'd be spending the better part of the day walking the hallways or in the principal's office. In the ED class, he gets the attention he needs, and if he does need to go to the support room for a bit, the teacher can catch him up individually later. He's on grade level, and follows the same curriculum as other children in his grade. I know we are lucky, since other programs aren't run as well as the one he is in. |
Anonymous
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What is a BCBA?
FWIW, and this is just anecdotal, but my son had a classmate last year, in K, with a full-time aide assigned. He ended up being moved out of the classroom at some point; I assume to an ED classroom. I'm not sure what his diagnosis was. |
Anonymous
| Board Certified Behavior Analyst. |
Anonymous
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You can't know if a child went to an ED class. He could have moved to another state.
Anyway... OP is now in homeschool with few supports from what it sounds like. There isn't even a behavior plan in place so a change of placement to ED sounds completely unlikely as a next step |