School with smaller classes in NW DC or close in Maryland

[Anonymous]

Bridges.

[Anonymous]

In Montgomery County, there are 2 elementary schools which have special programs for kids with physical disabilities. Forest Knolls in Silver Spring and Judith Resnick in Gaithersburg. Forest Knolls is a MD Focus school and class sizes for k-2 are up to 19 students.

MD Focus schools (and there are lots in Mont Co) are like title I schools, except they have a less needy population and the money to make smaller class sizes (K-2) comes from the state and not the federal government.

When my child was in K-2, there were 2 classrooms (out of 7 or 8) which had kids with IEPs in them. There was a classroom teacher, a para-educator and a special education teacher which is shared between the 2 classes. Class size in my child's 3rd grade is 26 students, but there is a full time para-educator and a full time special education teacher assigned to the class. From what I can tell is that grades 3-5, have just one classroom for kids with IEPs.


I don't know about Judith Resnick (class size), but I'm pretty sure there is a para-educator in the classes with kids with IEP's.

Does your child have an IEP?

[Anonymous]

Not OP but that's an incredible staffing level. You are very lucky. We have one special educator FOR OUR WHOLE SCHOOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Regular public school can be hell for a child with sensory issues. It's incredibly loud and chaotic, from waiting in line to enter the classroom before school starts, recess and lunch to center time where all the kids in the room seem to be talking all at once.
For these children, an educational consultant once described it to me as going to school in a place where the fire alarms are ringing all the day.
OP, if your child's sensory issues are this severe I would make every effort possible to find a more comfortable place until he's old enough to handle the environment better. There was a boy at our school who had pretty severe sensory issues and every recess he would huddle in a corner with his hands over his ears, crying.

It was very difficult for the parents because I think he was doing well in many other ways, e.g. could handle the school work and had friends. The school would not provide any accommodations for recess and lunch unfortunately so he was stuck.

This sounds just like my K son. He was in PEP for 2 years. Sadly he met the academic goals of MCPS Pre K and he lost his IEP heading into K. Our local public has 23-25 kids and 1 teacher. It is the sheer number of human beings and the noise that they bring with them that shuts my kid down. MCPS told me they had no way to accommodate his issues. He's now in a private with a small class and doing very well. It truly sucks that some kids just can't process the stimulation and there's nothing our public education system is willing to do about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regular public school can be hell for a child with sensory issues. It's incredibly loud and chaotic, from waiting in line to enter the classroom before school starts, recess and lunch to center time where all the kids in the room seem to be talking all at once.
For these children, an educational consultant once described it to me as going to school in a place where the fire alarms are ringing all the day.
OP, if your child's sensory issues are this severe I would make every effort possible to find a more comfortable place until he's old enough to handle the environment better. There was a boy at our school who had pretty severe sensory issues and every recess he would huddle in a corner with his hands over his ears, crying.

It was very difficult for the parents because I think he was doing well in many other ways, e.g. could handle the school work and had friends. The school would not provide any accommodations for recess and lunch unfortunately so he was stuck.

This sounds just like my K son. He was in PEP for 2 years. Sadly he met the academic goals of MCPS Pre K and he lost his IEP heading into K. Our local public has 23-25 kids and 1 teacher. It is the sheer number of human beings and the noise that they bring with them that shuts my kid down. MCPS told me they had no way to accommodate his issues. He's now in a private with a small class and doing very well. It truly sucks that some kids just can't process the stimulation and there's nothing our public education system is willing to do about it.

In an ideal world, what could MCPS have done? I don't mean to be snarky - I'm genuinely curious about how a public school with finite resources per child could do a better job. If you were the principal of your old school, what would you have done? Created a stand-alone classroom for kids with sensory issues? That runs into LRE issues, as well as the fact that kids with sensory issues are not always sensitive to the sensory issues of their peers. Create a single, smaller, classroom in each grade? I can imagine how that would go down with the rest of the parents.

I'm glad you could afford private, truly, but I'm not sure this is an issue of what the school is "willing to do about it" unless you can see how the school could have created a private school environment in public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Creative Minds PCS

Good luck getting in

[Anonymous]

PP clearly is in the wrong forum bc s/he doesn't have anything to add...

The school can do a number of things: have a smaller table at lunch for your child and others with sensory issues, have an aide available, my kiddo comes in to the class after the other children are seated, DC also sometimes can eat in the front office...

A school that wants to can accommodate children with sensory issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regular public school can be hell for a child with sensory issues. It's incredibly loud and chaotic, from waiting in line to enter the classroom before school starts, recess and lunch to center time where all the kids in the room seem to be talking all at once.
For these children, an educational consultant once described it to me as going to school in a place where the fire alarms are ringing all the day.
OP, if your child's sensory issues are this severe I would make every effort possible to find a more comfortable place until he's old enough to handle the environment better. There was a boy at our school who had pretty severe sensory issues and every recess he would huddle in a corner with his hands over his ears, crying.

It was very difficult for the parents because I think he was doing well in many other ways, e.g. could handle the school work and had friends. The school would not provide any accommodations for recess and lunch unfortunately so he was stuck.

This sounds just like my K son. He was in PEP for 2 years. Sadly he met the academic goals of MCPS Pre K and he lost his IEP heading into K. Our local public has 23-25 kids and 1 teacher. It is the sheer number of human beings and the noise that they bring with them that shuts my kid down. MCPS told me they had no way to accommodate his issues. He's now in a private with a small class and doing very well. It truly sucks that some kids just can't process the stimulation and there's nothing our public education system is willing to do about it.

In an ideal world, what could MCPS have done? I don't mean to be snarky - I'm genuinely curious about how a public school with finite resources per child could do a better job. If you were the principal of your old school, what would you have done? Created a stand-alone classroom for kids with sensory issues? That runs into LRE issues, as well as the fact that kids with sensory issues are not always sensitive to the sensory issues of their peers. Create a single, smaller, classroom in each grade? I can imagine how that would go down with the rest of the parents.

I'm glad you could afford private, truly, but I'm not sure this is an issue of what the school is "willing to do about it" unless you can see how the school could have created a private school environment in public.

The school system is required to provide a free and appropriate public education for all children. If the child needs a small learning environment in order to access the curriculum like their non-disabled peers then the school system is required to provide that, even if it means paying for a private school placement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regular public school can be hell for a child with sensory issues. It's incredibly loud and chaotic, from waiting in line to enter the classroom before school starts, recess and lunch to center time where all the kids in the room seem to be talking all at once.
For these children, an educational consultant once described it to me as going to school in a place where the fire alarms are ringing all the day.
OP, if your child's sensory issues are this severe I would make every effort possible to find a more comfortable place until he's old enough to handle the environment better. There was a boy at our school who had pretty severe sensory issues and every recess he would huddle in a corner with his hands over his ears, crying.

It was very difficult for the parents because I think he was doing well in many other ways, e.g. could handle the school work and had friends. The school would not provide any accommodations for recess and lunch unfortunately so he was stuck.

This sounds just like my K son. He was in PEP for 2 years. Sadly he met the academic goals of MCPS Pre K and he lost his IEP heading into K. Our local public has 23-25 kids and 1 teacher. It is the sheer number of human beings and the noise that they bring with them that shuts my kid down. MCPS told me they had no way to accommodate his issues. He's now in a private with a small class and doing very well. It truly sucks that some kids just can't process the stimulation and there's nothing our public education system is willing to do about it.

In an ideal world, what could MCPS have done? I don't mean to be snarky - I'm genuinely curious about how a public school with finite resources per child could do a better job. If you were the principal of your old school, what would you have done? Created a stand-alone classroom for kids with sensory issues? That runs into LRE issues, as well as the fact that kids with sensory issues are not always sensitive to the sensory issues of their peers. Create a single, smaller, classroom in each grade? I can imagine how that would go down with the rest of the parents.

I'm glad you could afford private, truly, but I'm not sure this is an issue of what the school is "willing to do about it" unless you can see how the school could have created a private school environment in public.

The school system is required to provide a free and appropriate public education for all children. If the child needs a small learning environment in order to access the curriculum like their non-disabled peers then the school system is required to provide that, even if it means paying for a private school placement.

Which goes back to the question of whether or not the child has an IEP. If not he needs to get one. If so it needs to be written into the IEP that the sensory issues need to be accommodated for with clear guidelines as to how the school will accommodate the child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regular public school can be hell for a child with sensory issues. It's incredibly loud and chaotic, from waiting in line to enter the classroom before school starts, recess and lunch to center time where all the kids in the room seem to be talking all at once.
For these children, an educational consultant once described it to me as going to school in a place where the fire alarms are ringing all the day.
OP, if your child's sensory issues are this severe I would make every effort possible to find a more comfortable place until he's old enough to handle the environment better. There was a boy at our school who had pretty severe sensory issues and every recess he would huddle in a corner with his hands over his ears, crying.

It was very difficult for the parents because I think he was doing well in many other ways, e.g. could handle the school work and had friends. The school would not provide any accommodations for recess and lunch unfortunately so he was stuck.

This sounds just like my K son. He was in PEP for 2 years. Sadly he met the academic goals of MCPS Pre K and he lost his IEP heading into K. Our local public has 23-25 kids and 1 teacher. It is the sheer number of human beings and the noise that they bring with them that shuts my kid down. MCPS told me they had no way to accommodate his issues. He's now in a private with a small class and doing very well. It truly sucks that some kids just can't process the stimulation and there's nothing our public education system is willing to do about it.

In an ideal world, what could MCPS have done? I don't mean to be snarky - I'm genuinely curious about how a public school with finite resources per child could do a better job. If you were the principal of your old school, what would you have done? Created a stand-alone classroom for kids with sensory issues? That runs into LRE issues, as well as the fact that kids with sensory issues are not always sensitive to the sensory issues of their peers. Create a single, smaller, classroom in each grade? I can imagine how that would go down with the rest of the parents.

I'm glad you could afford private, truly, but I'm not sure this is an issue of what the school is "willing to do about it" unless you can see how the school could have created a private school environment in public.

You should fight losing the IEP. My kid has had an IEP since preK4 but never had academic issues or goals in the IEP. All his goals are for social communication issues.

There aren't many "academic" goals in preK4 so life skills and learning to be in the classroom and getting along with peers counts more than "academics".

[Anonymous]

Try looking at small religious schools (not the big name ones). They may be able to offer you some type of financial assistance. I have heard wonderful things about Our Lady of Lourdes in Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP clearly is in the wrong forum bc s/he doesn't have anything to add...

The school can do a number of things: have a smaller table at lunch for your child and others with sensory issues, have an aide available, my kiddo comes in to the class after the other children are seated, DC also sometimes can eat in the front office...

A school that wants to can accommodate children with sensory issues.

How are these accommodations during lunch and recess related to accessing the curriculum? And getting an "appropriate education?" They're nice-to-haves, not must-haves under IDEA.

[Anonymous]

FAPE applies to all school activities, including lunch, recess and things like field trips. There's case law that supports applying this to after school activities as well and I believe the DOE may have issued documentation about this as well.

School, as defined by the law, is about a lot more than academics. In many districts, including MCPS, they actually issue grades for things that are related to social communications.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP clearly is in the wrong forum bc s/he doesn't have anything to add...

The school can do a number of things: have a smaller table at lunch for your child and others with sensory issues, have an aide available, my kiddo comes in to the class after the other children are seated, DC also sometimes can eat in the front office...

A school that wants to can accommodate children with sensory issues.

How are these accommodations during lunch and recess related to accessing the curriculum? And getting an "appropriate education?" They're nice-to-haves, not must-haves under IDEA.

[Anonymous]

Other things schools can and do provide: allowing the student to enter the classroom early or wait in a quiet area instead of in the cafeteria or hallway before class, allowing them to leave early to board the bus, allowing them to eat in a different room during lunch, allowing them to skip assemblies or observe from a quieter area. These things are all free.
In addition, many schools provide headphones or quiet areas for children with sensory needs to retreat to when they get overwhelmed, movement breaks.
In terms of services, they can provide OT and-or social skills lessons to help the children deal with sensory issues.

These are all very common accommodations and services.

Anonymous wrote:PP clearly is in the wrong forum bc s/he doesn't have anything to add...

The school can do a number of things: have a smaller table at lunch for your child and others with sensory issues, have an aide available, my kiddo comes in to the class after the other children are seated, DC also sometimes can eat in the front office...

A school that wants to can accommodate children with sensory issues.

[Anonymous]

Districts have a lot of specialized programs with smaller classes. They have them for children with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, emotional issues and other needs. Many of these classes are very small. There is a good case to be made for having a program for those who are severely impacted by sensory needs and need smaller classes and could perform well academically if given access to similarly smaller classes. I don't have enough information about OP's child but I have met some children who really need this.

These programs pull children from all over the district or part of the district so the idea would be to maybe start with 1 or 2 of these and bus the kids in from all over. I don't think anyone would reasonably expect every school to have one of these classrooms.

Anonymous wrote:
In an ideal world, what could MCPS have done? I don't mean to be snarky - I'm genuinely curious about how a public school with finite resources per child could do a better job. If you were the principal of your old school, what would you have done? Created a stand-alone classroom for kids with sensory issues? That runs into LRE issues, as well as the fact that kids with sensory issues are not always sensitive to the sensory issues of their peers. Create a single, smaller, classroom in each grade? I can imagine how that would go down with the rest of the parents.

I'm glad you could afford private, truly, but I'm not sure this is an issue of what the school is "willing to do about it" unless you can see how the school could have created a private school environment in public.