Special Education at Lafayette
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Anonymous
I'm an SLP and have worked for DCPS part time in the past. In order to do part time, I had to go through a contract company (EBS, Progressus-to name two of them) because DCPS doesn't hire part time SLPs-they should but that's another story. I believe now all of PT and OT is through contractors. So there is another layer of paperwork and rigamarole for many related service providers. I also had an unmanageable caseload that kept growing as teachers got to know me and would ask me to take a look at struggling kids in their classes. I was spread way too thin and just couldn't maintain the level of service and attention that the kids deserved. My weekly responsibilities included: Seeing kids for their required hours, maintaining data & logs, doing observations and assessments & writing detailed speech and language reports and IEPs, entering quarterly progress reports, maintaining Impact paperwork (because your job is tied to your Impact score), attending IEP meetings, conferencing with teachers/parents/other service providers, being observed by and meeting with contract co. supervisors, responding to emails from the speech office, etc.-all in max. 7 billable hours per school day. My caseload reached over 40 kids and I worked 3 days (21 hours) a week. It became way to much for me so I finished the year and went out to the burbs-much more sane out there. I'm not sure about special educators, all the teachers that I came in contact with were full time DCPS people but there are definitely vacancies, so maybe. But, really, it may not be worth it. To parents-please know that those of us that choose to work in special ed really only want the best for the kids. The system as it is right now, just does not allow us to use our skills and talents to maximum benefit for the students (IMO, of course). |
Anonymous
| OP, have you contacted the teacher? The coordinator? Maybe see what they say at conferences tomorrow and bring up your concern. Moving to Dr Solomon first seems like burning a bridge. |
Anonymous
Disagree. It would be a wise move. Every month that you wait and things don’t happen, your kid loses and falls further and further behind. |
Anonymous
I disagree. Schools and teachers know their legal responsibilities. Why is it OPs job to waste time trying to get people to do their legal responsibility? I absolutely would go up the chain in this situation. It’s not a parents job to beg a school to get their special education rights. |
Anonymous
I assume that the OP has not been sitting silently while her child is not getting appropriate services. One more conversation is not going to change anything. Schools listen to advocates even when they ignore parents. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. |
Anonymous
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Dr B is just way in over her head.
She has no idea about SPED law and IDEA. Lawyer up and fight for your kid. |
Anonymous
She knows. She just doesn't give a shit. |
Anonymous
So true. Anyone know why they put the self-contained classrooms at Lafayette when she couldn’t manage the special needs population already there? |
Anonymous
| Maybe as a way to boost diversity without affecting regular ed classrooms? |
Anonymous
| Assuming the other nearby schools didn’t have the extra three classrooms to house those classes so they came to Lafayette? |
Anonymous
You suck. |
Anonymous
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Today’s TB from Lafayette mentioned an upcoming session to learn about IEPs/504s/RTIs.
Anyone know if the people speaking will be from the school or outside objective professionals? If the former it may be a waste of my time. |
Anonymous
It literally says: You will have an opportunity to hear from our school psychologist, counselor/504 coordinator, speech pathologist?, and social worker. 
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Anonymous
Anyone else? Specifically, anyone from DCPS but not Lafayette and/or from outside DCPS? |
Anonymous
Good grief Lafayette parent- call the school and ask. |