TJ schedules

[Anonymous]

FCPS has been, on balance, fantastic. You have picked a GREAT county for your child. There are always some bumps in the road, but everyone on my child's team has his best interests at heart. I do a lot of "educating" of the team but so far we have always ended up in agreement and with a plan.

I would call the middle school (once you know where you will live!) and see if you can meet to update the IEP before the start of school. If you need it, just know that Adaptive PE in FCPS is outstanding. Many counties do a terrible job with PE and kiddos with physical challenges, but FCPS is great at integrating and supporting.

My 2-cents is to pick a home that feeds into a base high-school that you are happy with. I don't think the high school that the neighborhoods around TJ feeds into are quite good as others in the county (Woodson, Madison, McLean, Oakton, etc), so you don't want to be stuck if your child is not admitted or you decide TJ is not a good fit. Also, the traffic in DC is horrid, so I would take the work commute into consideration as well.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, for what it is worth, I have one child at TJ (rising Junior) and a younger one in starting middle school school. My younger child has a significant physical disability (cannot walk and needs almost total assistance for ADLs) and is extremely bright.

I personally would never in a million years send my younger child to TJ after seeing what the oldest has had to do. Freshman year was not too bad, but sophomore year required total and complete focus. The classes move very fast and there is NO time whatsoever to catch-up. The group projects have been FABULOUS, but have required an investment of time.

My younger child missed 12 days of school last year due to illnesses and a (short) hospitalization. This is on top of missing partial days here and there for doctors appts and equipment appointments. For us, younger child will be best served at our base school where things are a slower pace and the honors/AP classes will be appropriate. I would rather challenge appropriately than put a child with a lot going on jntk a situation where they are likely to fail.

Just sharing my experience - there is such a range of SNs, so our situation might be completely irrelevant to what you are dealing with. Good luck!

Thank you!

This is really helpful. Can you talk about how FCPS has been for your younger child? We are moving to the area, due to jobs, and trying to figure out schooling. DS is a rising 7th grader, but spent all but the first few days of this year on home/hospital, which we supplement with tutoring, and online classes.

Because he's going into 7th, we've got some time, but I feel like if there was any hope of TJ working we'd need to live close, which is why I'm asking now. But I'd also love to hear how the district has supported your son, and whether you have any strategies to share!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS has been, on balance, fantastic. You have picked a GREAT county for your child. There are always some bumps in the road, but everyone on my child's team has his best interests at heart. I do a lot of "educating" of the team but so far we have always ended up in agreement and with a plan.

I would call the middle school (once you know where you will live!) and see if you can meet to update the IEP before the start of school. If you need it, just know that Adaptive PE in FCPS is outstanding. Many counties do a terrible job with PE and kiddos with physical challenges, but FCPS is great at integrating and supporting.

My 2-cents is to pick a home that feeds into a base high-school that you are happy with. I don't think the high school that the neighborhoods around TJ feeds into are quite good as others in the county (Woodson, Madison, McLean, Oakton, etc), so you don't want to be stuck if your child is not admitted or you decide TJ is not a good fit. Also, the traffic in DC is horrid, so I would take the work commute into consideration as well.

Good luck!

Thank you! My guess is that we'll probably stick with what we're doing now, or an online private school for the first year at least, but school quality is important for our other kids who will definitely be in school, although they're the kind of kids who will land on their feet wherever.

Can you tell me more about adaptive PE? I have to say that my first thought is that if he made it back to school part time, then we wouldn't want that limited time spent in PE, but maybe I'm underestimating it? What kinds of things do they have your kid do?

Also, you don't happen to know anything about nursing services during the school day, do you?

[Anonymous]

In the core curriculum, TJ will allow online:

PE 9 & 10
Spanish III
9th grade history & 12th grade AP government
EPF

There are also a few electives, like AP psych.

Your kid would not be able to do summer TJ based classes, because they meet in class 7 hours a day/ 5 days a week. So they would be limited to the online classes in the summer.

TJ considers 9th grade IBET (Bio, English, Design Tech), and 9th grade math, 10th grade integrated Humanities (Hum 1), And 11th grade Humanities (Hum 2) to be core classes that cannot be done online. The humanities blocks are critical, and teach scientific research and writing and overlap with other classes.

They will let you do AP gov (and Singleton AP Lit or Lang in in 12th) and your 4th history credit online (because there isn’t room in the schedule to take history in 9th).

You do have to take CS in addition to 4 year of math at TJ (MS won’t count). You do need to take prerecs for Senior labs. You do need 3 years of one language (cannot do 2 and 2). You do need to set aside a period for senior research lab.

You are limited to 1 online class per academic year.

If your kid needs adaptive PE, they can’t do that online.

I don’t see how it’s done. And I would never put a kid into TJ who could not give it 100%. But if your kid can get in, maybe they can find a path.

But, I don’t see a way that it works half time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the core curriculum, TJ will allow online:

PE 9 & 10
Spanish III
9th grade history & 12th grade AP government
EPF

There are also a few electives, like AP psych.

Your kid would not be able to do summer TJ based classes, because they meet in class 7 hours a day/ 5 days a week. So they would be limited to the online classes in the summer.

TJ considers 9th grade IBET (Bio, English, Design Tech), and 9th grade math, 10th grade integrated Humanities (Hum 1), And 11th grade Humanities (Hum 2) to be core classes that cannot be done online. The humanities blocks are critical, and teach scientific research and writing and overlap with other classes.

They will let you do AP gov (and Singleton AP Lit or Lang in in 12th) and your 4th history credit online (because there isn’t room in the schedule to take history in 9th).

You do have to take CS in addition to 4 year of math at TJ (MS won’t count). You do need to take prerecs for Senior labs. You do need 3 years of one language (cannot do 2 and 2). You do need to set aside a period for senior research lab.

You are limited to 1 online class per academic year.

If your kid needs adaptive PE, they can’t do that online.

I don’t see how it’s done. And I would never put a kid into TJ who could not give it 100%. But if your kid can get in, maybe they can find a path.

But, I don’t see a way that it works half time.

Just to be clear, homebound instruction (where the school system agrees that a kid can't attend class due to medical reasons) is a different thing from just taking online classes. The rules are different. For example, for kids in base high schools, you're limited to 2 classes online, but a kid on homebound can do all of their classes online, or at least out of school.

As far as adaptive PE, yes my kid would need adaptive PE to participate in on campus PE, but my understanding of online PE (and maybe I'm wrong), is that the kids do the academic "health" portions online and then provide some kind of documentation that they did the required physical activities? I know at one online school (not FCPS) we looked at, they used fitbits and videos for the documentation. If so, that seems relatively easy to adapt. If someone has done the online PE and can share what it's like, that would be great.

[Anonymous]

OP, I am sorry for your son's medical limitations. That must be difficult. I wish you the best and if you figure out a way to make this happen, good for you. Like the other TJ parents on this thread, it sounds like a challenge to me, but I would not want to exclude your child from the opportunity just because it would take him longer to graduate and it sounds like you are a family used to challenges. Go ahead and let him apply - if he gets in, you can work directly with TJ to see if this can work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I am sorry for your son's medical limitations. That must be difficult. I wish you the best and if you figure out a way to make this happen, good for you. Like the other TJ parents on this thread, it sounds like a challenge to me, but I would not want to exclude your child from the opportunity just because it would take him longer to graduate and it sounds like you are a family used to challenges. Go ahead and let him apply - if he gets in, you can work directly with TJ to see if this can work.

Thank you,

--OP

[Anonymous]

OP— I don’t know your kids exact medical problems. But, I would be very concerned about putting a kid with serious medical problems in a situation that stressful and that high stakes. And signing them up for years of sleep deprivation. From a health perspective it’s... not ideal.

It would be interesting to see if you could make a six year plan work— which is probably what is realistic. It might be technically possible if your kid was willing to spend six years in high school. It would concern me, though, because the classes become very close knit. And the mandatory core curriculum means they are are struggling with the robot project or The God Awful physics unit or Math 4 or junior packets or IBET presentations or college admissions together. And do class field trips, class lock-ins (RIP), class homecoming competitions together. They are each other’s best support system. And, of course, a large portion of the workload is group projects, where they also support each other. I think it would be very tough to do if you didn’t really belong to any class. But is probably more feasible than trying to attend TJ half time and graduate in 4 years.

[Anonymous]

OP have you had a chance to go to the group site for FCAG.org - fairfax assoc of gifted. That site and the email list are a very informative resource to see which middle schools have large AAp programs, to get information about which middle school admit students to TJ and for other released TJ admission stats. Also the email list would be a good place to ask questions about gifted kids with medical issues and how to navigate the school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP— I don’t know your kids exact medical problems. But, I would be very concerned about putting a kid with serious medical problems in a situation that stressful and that high stakes. And signing them up for years of sleep deprivation. From a health perspective it’s... not ideal.

It would be interesting to see if you could make a six year plan work— which is probably what is realistic. It might be technically possible if your kid was willing to spend six years in high school. It would concern me, though, because the classes become very close knit. And the mandatory core curriculum means they are are struggling with the robot project or The God Awful physics unit or Math 4 or junior packets or IBET presentations or college admissions together. And do class field trips, class lock-ins (RIP), class homecoming competitions together. They are each other’s best support system. And, of course, a large portion of the workload is group projects, where they also support each other. I think it would be very tough to do if you didn’t really belong to any class. But is probably more feasible than trying to attend TJ half time and graduate in 4 years.

OP here, 6 years may be more realistic, he has special Ed eligibility until he receives a diploma or turns 21 so there is plenty of time.

He’s not going to fit in 100% whatever he does. Either his peer group recognizes that and embraces him anyway, or they don’t and that’s going to be hard to predict. My guess is that in an environment that celebrates the things he’s good at peer relations won’t be worse than elsewhere but who knows. It’s not as if we’re choosing between full time somewhere else and half time at TJ, the medical issues likely won’t let him go full time anywhere, although 2 years is a long time so things could change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP have you had a chance to go to the group site for FCAG.org - fairfax assoc of gifted. That site and the email list are a very informative resource to see which middle schools have large AAp programs, to get information about which middle school admit students to TJ and for other released TJ admission stats. Also the email list would be a good place to ask questions about gifted kids with medical issues and how to navigate the school system.

I haven’t but I will, thank you for that suggestion. I am less worried about middle school because, at most he’ll attend half time for a year. Whether he gets into TJ or not will probably have less to do with what goes on in 8th grade, and more to do with what he learns while he’s out of school, and how well the admissions process goes. My guess is that we will choose where to live partially based on TJ but mostly on the needs of our other 2 since they will certainly attend the base schools.

[Anonymous]

If your son is a big stem kid, I might also check out Basis in Tyson’s - it’s a private but very hard core on science and math and is k-12 - and would like bend over back wards to accommodate your son

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your son is a big stem kid, I might also check out Basis in Tyson’s - it’s a private but very hard core on science and math and is k-12 - and would like bend over back wards to accommodate your son

OP here. Interesting.

I also read about Ideaventions, which seems like a potential match. Has anyone had experience there?

I have no idea if we could make private work. He'll need nursing services at school, and public is obligated to provide. I don't know how feasible it would be arrange that in a private setting, but I could look into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your son is a big stem kid, I might also check out Basis in Tyson’s - it’s a private but very hard core on science and math and is k-12 - and would like bend over back wards to accommodate your son

OP here. Interesting.

I also read about Ideaventions, which seems like a potential match. Has anyone had experience there?

I have no idea if we could make private work. He'll need nursing services at school, and public is obligated to provide. I don't know how feasible it would be arrange that in a private setting, but I could look into it.

The privates are excellent about those kinds of accommodations - I have seen robots in classrooms allowing kids to attend from home when they were too immunocompromised to attend. Private’s are not good at accommodating things like extra reading services etc or speech because they just don’t have the resources

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your son is a big stem kid, I might also check out Basis in Tyson’s - it’s a private but very hard core on science and math and is k-12 - and would like bend over back wards to accommodate your son

OP here. Interesting.

I also read about Ideaventions, which seems like a potential match. Has anyone had experience there?

I have no idea if we could make private work. He'll need nursing services at school, and public is obligated to provide. I don't know how feasible it would be arrange that in a private setting, but I could look into it.

The privates are excellent about those kinds of accommodations - I have seen robots in classrooms allowing kids to attend from home when they were too immunocompromised to attend. Private’s are not good at accommodating things like extra reading services etc or speech because they just don’t have the resources

The question wouldn't be whether the private would approve the nurse, although I guess that's not guaranteed. It's whether our insurance company would cover it in that setting.

[Anonymous]

I’m a teacher and have been to IEP meetings at TJ. They absolutely provide accommodations. Those of you suggesting they are breaking the law if they do not accommodate OP’s student are wrong. To the OP, I’m sorry your child is going through this. It must be incredibly difficult. But it’s not fair and unrealistic to try and have your child attend an optional school that is heavily taught through group work when you need partial homebound. That is changing the curriculum. Most students are not even accepted to TJ. You have other options that are more appropriate.