recommendations for preschools and child advocates

[Anonymous]

OP can you post your email address? I have some great leads but I would prefer to write them to you in an emai. (I'll explain to you, why).

[Anonymous]

My email address is [e-mail].

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

To the responder who did not have a good experience at St. Columba's, could you please let me know what school your child now attends in NW DC? How old is your child?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the responder who did not have a good experience at St. Columba's, could you please let me know what school your child now attends in NW DC? How old is your child?

Why would you want this information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP can you post your email address? I have some great leads but I would prefer to write them to you in an emai. (I'll explain to you, why).

my email address is [e-mail]. thanks, in advance, for your help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the responder who did not have a good experience at St. Columba's, could you please let me know what school your child now attends in NW DC? How old is your child?

Why would you want this information?

I posted the original message asking for recommendations for schools and advocates for my son who was recently diagnosed with PDD and SPD. It has been an extremely overwhelming and difficult time for our family. I am in the process of gathering as much information about what lies ahead for us as I can from those who have had similar experiences. St. Columba's is one of the schools to which we are considering applying. I'd appreciate honest answers about parents' experiences at schools - positive and negative. I will use the information to make my own assessment of what I find as we visit schools and make decisions.

I asked how old your son is because I am curious about whether our kids are close in age - I have received some recommendations from parents whose children are much older than my son, and as a consequence, the schools they attend are not options for my son. I also asked about his age because I'd like to know how long ago you had the negative experience at St. Columba's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My email address is [e-mail].

Thanks!

PP here asking for you email, thanks, I will try to respond tomorrow. DCPS had a prosessional development day today and the kids have been running around like crazy. Ughh.

[Anonymous]

st columba's is a wonderful school that provides inclusion, and they do their best with kids with special needs, but ultimately, they have no special training. if your child needs therapeutic assistance, or needs real facilitation in peer relationships or anything else, they can't provide it. but that's not what they are offering, so i can't really say i blame them. there are other schools that offer more structure and facilitation, like maddux. my dc attended st columba's, and we were very happy with it for what it was; ultimately, we sent dc to maddux because more was needed than st columba's could provide. fwiw, my dc attended st columba's last year.

recent ncrc parents have had difficult experiences there, from what i've heard.

suzie blattner at its knows her stuff -- i would highly recommend her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the responder who did not have a good experience at St. Columba's, could you please let me know what school your child now attends in NW DC? How old is your child?

Why would you want this information?

I posted the original message asking for recommendations for schools and advocates for my son who was recently diagnosed with PDD and SPD. It has been an extremely overwhelming and difficult time for our family. I am in the process of gathering as much information about what lies ahead for us as I can from those who have had similar experiences. St. Columba's is one of the schools to which we are considering applying. I'd appreciate honest answers about parents' experiences at schools - positive and negative. I will use the information to make my own assessment of what I find as we visit schools and make decisions.

I asked how old your son is because I am curious about whether our kids are close in age - I have received some recommendations from parents whose children are much older than my son, and as a consequence, the schools they attend are not options for my son. I also asked about his age because I'd like to know how long ago you had the negative experience at St. Columba's.

Is your child in pre-school? If he will be 3 by December 31st, he is eligible to attend Bridges public charter school. Bridges is an inclusion school, there are children with all kinds of special needs as well as typically developing children who provide age-appropriate role models. All the lead teachers have Master's degrees in either early education or special education, plus there is speech, OT, and PT right in the school. You should really give them a call, you could spend a lot of money and not get nearly as good a fit for your son.

[Anonymous]

I am one of the St. Columba's posters (it seems there are a few of us on this thread). I was there a couple years ago. From what I experienced, the "inclusion" children they accepted as far as I can tell had very minor difficulties -- they need fine motor help, or social modeling -- and I haven't seen them do either successfully. Other inclusion children that has more serious issues had full time aides, although some had nothing. St. Columba's is purely played based so for special needs is it truly not a good fit. I'm not sure why they have the inclusion model. The inclusion children do not get any extra support and the typical kids that are ready to more on to more challenging things like handwriting don't get that either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am one of the St. Columba's posters (it seems there are a few of us on this thread). I was there a couple years ago. From what I experienced, the "inclusion" children they accepted as far as I can tell had very minor difficulties -- they need fine motor help, or social modeling -- and I haven't seen them do either successfully. Other inclusion children that has more serious issues had full time aides, although some had nothing. St. Columba's is purely played based so for special needs is it truly not a good fit. I'm not sure why they have the inclusion model. The inclusion children do not get any extra support and the typical kids that are ready to more on to more challenging things like handwriting don't get that either.

Do you know the teachers' credentials? My understanding is that they have Bachelor's degrees.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have Susie Blattner's contact information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have Susie Blattner's contact information?

I happened to see her number in a posting from a year or so ago. Hopefully it is correct.
301-962-0800 and press 1.

Take care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My email address is [e-mail].

Thanks!

PP here asking for you email, thanks, I will try to respond tomorrow. DCPS had a prosessional development day today and the kids have been running around like crazy. Ughh.

I look forward to your email whenever you have the opportunity to get to the computer. I understand the difficulty!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can speak as a current DCPS parent who started the year with nothing and had an IEP completed and services up and running by October 15th. I have been THRILLED and have the added benefit of my child being in class with kids in the neighborhood so she's making local friends.

Does your child require a shadow in the classroom?