Teachers, would writing a letter to Dr. Reed do anything?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It means that if a child didn't make "adequate" progress during the virtual part of the pandemic then they are in need of additional services. It could mean that they had trouble accessing virtual services due to lack of equipment, had trouble attending, did not learn in that manner, etc. The trouble is that you need to document for every student and hold a meeting and document in several places. It's very time consuming. It's a lot of work and then the services being offered are not much.

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Anonymous wrote:This is to make up for work that wasn’t done during the pandemic, right? So I guess it evens out.

The irony is that the superintendent and school board decided to keep schools closed while most of the country returned. And FCPS was dumb enough to put it into writing that they would fix this instead of just saying from the start that they will do their best.

And this affects All teachers even if these students weren’t in FCPS at the time. Even kids last year who had IEP and in school.

All students could return to school as soon as the teachers were vaccinated. What more could you want? Absolutely no one should have had to work in person until they were vaccinated. Absolutely no one.

Whatever. Most of the country was back in school that year.

And then last year most of the country wasn’t requiring masks, doing 10 day pauses and all the crap FCPS pulled.

I’m saying this as teacher. And no kids weren’t back until a few months after teachers were vaccinated and even then many schools could only offered 2 days in and 2 days out. No one was back in school 5 days a week.

NP. As a parent who wanted my kids to be back in the building, I was frustrated at how the 2020-2021 school year started - but it was clear that FCPS was complying with CDC guidelines with all the restrictions. Some states ignored the CDC, Virginia didn't.

TBH, I don't understand what the compensatory services agreement is about, if it's just about virtual school or something else. I can see how the additional meetings are a burden. Will there also be additional services to make up for the learning losses from the pandemic? What does that even mean?

It means more services. I’m happy. FCPS screwed up big time. Time to make it right.

Can you explain further? What services are being offered? What are the metrics for progress?

Services being offered are individual to the student and what progress wasn’t made.

Johnny usually makes 1 year of growth in reading levels during a normal school year, but during virtual only grew half a year? Maybe an hour of private tutoring once a week after school to work on reading.

Suzy has an IEP for speech but didn’t get a physical person present because FCPS was not meeting in person and therefor made minimal progress in speech goals because no one was able to physically shape her mouth? She will qualify to have a SP come to her house on Saturday for an extra 30 minutes a week.

Larlo’s parents were worried he was going to fall behind during virtual so hired a math tutor (and have receipts to prove it?) They may be able to submit those receipts for reimbursement, if he didn’t get his math pull out accommodations.

A kid who usually makes minimal growth in reading and online made minimal growth in reading should not qualify. A child who usually keeps up with grade level expectations and online met grade level benchmarks won’t qualify. There has to be proof (through testing data, sol scores, IEP narratives) that less than normal progress was made that year.

THANK YOU! This is so much clearer than what they gave to parents.

How do they handle reimbursement? If a child did not receive 20 hours of speech, but you have 20 hours of private speech sessions, is this an automatic reimbursement?

That was not explained to staff. Teachers are to create a portfolio of documentation related to the goals that were in the IEP when the pandemic hit, and during. They will meet (with the family) to decide if similar progress was/was not made base on the student's typical amount of progress. They mark the file as "yes, compensatory" or "no, not compensatory". Then lawyers in central office will determine actual reimbursement.

It seems like much less annoyance to do none of that and take a job in Loudon or Arlington next year.

This all has to be done by JUNE!!!!

Our school only has 90 IEPS. Imagine schools with centers and more IEPS.

I’m at a secondary school. 540 IEPs. By the time documentation is assembled there will need to be 8-9 of these meetings every day. A short one (where parents say “we’re good” will last 30 minutes according to our sped chair. Plus regular IEPs?! When?

Can the parents just refuse them? Just say we are good? I find the meetings kind of dumb. I haven't found the special ed department very helpful in actually working through issues with my student. There is talk but no action so a new meeting really won't solve this issue.

As stated a few times before, the documentation must be gathered and the meeting must be held as per the settlement agreement. Parents can choose whether or not to attend, teachers do not have the option to cancel the meeting if the parent says no--it must be held without the parent.

Thank you. Think I'll pass and let you all discuss your internal concerns during it. Most of us didn't ask for additional meetings.

As usual, it's a small but incredibly aggressive segment of parents that's driving the show and is going to lead to a massive exodus of SPED teachers. Gen Ed teachers have also been told they need to attend the meetings and opine on where the student would be academically had they received the services they were owed. I think the answer to that question is "how on earth would we know?" We don't have crystal balls and each student's progress is subject to so many different factors--the question is ridiculous.

Blame the department of education and the county for agreeing to it. I'm starting to think the county should have stonewalled and then litigated until every appeal was exhausted just to prolong it and avoid all of this coming down when staffing is at an all time low.

The new Superintendent’s general strategy towards the community is “don’t look at me, that was his fault” and I truly think she’d rather everyone quit as long as she can plausibly pin it on her predecessor.

Anyway, get ready for another Superintendent search when her contract ends. Maybe the guy from Newport News will be interested.

Are YOU applying for the job? Good god, no one in this position can do a good job for people like you. Give the woman a minute.

She lost my “minute” when Priority #1 was to create an executive position for her best friend.

?? News to me...I liked her when she was going around doing those community listening events at various schools, and was impressed by her ability to listen, reflect back on whatever complaints she heard, and be frank about what could be addressed and what was beyond her and the school system. But who is her best friend and what is the executive position? Did she bring someone here with her from the Left Coast?

Google “Lisa Youngblood Hall”. She was introduced to the school division in August as a 200k earner and she’s seemingly been locked in a closet ever since. Haven’t heard a peep. Hilariously she is also the only Leadership Team member who doesn’t have a bio on the website, so they didn’t even get around to that. Add her name to the entire equity department who seem totally without purpose since Brabrand left as Reid has shifted the dialogue to academics and strategic planning. Such a huge waste of resources that could be deployed academically

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People on here are always saying the sky is falling wrt staffing and special education staffing. Guess what? Teachers show up and classes get taught.

I don’t see the shortage actually happening in FCPS.

Stop trying to deny children with disabilities am education by manufacturing a staffing problem.

Lol. Because they are plugging the gaps with resident teachers, monitors, and career switchers who have no experience and training in special education. But this peanut butter in the hole of the sinking boat is only going to last so long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People on here are always saying the sky is falling wrt staffing and special education staffing. Guess what? Teachers show up and classes get taught.

I don’t see the shortage actually happening in FCPS.

Stop trying to deny children with disabilities am education by manufacturing a staffing problem.

Lol. Because they are plugging the gaps with resident teachers, monitors, and career switchers who have no experience and training in special education. But this peanut butter in the hole of the sinking boat is only going to last so long.

Whatever.

The economy is tanking. Where will all of these teachers even go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People on here are always saying the sky is falling wrt staffing and special education staffing. Guess what? Teachers show up and classes get taught.

I don’t see the shortage actually happening in FCPS.

Stop trying to deny children with disabilities am education by manufacturing a staffing problem.

Lol. Because they are plugging the gaps with resident teachers, monitors, and career switchers who have no experience and training in special education. But this peanut butter in the hole of the sinking boat is only going to last so long.

Whatever.

The economy is tanking. Where will all of these teachers even go?

And teacher have been quitting for 2-3 years and are still finding jobs…..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People on here are always saying the sky is falling wrt staffing and special education staffing. Guess what? Teachers show up and classes get taught.

I don’t see the shortage actually happening in FCPS.

Stop trying to deny children with disabilities am education by manufacturing a staffing problem.

Lol. Because they are plugging the gaps with resident teachers, monitors, and career switchers who have no experience and training in special education. But this peanut butter in the hole of the sinking boat is only going to last so long.

Whatever.

The economy is tanking. Where will all of these teachers even go?

A good portion of FCPS teachers are married to high earners. They don’t have to go anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a principal. She’d probably read it. She walked into this mess and gets how awful it is. At least that’s how it landed with principals when she met with us to share it.

This situation is beyond comprehension. I’ve told our teachers we’re going to eat the elephant one bite at a time and that we’re going to do it together. I don’t have much else to say except I feel your pain and frustration 1000%. It’s all I’m going to be doing for the next several months.

As for the taxes, I’m sorry that you owe and that it was a surprise. But it’s never the employer’s job to tell employees what deductions to take on their W-4. That’s all on the employee.

If you do write to her, be sure to write her name correctly. It’s Reid with an i. Focus on specific solutions.

I’m sorry.

Principals have a lot of power to help. Free SPED teachers from any extra duties like hall monitoring, lunch montitoring, etc. Also, free them from team meetings which are a huge waste of time. Let them have two relatively inencumbered planning periods.
Send them weekly thank you notes and gifts - get the PTA to help out. If you want to have SPED teachers next year, be proactive.

NP presumably releasing SPED teachers from those duties will put them on someone else’s back? And then those teachers will be overburdened and quit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People on here are always saying the sky is falling wrt staffing and special education staffing. Guess what? Teachers show up and classes get taught.

I don’t see the shortage actually happening in FCPS.

Stop trying to deny children with disabilities am education by manufacturing a staffing problem.

Lol. Because they are plugging the gaps with resident teachers, monitors, and career switchers who have no experience and training in special education. But this peanut butter in the hole of the sinking boat is only going to last so long.

Whatever.

The economy is tanking. Where will all of these teachers even go?

A good portion of FCPS teachers are married to high earners. They don’t have to go anywhere.

And that is partly why leaving is a no-brainer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is to make up for work that wasn’t done during the pandemic, right? So I guess it evens out.

The irony is that the superintendent and school board decided to keep schools closed while most of the country returned. And FCPS was dumb enough to put it into writing that they would fix this instead of just saying from the start that they will do their best.

And this affects All teachers even if these students weren’t in FCPS at the time. Even kids last year who had IEP and in school.

All students could return to school as soon as the teachers were vaccinated. What more could you want? Absolutely no one should have had to work in person until they were vaccinated. Absolutely no one.

Whatever. Most of the country was back in school that year.

And then last year most of the country wasn’t requiring masks, doing 10 day pauses and all the crap FCPS pulled.

I’m saying this as teacher. And no kids weren’t back until a few months after teachers were vaccinated and even then many schools could only offered 2 days in and 2 days out. No one was back in school 5 days a week.

Another teacher here. That is simply not true. My first day back in person, full time with my class was October 21, 2020. We were not concurrent. We were in masks, face shields, gowns, and sweating our asses off to teach students with autism who could not wear masks. My vaccination was in the first week of FCPS at Inova and it was January 16th, 2021. It was hard. It was scary. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is to make up for work that wasn’t done during the pandemic, right? So I guess it evens out.

The irony is that the superintendent and school board decided to keep schools closed while most of the country returned. And FCPS was dumb enough to put it into writing that they would fix this instead of just saying from the start that they will do their best.

And this affects All teachers even if these students weren’t in FCPS at the time. Even kids last year who had IEP and in school.

All students could return to school as soon as the teachers were vaccinated. What more could you want? Absolutely no one should have had to work in person until they were vaccinated. Absolutely no one.

Whatever. Most of the country was back in school that year.

And then last year most of the country wasn’t requiring masks, doing 10 day pauses and all the crap FCPS pulled.

I’m saying this as teacher. And no kids weren’t back until a few months after teachers were vaccinated and even then many schools could only offered 2 days in and 2 days out. No one was back in school 5 days a week.

Another teacher here. That is simply not true. My first day back in person, full time with my class was October 21, 2020. We were not concurrent. We were in masks, face shields, gowns, and sweating our asses off to teach students with autism who could not wear masks. My vaccination was in the first week of FCPS at Inova and it was January 16th, 2021. It was hard. It was scary. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

THANK YOU, TEACHER! <3 You are appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m so sorry for the teachers who are going to feel the brunt of missteps FCPS (gatehouse and school board) made during the pandemic. As a parent, I feel for you - I really do. FCPS admin is just bloated and messed up. They should have opened schools earlier to minimize the impact to the students.

Maybe some parents need to accept that they can't have everything they want. Like for there to be absolutely zero impact on their child from something that impacted the entire world in one way or another. The entitlement attitude is what is currently decimating the public schools.

+1,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Principal here - 8 out of 14 of my sped teachers are expressing they are looking for other employment for next year. This is based on the intention survey we’ve all sent. And we have a well-run department with a phenomenal department chair.

There’s only so many times you can kick folks while they are down, and this last kick of comp services came like a metal-toed boot. How sad for this county and K12. I hope they don’t all leave, but there’s very little that can be said to dissuade them at this point.

If the immature, entitled parents crowing about how glad they are that teachers are being “punished” understood that, we wouldn’t be losing so many SPED teachers, but hey, I’m sure they and their kids will enjoy their series of rotating, totaling unqualified subs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It means that if a child didn't make "adequate" progress during the virtual part of the pandemic then they are in need of additional services. It could mean that they had trouble accessing virtual services due to lack of equipment, had trouble attending, did not learn in that manner, etc. The trouble is that you need to document for every student and hold a meeting and document in several places. It's very time consuming. It's a lot of work and then the services being offered are not much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is to make up for work that wasn’t done during the pandemic, right? So I guess it evens out.

The irony is that the superintendent and school board decided to keep schools closed while most of the country returned. And FCPS was dumb enough to put it into writing that they would fix this instead of just saying from the start that they will do their best.

And this affects All teachers even if these students weren’t in FCPS at the time. Even kids last year who had IEP and in school.

All students could return to school as soon as the teachers were vaccinated. What more could you want? Absolutely no one should have had to work in person until they were vaccinated. Absolutely no one.

Whatever. Most of the country was back in school that year.

And then last year most of the country wasn’t requiring masks, doing 10 day pauses and all the crap FCPS pulled.

I’m saying this as teacher. And no kids weren’t back until a few months after teachers were vaccinated and even then many schools could only offered 2 days in and 2 days out. No one was back in school 5 days a week.

NP. As a parent who wanted my kids to be back in the building, I was frustrated at how the 2020-2021 school year started - but it was clear that FCPS was complying with CDC guidelines with all the restrictions. Some states ignored the CDC, Virginia didn't.

TBH, I don't understand what the compensatory services agreement is about, if it's just about virtual school or something else. I can see how the additional meetings are a burden. Will there also be additional services to make up for the learning losses from the pandemic? What does that even mean?

It means more services. I’m happy. FCPS screwed up big time. Time to make it right.

Can you explain further? What services are being offered? What are the metrics for progress?

Services being offered are individual to the student and what progress wasn’t made.

Johnny usually makes 1 year of growth in reading levels during a normal school year, but during virtual only grew half a year? Maybe an hour of private tutoring once a week after school to work on reading.

Suzy has an IEP for speech but didn’t get a physical person present because FCPS was not meeting in person and therefor made minimal progress in speech goals because no one was able to physically shape her mouth? She will qualify to have a SP come to her house on Saturday for an extra 30 minutes a week.

Larlo’s parents were worried he was going to fall behind during virtual so hired a math tutor (and have receipts to prove it?) They may be able to submit those receipts for reimbursement, if he didn’t get his math pull out accommodations.

A kid who usually makes minimal growth in reading and online made minimal growth in reading should not qualify. A child who usually keeps up with grade level expectations and online met grade level benchmarks won’t qualify. There has to be proof (through testing data, sol scores, IEP narratives) that less than normal progress was made that year.

THANK YOU! This is so much clearer than what they gave to parents.

How do they handle reimbursement? If a child did not receive 20 hours of speech, but you have 20 hours of private speech sessions, is this an automatic reimbursement?

That was not explained to staff. Teachers are to create a portfolio of documentation related to the goals that were in the IEP when the pandemic hit, and during. They will meet (with the family) to decide if similar progress was/was not made base on the student's typical amount of progress. They mark the file as "yes, compensatory" or "no, not compensatory". Then lawyers in central office will determine actual reimbursement.

It seems like much less annoyance to do none of that and take a job in Loudon or Arlington next year.

This all has to be done by JUNE!!!!

Our school only has 90 IEPS. Imagine schools with centers and more IEPS.

I’m at a secondary school. 540 IEPs. By the time documentation is assembled there will need to be 8-9 of these meetings every day. A short one (where parents say “we’re good” will last 30 minutes according to our sped chair. Plus regular IEPs?! When?

Can the parents just refuse them? Just say we are good? I find the meetings kind of dumb. I haven't found the special ed department very helpful in actually working through issues with my student. There is talk but no action so a new meeting really won't solve this issue.

As stated a few times before, the documentation must be gathered and the meeting must be held as per the settlement agreement. Parents can choose whether or not to attend, teachers do not have the option to cancel the meeting if the parent says no--it must be held without the parent.

Thank you. Think I'll pass and let you all discuss your internal concerns during it. Most of us didn't ask for additional meetings.

As usual, it's a small but incredibly aggressive segment of parents that's driving the show and is going to lead to a massive exodus of SPED teachers. Gen Ed teachers have also been told they need to attend the meetings and opine on where the student would be academically had they received the services they were owed. I think the answer to that question is "how on earth would we know?" We don't have crystal balls and each student's progress is subject to so many different factors--the question is ridiculous.

Blame the department of education and the county for agreeing to it. I'm starting to think the county should have stonewalled and then litigated until every appeal was exhausted just to prolong it and avoid all of this coming down when staffing is at an all time low.

The OCR investigation MUST have unearthed something huge for FCPS to have agreed to this. It makes no sense otherwise.

I wonder what it was.

What it was was they ignored IEPs and left the poor kids on a freaking computer for almost an entire year. You can’t implement any of their goals virtually.

Which is what all students received. Even the ones with significant needs who did not have IEPs. Y’all need to get over yourselves.

Federal law guarantees one set of kids an appropriate education. The larger set of kids is SOL.

Appropriate does not mean in person during a pandemic. BZZT! Try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People on here are always saying the sky is falling wrt staffing and special education staffing. Guess what? Teachers show up and classes get taught.

I don’t see the shortage actually happening in FCPS.

Stop trying to deny children with disabilities am education by manufacturing a staffing problem.

HAHAHAHA. This is sarcasm, right? I mean, nobody is actually this delusional, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a principal. She’d probably read it. She walked into this mess and gets how awful it is. At least that’s how it landed with principals when she met with us to share it.

This situation is beyond comprehension. I’ve told our teachers we’re going to eat the elephant one bite at a time and that we’re going to do it together. I don’t have much else to say except I feel your pain and frustration 1000%. It’s all I’m going to be doing for the next several months.

As for the taxes, I’m sorry that you owe and that it was a surprise. But it’s never the employer’s job to tell employees what deductions to take on their W-4. That’s all on the employee.

If you do write to her, be sure to write her name correctly. It’s Reid with an i. Focus on specific solutions.

I’m sorry.

Principals have a lot of power to help. Free SPED teachers from any extra duties like hall monitoring, lunch montitoring, etc. Also, free them from team meetings which are a huge waste of time. Let them have two relatively inencumbered planning periods.
Send them weekly thank you notes and gifts - get the PTA to help out. If you want to have SPED teachers next year, be proactive.

NP presumably releasing SPED teachers from those duties will put them on someone else’s back? And then those teachers will be overburdened and quit?

They are already leaving too. Those with higher income spouses, just a few years into their careers or close to retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People on here are always saying the sky is falling wrt staffing and special education staffing. Guess what? Teachers show up and classes get taught.

I don’t see the shortage actually happening in FCPS.

Stop trying to deny children with disabilities am education by manufacturing a staffing problem.

You are delusional. Did you not read the post above where the principal stated over 1/2 of their sped dept is leaving? Did you not know there are kids with subs all year? I personally think the SB should be posting the percentage of staff leaving FCPS yearly. I can guarantee this year will be worse than last. Not just for SPED but all teachers. We have teachers crying daily in my school because of kids behavior. Some of you need to actually start listening to teacher’s experiences.