MCPS has Plans!

[Anonymous]

Dr. McKnight should add educating students with disabilities to the top of her 100 day plans. Students with disabilities were denied access to their accommodations and services during the pandemic. Compensatory Education meetings for all students with disabilities have not happened. These are a good chunk of the students that regressed during online learning because of how MCPS implemented online learning. Students have also been delayed with identification.

The MCPS current culture that harms students is to spend more on legal services to deny children the accommodations and services they need versus collaborating with families. Students should come first, especially the most vulnerable, students with disabilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about using the proper language? Your child has dyslexia....rather than a ‘de-coding’ issue? How about using the more rigorous neuro-psych exam rather than the cheapest? How about having a trained professional rather than a ‘resource teacher’ or a paraprofessional - which is an oxymoron. Some struggle with the English language. Utterly morally bankrupt. Dr. McKnight came from the system... do you honestly think she will change anything?

"Dyslexia" is pretty meaningless by itself as there are so many ways a person can be dyslexic.

Ah, sorry MCPS employee defending the indefensible. When you tell a parent dyslexia it means expensive remediation: OG tutoring. What other profession besides law tries to obfuscate a diagnosis with terms they make up? It is a wait to fail model with no remediation. Only because of decoding dyslexia is MCPS putting window dressing in a house fire with a week of OG training and a lot of press releases.

My kid was diagnosed with dyslexia (1st percentile in one category) and yet OG would be no help. Dyslexia does present in different ways, even if you don't want to see it.

[Anonymous]

NP - MCPS thought my child was dyslexic. A private evaluation showed my child had ADHD impacting reading comprehension with some decoding problems affecting fluency. She initially was 2 grades behind with reading till we placed her with a private tutor that did a summer program of Lindamood Bell.

Knowing the correct diagnosis made it possible to get my child help, even though the cost was over $10,000 for the private evaluation and tutoring. Worth it to us so my child could learn how to read. Not all families though have the finances to pay what we did just so their child can be educated.

MCPS skimps on the evaluations and services to the point many children with disabilities do not have access to educational opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP - MCPS thought my child was dyslexic. A private evaluation showed my child had ADHD impacting reading comprehension with some decoding problems affecting fluency. She initially was 2 grades behind with reading till we placed her with a private tutor that did a summer program of Lindamood Bell.

Knowing the correct diagnosis made it possible to get my child help, even though the cost was over $10,000 for the private evaluation and tutoring. Worth it to us so my child could learn how to read. Not all families though have the finances to pay what we did just so their child can be educated.

MCPS skimps on the evaluations and services to the point many children with disabilities do not have access to educational opportunities.

MCPS should be providing all kids with extra reading support by 2nd grade if they are not reading. I'd prefer to see it happen in 1st grade. If kids cannot read, they cannot be successful in any of their classes. Its shameful how we don't catch things early and when parents do, MCPS ignores it as the parents are doing it privately. We spent who knows how much on private therapies and getting help with MCPS was a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP - MCPS thought my child was dyslexic. A private evaluation showed my child had ADHD impacting reading comprehension with some decoding problems affecting fluency. She initially was 2 grades behind with reading till we placed her with a private tutor that did a summer program of Lindamood Bell.

Knowing the correct diagnosis made it possible to get my child help, even though the cost was over $10,000 for the private evaluation and tutoring. Worth it to us so my child could learn how to read. Not all families though have the finances to pay what we did just so their child can be educated.

MCPS skimps on the evaluations and services to the point many children with disabilities do not have access to educational opportunities.

MCPS should be providing all kids with extra reading support by 2nd grade if they are not reading. I'd prefer to see it happen in 1st grade. If kids cannot read, they cannot be successful in any of their classes. Its shameful how we don't catch things early and when parents do, MCPS ignores it as the parents are doing it privately. We spent who knows how much on private therapies and getting help with MCPS was a joke.

My daughter received As on book report summaries based on the pictures in the book. I had read the book just to see what she had been assigned to read and when I read her book report, I could tell that she wrote her own story. I scheduled a teacher conference to show the teacher the book and report. The book was of my daughter’s choice so the teacher had not read it, but she agreed my daughter’s book report was her own made up story based on the pictures in the book.

Prior to 3rd grade, my daughter kept missing benchmarks and we were told that some kids take till 3rd grade to learn how to read. We were told to be patient and she would eventually get there. However, when she was in third grade, the school told us that there was nothing they could do. She couldn’t read chapter books and they told us they didn’t have a reading intervention program or a reading specialist to work with her because it wasn’t in the third grade curriculum. For the MCPS Special Ed evaluation, they tested her for the WRONG disability the IEP team then said she didn’t have a disability.

We didn’t care if MCPS documented the disability but what drove us to pay $5,000 for a private evaluation was when the school washed their hands of teaching a child to read. Students deserve to come first, but unless Dr. McKnight overhauls how Special Education identifies and educates children, students with disabilities will continue to be ignored at the school level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP - MCPS thought my child was dyslexic. A private evaluation showed my child had ADHD impacting reading comprehension with some decoding problems affecting fluency. She initially was 2 grades behind with reading till we placed her with a private tutor that did a summer program of Lindamood Bell.

Knowing the correct diagnosis made it possible to get my child help, even though the cost was over $10,000 for the private evaluation and tutoring. Worth it to us so my child could learn how to read. Not all families though have the finances to pay what we did just so their child can be educated.

MCPS skimps on the evaluations and services to the point many children with disabilities do not have access to educational opportunities.

MCPS should be providing all kids with extra reading support by 2nd grade if they are not reading. I'd prefer to see it happen in 1st grade. If kids cannot read, they cannot be successful in any of their classes. Its shameful how we don't catch things early and when parents do, MCPS ignores it as the parents are doing it privately. We spent who knows how much on private therapies and getting help with MCPS was a joke.

My daughter received As on book report summaries based on the pictures in the book. I had read the book just to see what she had been assigned to read and when I read her book report, I could tell that she wrote her own story. I scheduled a teacher conference to show the teacher the book and report. The book was of my daughter’s choice so the teacher had not read it, but she agreed my daughter’s book report was her own made up story based on the pictures in the book.

Prior to 3rd grade, my daughter kept missing benchmarks and we were told that some kids take till 3rd grade to learn how to read. We were told to be patient and she would eventually get there. However, when she was in third grade, the school told us that there was nothing they could do. She couldn’t read chapter books and they told us they didn’t have a reading intervention program or a reading specialist to work with her because it wasn’t in the third grade curriculum. For the MCPS Special Ed evaluation, they tested her for the WRONG disability the IEP team then said she didn’t have a disability.

We didn’t care if MCPS documented the disability but what drove us to pay $5,000 for a private evaluation was when the school washed their hands of teaching a child to read. Students deserve to come first, but unless Dr. McKnight overhauls how Special Education identifies and educates children, students with disabilities will continue to be ignored at the school level.

Special education isn't going to change for a long time and if you wait your child is going to fall behind. We heavily supplemented in ES and did private therapies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP - MCPS thought my child was dyslexic. A private evaluation showed my child had ADHD impacting reading comprehension with some decoding problems affecting fluency. She initially was 2 grades behind with reading till we placed her with a private tutor that did a summer program of Lindamood Bell.

Knowing the correct diagnosis made it possible to get my child help, even though the cost was over $10,000 for the private evaluation and tutoring. Worth it to us so my child could learn how to read. Not all families though have the finances to pay what we did just so their child can be educated.

MCPS skimps on the evaluations and services to the point many children with disabilities do not have access to educational opportunities.

MCPS should be providing all kids with extra reading support by 2nd grade if they are not reading. I'd prefer to see it happen in 1st grade. If kids cannot read, they cannot be successful in any of their classes. Its shameful how we don't catch things early and when parents do, MCPS ignores it as the parents are doing it privately. We spent who knows how much on private therapies and getting help with MCPS was a joke.

My daughter received As on book report summaries based on the pictures in the book. I had read the book just to see what she had been assigned to read and when I read her book report, I could tell that she wrote her own story. I scheduled a teacher conference to show the teacher the book and report. The book was of my daughter’s choice so the teacher had not read it, but she agreed my daughter’s book report was her own made up story based on the pictures in the book.

Prior to 3rd grade, my daughter kept missing benchmarks and we were told that some kids take till 3rd grade to learn how to read. We were told to be patient and she would eventually get there. However, when she was in third grade, the school told us that there was nothing they could do. She couldn’t read chapter books and they told us they didn’t have a reading intervention program or a reading specialist to work with her because it wasn’t in the third grade curriculum. For the MCPS Special Ed evaluation, they tested her for the WRONG disability the IEP team then said she didn’t have a disability.

We didn’t care if MCPS documented the disability but what drove us to pay $5,000 for a private evaluation was when the school washed their hands of teaching a child to read. Students deserve to come first, but unless Dr. McKnight overhauls how Special Education identifies and educates children, students with disabilities will continue to be ignored at the school level.

Special education isn't going to change for a long time and if you wait your child is going to fall behind. We heavily supplemented in ES and did private therapies.

The MCPS unwritten requirement that parents have to supplement for basic educational services such as teaching a child to read is the fundamental reason for unequal educational outcomes in our school systems. A child’s access to educational opportunities should not be dependent on a family’s financial resources in a public school system.

The achievement gap in MCPS is driven by economic disparities. MCPS continues with generational discrimination because a child’s outcome is dependent on the parental resources. A core factor of the achievement gap is the manner in which Special Education operates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP - MCPS thought my child was dyslexic. A private evaluation showed my child had ADHD impacting reading comprehension with some decoding problems affecting fluency. She initially was 2 grades behind with reading till we placed her with a private tutor that did a summer program of Lindamood Bell.

Knowing the correct diagnosis made it possible to get my child help, even though the cost was over $10,000 for the private evaluation and tutoring. Worth it to us so my child could learn how to read. Not all families though have the finances to pay what we did just so their child can be educated.

MCPS skimps on the evaluations and services to the point many children with disabilities do not have access to educational opportunities.

MCPS should be providing all kids with extra reading support by 2nd grade if they are not reading. I'd prefer to see it happen in 1st grade. If kids cannot read, they cannot be successful in any of their classes. Its shameful how we don't catch things early and when parents do, MCPS ignores it as the parents are doing it privately. We spent who knows how much on private therapies and getting help with MCPS was a joke.

My daughter received As on book report summaries based on the pictures in the book. I had read the book just to see what she had been assigned to read and when I read her book report, I could tell that she wrote her own story. I scheduled a teacher conference to show the teacher the book and report. The book was of my daughter’s choice so the teacher had not read it, but she agreed my daughter’s book report was her own made up story based on the pictures in the book.

Prior to 3rd grade, my daughter kept missing benchmarks and we were told that some kids take till 3rd grade to learn how to read. We were told to be patient and she would eventually get there. However, when she was in third grade, the school told us that there was nothing they could do. She couldn’t read chapter books and they told us they didn’t have a reading intervention program or a reading specialist to work with her because it wasn’t in the third grade curriculum. For the MCPS Special Ed evaluation, they tested her for the WRONG disability the IEP team then said she didn’t have a disability.

We didn’t care if MCPS documented the disability but what drove us to pay $5,000 for a private evaluation was when the school washed their hands of teaching a child to read. Students deserve to come first, but unless Dr. McKnight overhauls how Special Education identifies and educates children, students with disabilities will continue to be ignored at the school level.

Special education isn't going to change for a long time and if you wait your child is going to fall behind. We heavily supplemented in ES and did private therapies.

The MCPS unwritten requirement that parents have to supplement for basic educational services such as teaching a child to read is the fundamental reason for unequal educational outcomes in our school systems. A child’s access to educational opportunities should not be dependent on a family’s financial resources in a public school system.

The achievement gap in MCPS is driven by economic disparities. MCPS continues with generational discrimination because a child’s outcome is dependent on the parental resources. A core factor of the achievement gap is the manner in which Special Education operates.

You can supplement yourself. Mcps has Saturday school and other assistance too. You have options outside school.

[Anonymous]

Again, MCPS breaks the law every day by ignoring children with disabilities. You can keep saying all you want to justify why Larlo can now read with your supplementation but this is a moral crisis for an organization that takes 3 billion a year. It’s time to stop paying them and start paying families directly to find their own services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP - MCPS thought my child was dyslexic. A private evaluation showed my child had ADHD impacting reading comprehension with some decoding problems affecting fluency. She initially was 2 grades behind with reading till we placed her with a private tutor that did a summer program of Lindamood Bell.

Knowing the correct diagnosis made it possible to get my child help, even though the cost was over $10,000 for the private evaluation and tutoring. Worth it to us so my child could learn how to read. Not all families though have the finances to pay what we did just so their child can be educated.

MCPS skimps on the evaluations and services to the point many children with disabilities do not have access to educational opportunities.

MCPS should be providing all kids with extra reading support by 2nd grade if they are not reading. I'd prefer to see it happen in 1st grade. If kids cannot read, they cannot be successful in any of their classes. Its shameful how we don't catch things early and when parents do, MCPS ignores it as the parents are doing it privately. We spent who knows how much on private therapies and getting help with MCPS was a joke.

My daughter received As on book report summaries based on the pictures in the book. I had read the book just to see what she had been assigned to read and when I read her book report, I could tell that she wrote her own story. I scheduled a teacher conference to show the teacher the book and report. The book was of my daughter’s choice so the teacher had not read it, but she agreed my daughter’s book report was her own made up story based on the pictures in the book.

Prior to 3rd grade, my daughter kept missing benchmarks and we were told that some kids take till 3rd grade to learn how to read. We were told to be patient and she would eventually get there. However, when she was in third grade, the school told us that there was nothing they could do. She couldn’t read chapter books and they told us they didn’t have a reading intervention program or a reading specialist to work with her because it wasn’t in the third grade curriculum. For the MCPS Special Ed evaluation, they tested her for the WRONG disability the IEP team then said she didn’t have a disability.

We didn’t care if MCPS documented the disability but what drove us to pay $5,000 for a private evaluation was when the school washed their hands of teaching a child to read. Students deserve to come first, but unless Dr. McKnight overhauls how Special Education identifies and educates children, students with disabilities will continue to be ignored at the school level.

Special education isn't going to change for a long time and if you wait your child is going to fall behind. We heavily supplemented in ES and did private therapies.

The MCPS unwritten requirement that parents have to supplement for basic educational services such as teaching a child to read is the fundamental reason for unequal educational outcomes in our school systems. A child’s access to educational opportunities should not be dependent on a family’s financial resources in a public school system.

The achievement gap in MCPS is driven by economic disparities. MCPS continues with generational discrimination because a child’s outcome is dependent on the parental resources. A core factor of the achievement gap is the manner in which Special Education operates.

You can supplement yourself. Mcps has Saturday school and other assistance too. You have options outside school.

Children with disabilities need specialized and individualized instruction. Often multiple specialists are needed by people who have a master’s or Ph.D. in their fields. Parents can easily supplement a child without disabilities but it is not so simple for students with disabilities.

For our family, we pay $200 to $500 per hour for private support. If MCPS wonders why they are loosing special educators, private providers can get paid more and set their own hours.

[Anonymous]

Their plans are impressive. Just when I thought things couldn't get any better MCPS outdoes itself again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP - MCPS thought my child was dyslexic. A private evaluation showed my child had ADHD impacting reading comprehension with some decoding problems affecting fluency. She initially was 2 grades behind with reading till we placed her with a private tutor that did a summer program of Lindamood Bell.

Knowing the correct diagnosis made it possible to get my child help, even though the cost was over $10,000 for the private evaluation and tutoring. Worth it to us so my child could learn how to read. Not all families though have the finances to pay what we did just so their child can be educated.

MCPS skimps on the evaluations and services to the point many children with disabilities do not have access to educational opportunities.

MCPS should be providing all kids with extra reading support by 2nd grade if they are not reading. I'd prefer to see it happen in 1st grade. If kids cannot read, they cannot be successful in any of their classes. Its shameful how we don't catch things early and when parents do, MCPS ignores it as the parents are doing it privately. We spent who knows how much on private therapies and getting help with MCPS was a joke.

My daughter received As on book report summaries based on the pictures in the book. I had read the book just to see what she had been assigned to read and when I read her book report, I could tell that she wrote her own story. I scheduled a teacher conference to show the teacher the book and report. The book was of my daughter’s choice so the teacher had not read it, but she agreed my daughter’s book report was her own made up story based on the pictures in the book.

Prior to 3rd grade, my daughter kept missing benchmarks and we were told that some kids take till 3rd grade to learn how to read. We were told to be patient and she would eventually get there. However, when she was in third grade, the school told us that there was nothing they could do. She couldn’t read chapter books and they told us they didn’t have a reading intervention program or a reading specialist to work with her because it wasn’t in the third grade curriculum. For the MCPS Special Ed evaluation, they tested her for the WRONG disability the IEP team then said she didn’t have a disability.

We didn’t care if MCPS documented the disability but what drove us to pay $5,000 for a private evaluation was when the school washed their hands of teaching a child to read. Students deserve to come first, but unless Dr. McKnight overhauls how Special Education identifies and educates children, students with disabilities will continue to be ignored at the school level.

Special education isn't going to change for a long time and if you wait your child is going to fall behind. We heavily supplemented in ES and did private therapies.

The MCPS unwritten requirement that parents have to supplement for basic educational services such as teaching a child to read is the fundamental reason for unequal educational outcomes in our school systems. A child’s access to educational opportunities should not be dependent on a family’s financial resources in a public school system.

The achievement gap in MCPS is driven by economic disparities. MCPS continues with generational discrimination because a child’s outcome is dependent on the parental resources. A core factor of the achievement gap is the manner in which Special Education operates.

You can supplement yourself. Mcps has Saturday school and other assistance too. You have options outside school.

Yeah, and that’s what we do. A decent amount actually - trips to museums, workbooks, outside classes.

But, who cares about the kids whose parents don’t want to supplement, right?

Instead of demanding that the quality of education in MCPS is better, we should just worry about our own kids, I guess. Amirite?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again, MCPS breaks the law every day by ignoring children with disabilities. You can keep saying all you want to justify why Larlo can now read with your supplementation but this is a moral crisis for an organization that takes 3 billion a year. It’s time to stop paying them and start paying families directly to find their own services.

If MCPS is ignoring Larlo's documented disability, sue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, MCPS breaks the law every day by ignoring children with disabilities. You can keep saying all you want to justify why Larlo can now read with your supplementation but this is a moral crisis for an organization that takes 3 billion a year. It’s time to stop paying them and start paying families directly to find their own services.

If MCPS is ignoring Larlo's documented disability, sue.

How many families have $30,000 to fight MCPS? MCPS drags out lawsuits instead of compromising and working with families. Many parents with pockets that deep will not fight MCPS and put their child in a private placement.

What families need to do is file a state complaint with the Maryland State Department of Education. Families also can file a Federal Office of Civil Rights compliants with the US Department of Education. Discrimination on the basis of a disability is illegal. Let the state and federal lawyers investigate MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Unless MCPS changes internal complaint procedures that are designed to wear parents down and intimidate parents from filing internal complaints, complaints will need to go to the state and/or federal agencies for any true investigation to take place. MCPS circles its wagons around bad employees her do horrendous things that ultimately is harmful to children.

The legal fees MCPS spends has no cap because the fees do not come out of the school budget. Parents and citizens should pressure the Montgomery County Council to make MCPS pay its own legal fees. Then perhaps MCPS would make decisions on the merits of their cases instead of a policy to bury families in legal fees just for bringing a concern forward.

Dr. McKnight would have my support if she follows through with her goal of students come first. Dr. Smith had a similar goal - all means all - but he ignored MCPS’s responsibilities for students with disabilities. The corporate culture of MCPS is full of a lack of transparency and deceit so for students to come first, many people from the top of Central Office to the bottom echelons of the school level will need to be retrained.