Venting about misrepresentations by school system in IEP meetings

[Anonymous]

I don't know that there's any purpose to this post, but I want to complain to some anonymous people who will understand! We have had a series of IEP meetings with a large & bureaucratic school system (in MD).We just moved here this summer from the midwest. This school system would very much like to send my DS to a specialized program far from our neighborhood school. We want him at our neighborhood school with in-class assistance and pull-outs as needed. The school administrators deliberately misrepresented aspects of the specialized program to us. The vice principal of the base school told us that her first grade classes last year were all over 27 kids each (her end game was that my son would be overwhelmed in such a large group). I met a mom at the neighborhood pool who had twins in first grade at that school last year. Class size: 20 and 21 kids each. Also, the VP said they never assigned one aide to be in a regular class full-time. Guess what this pool mom told me? Her son had a friend with down's who had a full time aide in his class last year! (My son would not need full-time assistance BTW).The administrators told me the bus ride to the specialized program would be no longer than 20 minutes in the morning and afternoon. I paced it in my car, at non-rush hour times, at over 30 minutes with no traffic.

Why do they lie like rugs??? Is there no shame in their game??? Are they lying to me b/c I'm not from here or is this SOP in special ed around here? I had zero problems with our old school system.

[Anonymous]

I am not in MD but I have found the IEP process to be the most frustrating exercise I have ever been a part of. I have been lied to, asked to put my child on medical assistance (so they could bill the state for the meager service they do provide him), and had my ds suddenly make great (all subjective of course) progress right at the end of the year. What timing! I've only been in the system one year but I recently asked to have his Iep reopened so I can bring in an advocate and create some more substantive goals. You're not alone. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I'm so sorry you're going through this, OP. I know too well how frustrating this is. We're in FCPS and I was so naive. I thought with it's reputation and the private evaluations we had that they would see there was a problem. I was stunned when they not only refused to accept any of the reports we had (from three different organizations), they declined to even do their own evaluations because while casually observing our DS, "nothing stands out about your son". The teacher knew something was wrong but had no power on the committtee. They were willing to wait until third grade and he was failing the SOL before they would do anything. It was so disheartening and disillusioning. It's one of the reasons we have a consultant/advocate with us at every IEP meeting. We've got two kids with IEPs and didn't use the consultant for our second child because we thought we didn't need it. It was relatively easy to get him an IEP becuase his challenges were more apparent and he came into the system from Infant Toddler (early intervention). We were so wrong. After we brought her in for our second DS's IEP, we learned so much about what the school wasn't doing. I'm so sorry your experience isn't any better.

[Anonymous]

At the risk of seeming like I have an ulterior motive, I am curious about which systems are being discussed. I live in DC and my son is starting in EI. Problems are already apparent, but I am wondering if things are really better in Mont. County. thanks

[Anonymous]

I assume you are talking about Montgomery County Schools, but you didn't say. As for the class size. Is it possible that they are expecting 27 students for the current school year but last year they had 20? I know some schools used to be under a title 1 school, where the class sizes are smaller and they lost their designation and thus have to go up to 27 students. That has happened at a few schools around here. Title 1 schools receive extra funds and are smaller classes, but when they start doing better, they lose the designation and the funding stops and the class size goes up.

Have you given this school your child was assigned to a chance?

I'm sure that the economy is going to affect all of us in the special needs system. There just is not much money so of course everyone takes a hit. It is an unfortunate time to be born or go to school in such a bad economy.

[Anonymous]

OP here-yes, it is Montgomery County. Thanks for the support.
We were definitely told that last year the class sizes were all 27+ kids. This was a straight-out lie. I guess I could give the vice principal the benefit of the doubt and hope she mis-spoke.

The specialized school program they would like to send him to is not the least restrictive environment (he was in a mainstream class for K at our old school). The specail program is all SN kids. DH thinks that they have extra capacity they would like to fill with warm bodies in this "special" program but I don't know if that is the case.

[Anonymous]

Can you get an educational consultant and revisit the IEP to get the least restrictive environment. I would join MCNeeds yahoo group and ask on their for help.

[Anonymous]

Ugh. I'm so sorry this is happening to you, OP.

I had a similar disillusionment with MoCo when my 3 year old DC was found ineligible for services after transitioning out of Infants and Toddlers, even though his speech delays were apparent.

Today I just fought successfully to have him repeat K in a MoCo public school - and did I have to argue with the Principal!!! His continuing speech issues were a big reason to retain him. If this had been treated earlier as I would have wished, we might not be in this situation...

Anyway. Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Op so sorry. I was crying on phone with MCPS today too. They're terrible and getting worse with special Ed. It's a disgrace in an otherwise great system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know that there's any purpose to this post, but I want to complain to some anonymous people who will understand! We have had a series of IEP meetings with a large & bureaucratic school system (in MD).We just moved here this summer from the midwest. This school system would very much like to send my DS to a specialized program far from our neighborhood school. We want him at our neighborhood school with in-class assistance and pull-outs as needed. The school administrators deliberately misrepresented aspects of the specialized program to us. The vice principal of the base school told us that her first grade classes last year were all over 27 kids each (her end game was that my son would be overwhelmed in such a large group). I met a mom at the neighborhood pool who had twins in first grade at that school last year. Class size: 20 and 21 kids each. Also, the VP said they never assigned one aide to be in a regular class full-time. Guess what this pool mom told me? Her son had a friend with down's who had a full time aide in his class last year! (My son would not need full-time assistance BTW).The administrators told me the bus ride to the specialized program would be no longer than 20 minutes in the morning and afternoon. I paced it in my car, at non-rush hour times, at over 30 minutes with no traffic.

Why do they lie like rugs??? Is there no shame in their game??? Are they lying to me b/c I'm not from here or is this SOP in special ed around here? I had zero problems with our old school system.

I'm going to go against the trend here and say that I have met a lot of "pool moms" who have no idea what they are talking about. They think an aide dedicated to the entire classroom is a particular child's full-time aide. (My child's classroom has an aide, and a lot of the moms in her classroom think she is there for my child simply because my child has a visible motoric disability. Surprise, surprise -- no. She is not "assigned" to my child, she's there for the classroom, and other than toileting doesn't spend much time with my child.) Or their friend had a friend/neighbor/cousin with Downs/CP/autism and he was in kindergarten and had a full time shadow and PT five times a week and private speech therapy paid for and and and...but next week they get back to you and say "I'm sorry, I checked with my friend and she said..." because they don't know what the hell they were talking about. Moms also don't know the class sizes during the school year. Maybe there were 20 and 21 at one point. Maybe there were 24 and 27 at another. You don't know. What I do know is the huge posts on this Forum and all DCUM forums over the last year about extraordinarily large class sizes in MoCo.

If this is indeed some sort of "deliberate misrepresentation" then why not inform the school you want to reopen the IEP. Mo Co has is problems but it's not the devil you make it out to be. And a 30 minute bus ride to a specialized school in Montgomery County is really not a big deal. I appreciate that you are from the Midwest and maybe that seems like a lot, but perhaps you will gain some perspective.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised that in MoCo they are pushing your DC towards a specialized SN program. My understanding (and experience) is that MoCo pushes inclusion in mainstream (even if that isn't the most appropriate thing for your DC).

[Anonymous]

6:17 thanks for representing the counter point. I'm not OP, but I do just want to add that there are serious disparities between what SN kids get in MoCo from other areas in the country. Some better, some worse, depends on the need.

I do know a handful of kids with very similar needs to my DS. In other counties they often get significantly more services. However, I also know kids within MCPS who got "a better deal" than mine because they fought harder, or were forced to let their child fail within the system and then got private placement, etc...

I think the most important thing we can do is talk about it, even anonymously, and try to be more transparent about what programs exist, who gets in, what supports people get in IEP's, etc.

The lack of openness saves MCPS money, but is no good for kids and parents -- and at what cost?

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure why MCPS is not transparent but my thought is that there are so many people with money that they would insist on a particular program for their child regardless of whether it is the appropriate. My child attends a collaborative pre-k and a SN child who obviously did not meet the criteria for the program was in the program 4 or 5 months in the program. Not only was it a hardship for the class, and the teachers, but the child did not make much progress. I saw the child 6 months later and this child was doing much better when assigned to an appropriate SN programs. And it was not a collaborative program.

I can only guess the parents really wanted this child to be in a class with typical kids, regardless of whether it was the best program for the child.

[Anonymous]

My sister is at at Montgomery County school in the Rockville area. I think she said they had 26 in first grade plus an aid. Given the cuts I have heard they were making this makes sense to me as a number. I can also tell you being on an advisory team doing budgeting and anticipating class size numbers in a DCPS school that this process is fraught with error. It can be very difficult to anticipate what you will have year to year. That said having also done the 504 not IEP process is that the special education mandates while well intentioned have been hijacked by the lawyers.

[Anonymous]

My sense is that sometimes the best place for the child is in a class with typical kids, but the typical kids would be better off if that (disruptive, needy, etc) child was elsewhere. This is especially true for kids with behavioral problems. The last thing parents of those kids want is for their child to be surrounded only by other kids with (maybe more severe) behavioral problems. I don't know what the answer is.