learning disabilities in mcps

[Anonymous]

I have a child with ld who attends a private school. We are pretty happy and DC is happy, but do spend a fortune on tuition and on tutoring and therapy. The school she goes to has some kids with ld, but the vast majority of kids do not have such issues. I realize ld is a very wide field, but just wondered if anyone would care to comment on experiences with a child with ld in the MCPS. The only child with ld I know who attends MCPS seems to be having a tough time, but possibly that perception is colored by how the parents present things. Thanks to anyone willing to share.

[Anonymous]

You may want to cross-post on the SN board as well.
My DS has aspergers, which greatly impacted his classroom learning. Our local MCPS elem was not a good fit.

[Anonymous]

My Kindergarten son in MCPS has ADHD (inattentive), speech delay and other quirks (undiagnosed).
He has just received an IEP (hurray!), which is the official framework for ensuring free service at the school for some of his disabilities, specifically speech therapy. Accommodation will be made in the classroom for his ADD.

FYI, I heard that different MCPS schools end up having a different standard of care for its disabled students, despite the system being the same in theory. Our elementary school in Bethesda has a great reputation for being responsive in that regard, and that was one of the reasons why we moved to that school district. Is it because the neighborhood is wealthy and parents are super-involved? I don't know, but for now I am satisfied with the school's response to my request for services.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on the kid, the nature of the learning disability, and the school. To get services, you child will need an IEP, and hopefully, MCPS will diagnose them correctly. We had a problem with this. For our DC, public school was a bust, and we pay for private school.

Also, b/c the economy is not doing so great, many of the schools are over crowded. I met a mom the other day whose DD has 28 kids in the kindergarten at Ashburton ES with one teacher.

You can always start the process of the IEP and enrolling your kid and change your mind if you need to. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

My DS has had an IEP at 2 different MCPS schools (ES and MS) and we have been VERY happy with the services provided. The private school experiment for him had been a disaster and we moved him to MCPS with a basis for comparison. That being said we were also VERY involved in structuring his services. A couple of things we did right. 1. We did NOT solely rely on MCPS to assess him. He has developmental delays and we made sure that our private workups are reflected in his IEP. 2. We do not just rely on MCPS services and we continue the private services that he gets (OT and Executive Function).

But we have been fortunate in that the MCPS schools he attended have well deserved county wide reputations for doing a good job with their IEP students.

[Anonymous]

We are in the same boat as OP. Would any of the PPs be willing to share which schools (particularly in Bethesda) have better reputations or not so good reputations when it comes to accommodations and services?

[Anonymous]

13:10 I honestly, don't know the rhyme or reason to how things work out. Our DD (has developmental delays not ASD) was at RH and it was a disaster. A woman I know whose daughter (probably ASD but I'm not sure) went there the next year and they bent over backwards for her.

[Anonymous]

This comment may come off wrong and I really don't mean any offense to anyone. For us, it was the social piece, not the academic piece that was problematic about MCPS. If your child has a learning disability but is otherwise typical socially, I think you will be fine in MCPS. You may have to fight for an IEP and some services but once you get them, you will be fine. But if your child lacks social skills or is considered "quirky" (as my dc is without a spectrum diagnosis), it can be a hard road. We had an excellent IEP with excellent teachers but dc had no friends. Moved to one of the special needs schools and dc has found friends. I realize private is not an option for everyone and that we are fortunate. We certainly did not intend to go the private route but dc was so miserable. The public schools need to start addressing the social -- by helping the special needs individual and also by teaching the "typical" kids to be more inclusive.There was a good piece about this on twitter the other day from ADD magazine. I will post if I can find it.

[Anonymous]

MCPS special education has let us down. If your child is happy, consider staying put.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:13:10 I honestly, don't know the rhyme or reason to how things work out. Our DD (has developmental delays not ASD) was at RH and it was a disaster. A woman I know whose daughter (probably ASD but I'm not sure) went there the next year and they bent over backwards for her.

You mention that a (probably) ASD child got better services than your DD child at Rosemary Hills -- I wonder if this is because RH has an autism program and so they are probably better informed/equipped to deal with this.

In general, our experience in MCPS and @RH has been that many delays will be labeled as "within the developmental spectrum" meaning that if a children are expected to read 3 letter words somewhere between 3 years and 9 years old, then your child will not be given support services until they have passed the 9 year mark. In theory, they get away with this because your child could be one of the "late developers." In practice, what this means is that your child will not be given help until 99.9% of his/her age group has attained a developmental skill, by which time it is too late and much harder to remedy.

In general, we have not found RH cooperative in dealing with LDs. On an individual basis there has been one great/cooperative teacher, one real stinker and many mediocre/in between.

[Anonymous]

While my child has had a relatively easy go of it so far in MCPS elementary, I agree with the PP that the social aspect can be very challenging for kids with social challenges. These kids are sent out to recess with 125+ kids, 2-3 adults and told to "play" for 30 minutes. It is very hard if your child doesn't fit into the groups that form. I'd say forming a relationship with the counselor at the school would be a good first step...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:13:10 I honestly, don't know the rhyme or reason to how things work out. Our DD (has developmental delays not ASD) was at RH and it was a disaster. A woman I know whose daughter (probably ASD but I'm not sure) went there the next year and they bent over backwards for her.

You mention that a (probably) ASD child got better services than your DD child at Rosemary Hills -- I wonder if this is because RH has an autism program and so they are probably better informed/equipped to deal with this.

My kid had an IEP. The school staff was unhelpful, and the school psychologist a nightmare. The woman I know whose DD went there the next year was not in the autism program but in the regular school as was my kid. (The autism program is completely separate and very different, e.g., many of the kids are nonverbal, still wear diapers.) I don't know what the exact nature of her LDs were, probably aspbergers, but that is a guess. The school went so far as to place her in a classroom with someone she knew and her teacher seemed to have a much better understanding of a SN kid than ours did. So from what I experienced it was a major negative; we went the private route. But others I know had a more positive experience. So I say again no rhyme or reason to how it works out. 22:02, you wrote pretty much in the 3rd person, do you actually have a kid with an IEP or just a defender of the school?

[Anonymous]

I believe there's an LD listserv for MCPS parents. Friend had IEP for child and could not get the resources needed b/c of budget problems. School would not listen to her input. Child hated going to school so much she could barely get him there each day. Just a horrible experience. And this was at a school that I've heard other parents of non LD kids rave about.

Family finally moved out of the county to a nearby county with better services. Child is so much happier and actually likes school.

I agree with an earlier poster. If child is happy, don't rock the boat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:13:10 I honestly, don't know the rhyme or reason to how things work out. Our DD (has developmental delays not ASD) was at RH and it was a disaster. A woman I know whose daughter (probably ASD but I'm not sure) went there the next year and they bent over backwards for her.

You mention that a (probably) ASD child got better services than your DD child at Rosemary Hills -- I wonder if this is because RH has an autism program and so they are probably better informed/equipped to deal with this.

My kid had an IEP. The school staff was unhelpful, and the school psychologist a nightmare. The woman I know whose DD went there the next year was not in the autism program but in the regular school as was my kid. (The autism program is completely separate and very different, e.g., many of the kids are nonverbal, still wear diapers.) I don't know what the exact nature of her LDs were, probably aspbergers, but that is a guess. The school went so far as to place her in a classroom with someone she knew and her teacher seemed to have a much better understanding of a SN kid than ours did. So from what I experienced it was a major negative; we went the private route. But others I know had a more positive experience. So I say again no rhyme or reason to how it works out. 22:02, you wrote pretty much in the 3rd person, do you actually have a kid with an IEP or just a defender of the school?

First, I am very sorry for your experience at the public school. It is amazingly frustrating to have a child that needs help and to not get people to be able to see that. I think this happens all to often in public school and is one major reason why some students are not progressing adequately.

I am 22:02. I am surprised you view me as a "defender of the school". I am not. My second paragraph (which you did not quote) was pretty negative, IMO. I do have a child at RHPS, but my child does not have an IEP. We failed in our first attempt at an IEP even though we had outside diagnosis of LDs. Child was very young and school system said since child did not fail pre-K and was not kicked out of pre-K, there was no educational impact and therefore we could not prove disability necessary for IEP nor any 504 services. Eventually we placed child at RHPS and child has big difficulties in a few areas that (no surprise) are consistent with his LD diagnoses made by outside experts. We are going back for a second bite at the IEP apple, but I am not sure we will succeed because child is classic case of GT/LD kid able to "average out" or mask disabilities at this young age.

Your RHPS experience sounds very similar to ours so far. The main office administration has been largely unhelpful. I find them nice, but a little clueless. The main determinant of our experience has been the individual classroom teacher. We have had one teacher that was not at all educated about LDs and treated our child with the classic stigma -- not acknowledging that the LD could be causing the problem, but instead seeing child as "choosing" behavior and that child only needed to pay more attention, to be more self-disciplined, to get harsher punishment or sharper voice to "learn" to "make a better choice."

Another teacher child had did not do as much harm, in the sense that she did not make child feel bad, but she was a clueless teacher with a total lack of control of the classroom, so the year with her was a wasted one.

This year we have a much better teacher who has excellent control of her classroom. She is clearly a great teacher able to differentiate both by ability and learning style. She also is well-educated about LDs and teaching techniques and willing to listen about our child's LDs and has even made some good suggestions or interpretations about things that I did not see. That has made a world of difference this year. Teachers are luck of the draw. The only way to try to affect the teacher assignment is to write a clear letter to the principal prior to August describing what a child needs in terms of school assignment but not asking for a specific teacher by name. (E.g. Johnny needs to be assigned to a teacher that has good control of the classroom, uses positive behavioral feedback and can differentiate for attention difficulties or whatever.)

Can you please share more on why the school psychologist was a nightmare in your situation? Can you share name of psychologist or approximately how long ago this happened? We have a meeting coming up soon and the school psychologist has been invited to attend by the school. I do not know anything about her. Any heads up you can give to us in this regard would be so useful. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I was just curious whether anyone has had any (hopefully positive) or negative experiences at Rosemary Hills? We are weighing private v. public schools. I know the school is huge. We bought our house so wanting to go the public route. I've heard people comment about how Bethesda Elementary has so many Special Needs students. Do they live in the Bethesda boundaries or are they redistricted b/c of their needs. We are looking at the Fall 2013 but I want to figure out what the school's feel is.

Thanks.