Compensatory Services

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its sad that the parents who could afford expensive tutoring are getting reimbursed, but the ones who couldn't afford any help for their kids are getting nothing.

The thinking is that a child is currently at a certain point. If they are behind, the IEP team is supposed to propose services to get them caught up.

If a child is not behind and the parent has hired tutors, then the child is where they are because of the interventions of the parents. The school under the OCR agreement (that FCPS entered into willingly!) must assume that the child’s progress is due in part to the tutoring and must reimburse the parents.

i.e. the parents who were able to spend a fortune on tutoring get reimbursed via tax payer money and those who couldn't afford it will get an extra pull out or two if the sped teacher has time

Than it’s on YOU as the parent to come prepared to the meeting. Decide what you want for your child. Is it 90 hours of OG tutoring? Twice weekly OT this summer?

Make a plan. Gather data to support that plan. If the IEP team doesn’t agree, then appeal.

Stop being a victim. It costs nothing to do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had our meeting last week. The compensatory hours offered are miniscule and would happen over the summer based on staff actually applying to work during that time. Hopefully it is better and more meaningful than Recovery Services were. (Such a joke.) I don’t need childcare—I always pay for camps—but starting services at 10am (or an even more inconvenient time 11am? 1pm?) will just show me they were hoping parents bailed due to inconvenience (Aja needing to keep their jobs) and they can check the box that they were offered.

Trying not to be so jaded, but old habits die hard.

Teachers are feeling jaded too and taken advantage of. I don't know many teachers willing to raise their hand for this. Good luck!

In all seriousness. What did teachers think would happen when they were given a pass on fulfilling taxpayer-funded job duties? The services are called compensatory because they are meant to COMPENSATE for all the services kids didn't get.

If this were about teachers not "fulfilling taxpayer funded job duties" then general education students would be getting compensatory services as well.

This is about a small group of students needing highly specialized services that didn't get them (blind, deaf, ID, etc). The majority of special education students sat in those virtual classes right there alongside their peers and learned just as well as the rest of them. But because all of special education is covered under the same laws, the compensatory services have to be offered to all. We sat in my daughter's meeting the other day and completely agreed that she received appropriate services during COVID and made good progress, so we rejected the compensatory services. A lot of parents are doing that. Because, again, this lawsuit wasn't really for their students.

And the fact that the 2021-2022 school year is included in this mess is stupid as well. Everyone was back in person at that point and if you weren't, it's because you chose not to be, therefore, any services you didn't receive at that point were on you.

It’s actually about a legal obligation - IEP/504 is a contract that the school did not deliver on. and is not a small group. It’s almost 30,000 students.

FCPS is reimbursing left and right for tutoring if parents bring receipts to meetings. But parents who did not pay for services already will not get a lot unfortunately.

The point is STOP BLAMING TEACHERS.

[Anonymous]

I think I can blame the teacher who said my kid was reading at grade level and could barely read, I think I can blame the “reading” specialist who falsified reading logs and also made stuff up, I can definitely blame the teacher who tried to just give my kid the answers to a test instead of doing actual special Ed support. And I definitely blame the teacher who tried to get my sympathy about her desire to stay home and teach virtually because “she had childcare issues.” Teachers are not blameless in a lot of the reading and special Ed issues that finally caught up with FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I can blame the teacher who said my kid was reading at grade level and could barely read, I think I can blame the “reading” specialist who falsified reading logs and also made stuff up, I can definitely blame the teacher who tried to just give my kid the answers to a test instead of doing actual special Ed support. And I definitely blame the teacher who tried to get my sympathy about her desire to stay home and teach virtually because “she had childcare issues.” Teachers are not blameless in a lot of the reading and special Ed issues that finally caught up with FCPS.

Always always ask for data sheets for IEP goals and get an IEE for any evaluation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had our meeting last week. The compensatory hours offered are miniscule and would happen over the summer based on staff actually applying to work during that time. Hopefully it is better and more meaningful than Recovery Services were. (Such a joke.) I don’t need childcare—I always pay for camps—but starting services at 10am (or an even more inconvenient time 11am? 1pm?) will just show me they were hoping parents bailed due to inconvenience (Aja needing to keep their jobs) and they can check the box that they were offered.

Trying not to be so jaded, but old habits die hard.

Teachers are feeling jaded too and taken advantage of. I don't know many teachers willing to raise their hand for this. Good luck!

In all seriousness. What did teachers think would happen when they were given a pass on fulfilling taxpayer-funded job duties? The services are called compensatory because they are meant to COMPENSATE for all the services kids didn't get.

Teachers didn’t have a choice. I checked the box saying I wanted to teach in person. I sat at school every day doing a song and dance on the computer. I had kids back in my room the first day they were allowed and then taught awful concurrent for months. And now I’m being punished for a decision someone else made for me.

If gatehouse hired people to do all this additional paperwork and organize the meetings and sit in 6583625 meetings, there’d be no fussing from most staff. But being told “You need to clean up the mess you didn’t make” is just insulting and demoralizing. And they are offering $9 per student for staff doing all the paperwork and conducting the meetings. Many hours of additional work. $9. That’s insulting too.

This $9 per student statement doesn’t make any sense to me as a parent. How is this determined? Do you see an extra $9 in your paycheck? Starbucks gift card?

So many questions and it seems beyond insulting. I’m so sorry.

$9.11 per 504 child that you are doing the paperwork on. $18.22 per IEP student. It will be added to our paychecks.

[Anonymous]

You are being paid extra to do paperwork and you are insulted? I am insulted you are being paid to do something that is part of your job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are being paid extra to do paperwork and you are insulted? I am insulted you are being paid to do something that is part of your job.

Please! It’s extra work in addition to their current workload. As a parent, I don’t think $9 total is enough to cover the multiple hours they will spend on this task. The additional meetings alone are at least an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are being paid extra to do paperwork and you are insulted? I am insulted you are being paid to do something that is part of your job.

Please! It’s extra work in addition to their current workload. As a parent, I don’t think $9 total is enough to cover the multiple hours they will spend on this task. The additional meetings alone are at least an hour.

+1 Clearly that poster has never sat through an IEP meeting. Even when things go 100% smoothly, moving through the screens, the PLOP, the prior written notices, computing the hours and making sure they add up and corralling the IEP Team is much longer than one hour and in addition to regular lesson plans and actually following through on the IEP with your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are being paid extra to do paperwork and you are insulted? I am insulted you are being paid to do something that is part of your job.

Shoveling sh!t from the stalls left by the school board & Gatehouse isn’t part of my job description.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are being paid extra to do paperwork and you are insulted? I am insulted you are being paid to do something that is part of your job.

Oh look who is so tough behind their computer. Probably sitting there doing nothing all day but surfing DC mum

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I can blame the teacher who said my kid was reading at grade level and could barely read, I think I can blame the “reading” specialist who falsified reading logs and also made stuff up, I can definitely blame the teacher who tried to just give my kid the answers to a test instead of doing actual special Ed support. And I definitely blame the teacher who tried to get my sympathy about her desire to stay home and teach virtually because “she had childcare issues.” Teachers are not blameless in a lot of the reading and special Ed issues that finally caught up with FCPS.

YAWN

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are being paid extra to do paperwork and you are insulted? I am insulted you are being paid to do something that is part of your job.

It takes me 3 hours to do the paperwork for each student on my caseload (mod/severe with multiple services). So yeah, $18 pre tax for 3 hours of work is insulting.

[Anonymous]

My kid is graduating this year. We could not afford tutoring during the school closings and both parents work outside the house the entire pandemic so could not ‘homeschool’ our high schooler with learning disabilities.

We will get nothing and he is graduating without being able to string together 3 coherent written paragraphs or read a full book and on medication for depression that began during the pandemic.

He needed to be in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are being paid extra to do paperwork and you are insulted? I am insulted you are being paid to do something that is part of your job.

Please! It’s extra work in addition to their current workload. As a parent, I don’t think $9 total is enough to cover the multiple hours they will spend on this task. The additional meetings alone are at least an hour.

+1 Clearly that poster has never sat through an IEP meeting. Even when things go 100% smoothly, moving through the screens, the PLOP, the prior written notices, computing the hours and making sure they add up and corralling the IEP Team is much longer than one hour and in addition to regular lesson plans and actually following through on the IEP with your kid.

Most of what happens in IEP meetings could be handled in an email. But I get it- I need to reintroduce myself to the team a few times a year and sit through be read documentation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is graduating this year. We could not afford tutoring during the school closings and both parents work outside the house the entire pandemic so could not ‘homeschool’ our high schooler with learning disabilities.

We will get nothing and he is graduating without being able to string together 3 coherent written paragraphs or read a full book and on medication for depression that began during the pandemic.

He needed to be in school.

Our DD also has an IEP and was HS during COVID. Knowing there was a gap in instruction, we helped her make improvements in topics such as writing before heading off the college. We worked with her at night and on weekends. So feel free to blame teachers and FCPS but you should also shoulder some of that blame. You knew those gaps were there.