Private placement, DCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have the money to gamble, you put your kid where you want them, pay tuition, and then turn around and file due process to get reimbursement.

It's a BIG gamble, for sure, and don't do it unless an attorney tells you that you have at least some kind of shot, but you have better chances this way than to just file due process and hope OSSE tells them to do a private placement.

This is abysmal advice. There is no guarantee of getting into the school you want and if you think DCPS will agree to pay for your private school tuition just because you're already enrolled, I have beachfront property in Kansas that you might be interested in. This is the kind of stuff attorneys were telling their clients a decade ago.

We did unilateral private placement and won. The challenge is that you need to prove year after year that DCPS messed up.
It is not for the faint of heart.

Ditto. We did unilateral placement and won vs DCPS too. And, to PP, my kid isn't "severely disabled" whatever that even means. But they had refused to identify my kid as needing an IEP at all, which was ludicrous even by the results of their own testing, so they lost.


It's not that they just cave, it's that it's a lower burden of proof than convincing them to place the kid outright.

Maybe in the past white privilege was enough but now your child will have to at least be in self-contained. Or your lawyer is excellent and your child is severely disabled. Severely disabled means your child’s needs are so high they cannot be served in a public setting, private full sped is considered one of the most restrictive environments.

Yes, that's the literal definition of who gets funded. That is *the* issue that is litigated at due process. So you aren't really saying anything.

Perhaps you should read the comment replied to. They said their child isn’t severely disabled. Disabled isn’t a dirty word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have the money to gamble, you put your kid where you want them, pay tuition, and then turn around and file due process to get reimbursement.

It's a BIG gamble, for sure, and don't do it unless an attorney tells you that you have at least some kind of shot, but you have better chances this way than to just file due process and hope OSSE tells them to do a private placement.

This is abysmal advice. There is no guarantee of getting into the school you want and if you think DCPS will agree to pay for your private school tuition just because you're already enrolled, I have beachfront property in Kansas that you might be interested in. This is the kind of stuff attorneys were telling their clients a decade ago.

We did unilateral private placement and won. The challenge is that you need to prove year after year that DCPS messed up.
It is not for the faint of heart.

Ditto. We did unilateral placement and won vs DCPS too. And, to PP, my kid isn't "severely disabled" whatever that even means. But they had refused to identify my kid as needing an IEP at all, which was ludicrous even by the results of their own testing, so they lost.


It's not that they just cave, it's that it's a lower burden of proof than convincing them to place the kid outright.

Maybe in the past white privilege was enough but now your child will have to at least be in self-contained. Or your lawyer is excellent and your child is severely disabled. Severely disabled means your child’s needs are so high they cannot be served in a public setting, private full sped is considered one of the most restrictive environments.

It’s not really race privilege in DCPS, it’s economic privilege. That’s who gets the private placement, the people who can pay for it. Who have the time and money to get an advocate to stay on the IEP team members and wear them down.

Can agree with that, though the majority of the wealthy in DC have white skin.
Yep, have friends who recently got private and after 3 years with a very pricy lawyer they have got their private placement.

[Anonymous]

OP: You may want to reach out to your child's current therapists and ask if they work with any families who have been successful with private placement within the past year or two and would be willing to talk to other parents going through the process. We are always happy to do this whenever asked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have the money to gamble, you put your kid where you want them, pay tuition, and then turn around and file due process to get reimbursement.

It's a BIG gamble, for sure, and don't do it unless an attorney tells you that you have at least some kind of shot, but you have better chances this way than to just file due process and hope OSSE tells them to do a private placement.

This is abysmal advice. There is no guarantee of getting into the school you want and if you think DCPS will agree to pay for your private school tuition just because you're already enrolled, I have beachfront property in Kansas that you might be interested in. This is the kind of stuff attorneys were telling their clients a decade ago.

We did unilateral private placement and won. The challenge is that you need to prove year after year that DCPS messed up.
It is not for the faint of heart.

Ditto. We did unilateral placement and won vs DCPS too. And, to PP, my kid isn't "severely disabled" whatever that even means. But they had refused to identify my kid as needing an IEP at all, which was ludicrous even by the results of their own testing, so they lost.


It's not that they just cave, it's that it's a lower burden of proof than convincing them to place the kid outright.

Maybe in the past white privilege was enough but now your child will have to at least be in self-contained. Or your lawyer is excellent and your child is severely disabled. Severely disabled means your child’s needs are so high they cannot be served in a public setting, private full sped is considered one of the most restrictive environments.

It’s not really race privilege in DCPS, it’s economic privilege. That’s who gets the private placement, the people who can pay for it. Who have the time and money to get an advocate to stay on the IEP team members and wear them down.

This is mostly true, of course, but also Michael Eig and others do pro bono work.

[Anonymous]

PP here who won unilateral placement and said my kid isn't severely disabled.

Seeing your responses, I guess it depends how you define it. Yes, she needed self contained. But what I meant was - she isn't medically complex or intellectually disabled, have multiple disabilities etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the advice from people above seems to be from people who have not gone through this or is out of date. What used to happen in DC is not current. The current DCPS approach is to fight most private placement cases - except some more significant cases, especially if you’re looking for placement at one of their approved placement schools like Chelsea.

In the past, they often paid for placements at Lab. Most people would move their kid to Lab (if accepted) and then show FAPE wasn’t being met at DCPS and DCPS would often just settle. Which is the typical way to go.
Now they contest it heavily until you get far in the process which includes going through rounds of IEP meetings and arguments with DCPS - and then they may offer a settlement for some portion but not near full pay. In more and more cases they will go to hearing (which means they believe they can win it). Consider how much you may pay the attorneys and consultants and school to get to this point - and it takes a lot of time and effort.
Labs newish head of school has taken an approach of not really helping or supporting families or trying to make any real in roads with DCPS to do things the school used to do to - and seems completely fine with giving up getting lots of DCPS placed kids vs getting more families who are “fine” with full pay. For instance, they stopped doing school based IEPs at the school and other things that are complicated.

This makes sense. Unless the school keeps f’in up (possible of course) it’s hard to picture a kid who can be accepted to LAB who cannot be served with a DCPS IEP.

That's the wrong take away -- DCPS poorly serves the kids and doesn't meet the needs, but then they won't support private placement or anything that comes close to helping many kids - and you are just screwed and left with no good options to help your kid get an education if they 'learn differently' other than paying a huge amount for a school that does provide supports or paying a ton in private tutoring.

They offered to put my kid with dyslexia in a small class setting with kids with a range of different types of disabilities and teacher without any training in O-G or reading methods.

I’m sorry, but like the rest of us, you just need to stay on top of the DCPS school, get a good consultant for the IEP, supplement. You are not legally entitled to tuition at Lab, and personally I’m not sure the “special needs” schools around here are worth it anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have the money to gamble, you put your kid where you want them, pay tuition, and then turn around and file due process to get reimbursement.

It's a BIG gamble, for sure, and don't do it unless an attorney tells you that you have at least some kind of shot, but you have better chances this way than to just file due process and hope OSSE tells them to do a private placement.

This is abysmal advice. There is no guarantee of getting into the school you want and if you think DCPS will agree to pay for your private school tuition just because you're already enrolled, I have beachfront property in Kansas that you might be interested in. This is the kind of stuff attorneys were telling their clients a decade ago.

We did unilateral private placement and won. The challenge is that you need to prove year after year that DCPS messed up.
It is not for the faint of heart.

Ditto. We did unilateral placement and won vs DCPS too. And, to PP, my kid isn't "severely disabled" whatever that even means. But they had refused to identify my kid as needing an IEP at all, which was ludicrous even by the results of their own testing, so they lost.


It's not that they just cave, it's that it's a lower burden of proof than convincing them to place the kid outright.

Maybe in the past white privilege was enough but now your child will have to at least be in self-contained. Or your lawyer is excellent and your child is severely disabled. Severely disabled means your child’s needs are so high they cannot be served in a public setting, private full sped is considered one of the most restrictive environments.

Agreed. However it’s possible that in really egregious cases DCPS may just fund the private placement after a risk assessment. But that means there would have to be some really well documented bad stuff. Not just “my kid needs more hours of reading instruction than you put in the IEP.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have the money to gamble, you put your kid where you want them, pay tuition, and then turn around and file due process to get reimbursement.

It's a BIG gamble, for sure, and don't do it unless an attorney tells you that you have at least some kind of shot, but you have better chances this way than to just file due process and hope OSSE tells them to do a private placement.

This is abysmal advice. There is no guarantee of getting into the school you want and if you think DCPS will agree to pay for your private school tuition just because you're already enrolled, I have beachfront property in Kansas that you might be interested in. This is the kind of stuff attorneys were telling their clients a decade ago.

We did unilateral private placement and won. The challenge is that you need to prove year after year that DCPS messed up.
It is not for the faint of heart.

Ditto. We did unilateral placement and won vs DCPS too. And, to PP, my kid isn't "severely disabled" whatever that even means. But they had refused to identify my kid as needing an IEP at all, which was ludicrous even by the results of their own testing, so they lost.


It's not that they just cave, it's that it's a lower burden of proof than convincing them to place the kid outright.

Maybe in the past white privilege was enough but now your child will have to at least be in self-contained. Or your lawyer is excellent and your child is severely disabled. Severely disabled means your child’s needs are so high they cannot be served in a public setting, private full sped is considered one of the most restrictive environments.

Yes, that's the literal definition of who gets funded. That is *the* issue that is litigated at due process. So you aren't really saying anything.

My guess is the kids who get funded are the ones with serious behavioral issues. Otherwise DCPS now has self-contained for every type of disability AFAIK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have the money to gamble, you put your kid where you want them, pay tuition, and then turn around and file due process to get reimbursement.

It's a BIG gamble, for sure, and don't do it unless an attorney tells you that you have at least some kind of shot, but you have better chances this way than to just file due process and hope OSSE tells them to do a private placement.

This is abysmal advice. There is no guarantee of getting into the school you want and if you think DCPS will agree to pay for your private school tuition just because you're already enrolled, I have beachfront property in Kansas that you might be interested in. This is the kind of stuff attorneys were telling their clients a decade ago.

We did unilateral private placement and won. The challenge is that you need to prove year after year that DCPS messed up.
It is not for the faint of heart.

Ditto. We did unilateral placement and won vs DCPS too. And, to PP, my kid isn't "severely disabled" whatever that even means. But they had refused to identify my kid as needing an IEP at all, which was ludicrous even by the results of their own testing, so they lost.


It's not that they just cave, it's that it's a lower burden of proof than convincing them to place the kid outright.

Maybe in the past white privilege was enough but now your child will have to at least be in self-contained. Or your lawyer is excellent and your child is severely disabled. Severely disabled means your child’s needs are so high they cannot be served in a public setting, private full sped is considered one of the most restrictive environments.

It’s not really race privilege in DCPS, it’s economic privilege. That’s who gets the private placement, the people who can pay for it. Who have the time and money to get an advocate to stay on the IEP team members and wear them down.

Can agree with that, though the majority of the wealthy in DC have white skin.
Yep, have friends who recently got private and after 3 years with a very pricy lawyer they have got their private placement.

which only lasts for a year until DCPS does a new IEP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the advice from people above seems to be from people who have not gone through this or is out of date. What used to happen in DC is not current. The current DCPS approach is to fight most private placement cases - except some more significant cases, especially if you’re looking for placement at one of their approved placement schools like Chelsea.

In the past, they often paid for placements at Lab. Most people would move their kid to Lab (if accepted) and then show FAPE wasn’t being met at DCPS and DCPS would often just settle. Which is the typical way to go.
Now they contest it heavily until you get far in the process which includes going through rounds of IEP meetings and arguments with DCPS - and then they may offer a settlement for some portion but not near full pay. In more and more cases they will go to hearing (which means they believe they can win it). Consider how much you may pay the attorneys and consultants and school to get to this point - and it takes a lot of time and effort.
Labs newish head of school has taken an approach of not really helping or supporting families or trying to make any real in roads with DCPS to do things the school used to do to - and seems completely fine with giving up getting lots of DCPS placed kids vs getting more families who are “fine” with full pay. For instance, they stopped doing school based IEPs at the school and other things that are complicated.

This makes sense. Unless the school keeps f’in up (possible of course) it’s hard to picture a kid who can be accepted to LAB who cannot be served with a DCPS IEP.

That's the wrong take away -- DCPS poorly serves the kids and doesn't meet the needs, but then they won't support private placement or anything that comes close to helping many kids - and you are just screwed and left with no good options to help your kid get an education if they 'learn differently' other than paying a huge amount for a school that does provide supports or paying a ton in private tutoring.

They offered to put my kid with dyslexia in a small class setting with kids with a range of different types of disabilities and teacher without any training in O-G or reading methods.

I’m sorry, but like the rest of us, you just need to stay on top of the DCPS school, get a good consultant for the IEP, supplement. You are not legally entitled to tuition at Lab, and personally I’m not sure the “special needs” schools around here are worth it anyway.

Someone is legally entitled to tuition at Lab (or ivymount or at another SN school) if they can show that their disability-related needs aren't being met at dcps. DC does dyslexia terribly, so it doesn't surprise me when people are able to do that. But like everything else in the legal system, having money to enable access to lawyers and advocates makes it easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the advice from people above seems to be from people who have not gone through this or is out of date. What used to happen in DC is not current. The current DCPS approach is to fight most private placement cases - except some more significant cases, especially if you’re looking for placement at one of their approved placement schools like Chelsea.

In the past, they often paid for placements at Lab. Most people would move their kid to Lab (if accepted) and then show FAPE wasn’t being met at DCPS and DCPS would often just settle. Which is the typical way to go.
Now they contest it heavily until you get far in the process which includes going through rounds of IEP meetings and arguments with DCPS - and then they may offer a settlement for some portion but not near full pay. In more and more cases they will go to hearing (which means they believe they can win it). Consider how much you may pay the attorneys and consultants and school to get to this point - and it takes a lot of time and effort.
Labs newish head of school has taken an approach of not really helping or supporting families or trying to make any real in roads with DCPS to do things the school used to do to - and seems completely fine with giving up getting lots of DCPS placed kids vs getting more families who are “fine” with full pay. For instance, they stopped doing school based IEPs at the school and other things that are complicated.

This makes sense. Unless the school keeps f’in up (possible of course) it’s hard to picture a kid who can be accepted to LAB who cannot be served with a DCPS IEP.

That's the wrong take away -- DCPS poorly serves the kids and doesn't meet the needs, but then they won't support private placement or anything that comes close to helping many kids - and you are just screwed and left with no good options to help your kid get an education if they 'learn differently' other than paying a huge amount for a school that does provide supports or paying a ton in private tutoring.

They offered to put my kid with dyslexia in a small class setting with kids with a range of different types of disabilities and teacher without any training in O-G or reading methods.

I’m sorry, but like the rest of us, you just need to stay on top of the DCPS school, get a good consultant for the IEP, supplement. You are not legally entitled to tuition at Lab, and personally I’m not sure the “special needs” schools around here are worth it anyway.

Someone is legally entitled to tuition at Lab (or ivymount or at another SN school) if they can show that their disability-related needs aren't being met at dcps. DC does dyslexia terribly, so it doesn't surprise me when people are able to do that. But like everything else in the legal system, having money to enable access to lawyers and advocates makes it easier.

You do a disservice by suggesting parents of kids with dyslexia are going to get Lab paid for. Barring something really egregious happening at the school, it’s not gonna happen these days. Just check out OSSE hearing officer opinions on point like this one: https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/HOD%20July%202020%20%285%29.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the advice from people above seems to be from people who have not gone through this or is out of date. What used to happen in DC is not current. The current DCPS approach is to fight most private placement cases - except some more significant cases, especially if you’re looking for placement at one of their approved placement schools like Chelsea.

In the past, they often paid for placements at Lab. Most people would move their kid to Lab (if accepted) and then show FAPE wasn’t being met at DCPS and DCPS would often just settle. Which is the typical way to go.
Now they contest it heavily until you get far in the process which includes going through rounds of IEP meetings and arguments with DCPS - and then they may offer a settlement for some portion but not near full pay. In more and more cases they will go to hearing (which means they believe they can win it). Consider how much you may pay the attorneys and consultants and school to get to this point - and it takes a lot of time and effort.
Labs newish head of school has taken an approach of not really helping or supporting families or trying to make any real in roads with DCPS to do things the school used to do to - and seems completely fine with giving up getting lots of DCPS placed kids vs getting more families who are “fine” with full pay. For instance, they stopped doing school based IEPs at the school and other things that are complicated.

This makes sense. Unless the school keeps f’in up (possible of course) it’s hard to picture a kid who can be accepted to LAB who cannot be served with a DCPS IEP.

That's the wrong take away -- DCPS poorly serves the kids and doesn't meet the needs, but then they won't support private placement or anything that comes close to helping many kids - and you are just screwed and left with no good options to help your kid get an education if they 'learn differently' other than paying a huge amount for a school that does provide supports or paying a ton in private tutoring.

They offered to put my kid with dyslexia in a small class setting with kids with a range of different types of disabilities and teacher without any training in O-G or reading methods.

I’m sorry, but like the rest of us, you just need to stay on top of the DCPS school, get a good consultant for the IEP, supplement. You are not legally entitled to tuition at Lab, and personally I’m not sure the “special needs” schools around here are worth it anyway.

Someone is legally entitled to tuition at Lab (or ivymount or at another SN school) if they can show that their disability-related needs aren't being met at dcps. DC does dyslexia terribly, so it doesn't surprise me when people are able to do that. But like everything else in the legal system, having money to enable access to lawyers and advocates makes it easier.

You do a disservice by suggesting parents of kids with dyslexia are going to get Lab paid for. Barring something really egregious happening at the school, it’s not gonna happen these days. Just check out OSSE hearing officer opinions on point like this one: https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/HOD%20July%202020%20%285%29.pdf

But in this case, the family never even tried to attend DCPS schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the advice from people above seems to be from people who have not gone through this or is out of date. What used to happen in DC is not current. The current DCPS approach is to fight most private placement cases - except some more significant cases, especially if you’re looking for placement at one of their approved placement schools like Chelsea.

In the past, they often paid for placements at Lab. Most people would move their kid to Lab (if accepted) and then show FAPE wasn’t being met at DCPS and DCPS would often just settle. Which is the typical way to go.
Now they contest it heavily until you get far in the process which includes going through rounds of IEP meetings and arguments with DCPS - and then they may offer a settlement for some portion but not near full pay. In more and more cases they will go to hearing (which means they believe they can win it). Consider how much you may pay the attorneys and consultants and school to get to this point - and it takes a lot of time and effort.
Labs newish head of school has taken an approach of not really helping or supporting families or trying to make any real in roads with DCPS to do things the school used to do to - and seems completely fine with giving up getting lots of DCPS placed kids vs getting more families who are “fine” with full pay. For instance, they stopped doing school based IEPs at the school and other things that are complicated.

This makes sense. Unless the school keeps f’in up (possible of course) it’s hard to picture a kid who can be accepted to LAB who cannot be served with a DCPS IEP.

That's the wrong take away -- DCPS poorly serves the kids and doesn't meet the needs, but then they won't support private placement or anything that comes close to helping many kids - and you are just screwed and left with no good options to help your kid get an education if they 'learn differently' other than paying a huge amount for a school that does provide supports or paying a ton in private tutoring.

They offered to put my kid with dyslexia in a small class setting with kids with a range of different types of disabilities and teacher without any training in O-G or reading methods.

I’m sorry, but like the rest of us, you just need to stay on top of the DCPS school, get a good consultant for the IEP, supplement. You are not legally entitled to tuition at Lab, and personally I’m not sure the “special needs” schools around here are worth it anyway.

Someone is legally entitled to tuition at Lab (or ivymount or at another SN school) if they can show that their disability-related needs aren't being met at dcps. DC does dyslexia terribly, so it doesn't surprise me when people are able to do that. But like everything else in the legal system, having money to enable access to lawyers and advocates makes it easier.

You do a disservice by suggesting parents of kids with dyslexia are going to get Lab paid for. Barring something really egregious happening at the school, it’s not gonna happen these days. Just check out OSSE hearing officer opinions on point like this one: https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/HOD%20July%202020%20%285%29.pdf

But in this case, the family never even tried to attend DCPS schools.

In fact, this is a great example of what not to do. Sounds like the parents were never willing to allow their kid to attend a DCPS school; they just wanted DCPS to pay the tuition. I can't see how the judge could have ruled the other way.

[Anonymous]

Here is the thing. Getting a private placement is hard. It takes money and it is stressful. But it is possible. According to OSSE in 2019 (yes I know that’s 3 years ago), 6% of the children in DC - that includes DCPS and charter- are in funded non-public schools. People are still getting funded, it’s just not easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the thing. Getting a private placement is hard. It takes money and it is stressful. But it is possible. According to OSSE in 2019 (yes I know that’s 3 years ago), 6% of the children in DC - that includes DCPS and charter- are in funded non-public schools. People are still getting funded, it’s just not easy.

But understand that the overwhelming majority of these placements are for kids with very significant issues.