what do middle income households who have kiddos with SN do in the DMV?
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Anonymous
| We moved to a low COL but still fantastic area. |
Anonymous
This is a great point, OP. We live in an expensive neighborhood in Bethesda an our elementary school (not BE) was extremely difficult to work with regarding our ASD child--even something as basic as an evaluation for 504 or IEP eligibility (we had already provided ASD eval). Large class sizes and an overcrowded school certainly exacerbated the issues our child was having. Good luck! |
Anonymous
Sounds like these are the positives: - You like your house - You like your community/neighborhood - You like the size of your monthly PITI payment (principal, interest, taxes, insurance) The problems: - Serious concerns that your school district will not meet your child’s needs - Serious time constraints/life pressures that make it hard to juggle employment, child, domestic affairs etc. My initial reading of the facts point to trying to stay put for now, while exploring+ maximizing all resources/services available to your family via medical insurance, the public school district, and whatever you might be able to afford out of pocket. (The transactional costs of selling, buying, and moving in this area likely to run tens of thousands of dollars. Ouch!) Unclear how deep into it you are with the school district, but other posters have noted that you may be pleasantly surprised. In the meantime, you could try to squeeze your budget a bit and start stashing away some “new house” cash. That way, if your concerns about the district are substantiated, you’ll feel well positioned to make a move one, two, three years down the line. (Such a timeline might prove optimal anyway because interest rates on savings accounts are pretty good right now and mortgage rates should come down in a year two after the Fed stops hiking.) Is your family eligible for any special county or state programs designed to help defray costs tied to caring for a special-needs child? I ask because I just received a $2K check from the State of Maryland’s LISS program for exactly this purpose. Won’t cover all of our out-of-pocket expenses but does take this sting out a bit. You got this! Your kid is lucky to have a thoughtful, caring parent. |
Anonymous
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Knew friends who moved to Anne Arundel County and their twins (with different issues) are doing much better. However, that might not work for commuting spouse. Columbia, MD is another option and we know one spouse who gets the commuter bus from there.
Had another family who took out a home equity loan for private school out of state. You should try for a private placement with a lawyer, but DC is so bad about letting kids fail first and the damage that does.... In our case, we finally went private and spent $125,000 on high school with tutors. Let me say that the privates around here aren't always a solution! The microschool syndrome as I call it, does not always lead to good learning outcomes and many schools often mentioned on these boards really don't do additional interventions/instruction. It was the best we could do. But we are older parents, we live in a NW DC condo apt and bought when the market was low. We saved the money for college. However, we are now very grateful for that DC TAG money and state school tuition. The kid himself told us that he wasn't sure if he could do college work and opted for community college. It was the BEST decision since he got lots of support and graduated magna cum laude from NOVA. I continue to marvel at the superb chemistry and statistics foundation courses which have proved to have been top notch in prepping him at the 4 year college. Good luck! |
Anonymous
To what end? Why? Is it tutors, private school? What are you gaining? |
Anonymous
Exact same situation as PP (might be same school too  Our ES is very hard to deal with, despite being in an affluent neighborhood and brimming with all kinds of PTA extra support. Also super crowded - all classes at the limit # of students allowed by the county.
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Anonymous
Good point. I’m one of the other posters and in Vienna. Elementary class sizes were huge, well over limits. There are very involved PTAs and generally good teachers but I know many who pulled for private school because public wasn’t a good fit. You don’t know what’s going to be best for your kid. |
Anonymous
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Dyslexia, Anxiety and ADHD diagnosis here. We did one year of Oakwood, but it was just too expensive to continue. If we stayed in VA we would've had to fight her public school to pay for Oakwood or Siena. She's also 2E and her public's plan was to put her in a special education classroom.
We ended up leaving the state, moving to an area with a much lower cost of living, and an OG certified dyslexia school less than half the cost of Oakwood. She is thriving in this new school, which is more focused on the well being of the whole child, vs heavy academics like the DC area. I realize we were very fortunate that this option was available to us. |
Anonymous
When my kids were in ES, I was told that the student:teacher ratio isn't calculated by classroom, it's calculated using the entire school population. So, one classroom could be well below the limit and another actually over the limit. |
Anonymous
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Fairfax County Schools in the Burke/West Springfield are have been nothing but wonderful with my DS who has some special needs. He’s had an IEP since Kindergarten until now in High School. There are a wide range of houses and townhouses in this area to fit most budgets.
But the dirty little secret is that the schools with fewer kids needing services tend to provide very good services to those that do need it. If you live in an upper income area you are likely going to be better off in public school system. Alexandria City schools was fighting us on basic Special Ed services so we moved to Fairfax County and it was night and day. They gave us more services than we initially asked for. Teachers have been wonderful and gone above and beyond for my DS. |
Anonymous
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FCPS spends more money on lawyers fighting special needs parents than on special needs services. It's sad. We thought about fighting them but that same money provided our kid a year at an LD private in the area while we figured out a new plan.
Some elementary schools are decent for kids with LD's, but it really depends on the kid and the needs. Friends of ours have had good experiences with accommodations, but it's so hit or miss. For our SN child while it's a lifelong diagnosis intervention now is so important. Otherwise she'll be behind and playing catch up most of her life. |