Public school & SPED - 2E donut hole

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in FCPS and in no way could our school meet child's needs. First and foremost, they were completely inadequate in the Special Ed area. But secondly, they were recommending not placing him in the Advanced Program even though a) he was extremely advanced as a 2nd grader and had tested v. high and b) he was the picture-perfect curious out-of-the box thinker that AAP is supposed to somehow "rescue" from the Gen Ed classroom. (I now know from my other kids that they were probably correct in that the program is really designed for kids with strong executive functions to shine.) By the end of first and second grades, my super bright and sweet child was depressed and his self-esteem was on the floor. It was an absolutely horrible experience for his parents to witness.

I ended up leaving my career and homeschooling in order to meet him where he was academically at his strengths and weaknesses. I learned how to remediate his very severe LD. We made sure he had loads of activities with peers. We both loved it.

After a few years, I looked into Special Needs schools (which were not really affordable) to see if we could get him back in a classroom. The one that was logical diagnosis-wise basically indicated that it wasn't a good fit because he was too advanced academically in his areas of strength. She specifically recommended some schools/programs in MoCo - though we are not in MoCo.

Eventually, kid went to a small mainstream private and was very successful. He is in college and doing amazingly well.

NP. I have two kids in FCPS and AAP, one ASD with high scores on COGAT/NNAT (and later WISC) and one with ADHD. For both of them, 1st and 2nd grade were pretty awful. AAP was much better. The academics were directed towards my ASD kid's weaknesses, critical thinking and theme and motivation, etc. (these are not things that he intuitively understands at all so focusing on it was a struggle and good for him although he didn't like it), as well as advanced math and science (these are his strengths). And for both, the teachers were very experienced with ADHD (many kids with diagnoses in the class, that I knew about, and probably more that I didn't) and more tolerant of ASD quirks.

[Anonymous]

We're in DC and have been time that MoCo has a good 2e program by enough people that I was contemplating a move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think this is a problem unique to 2E kids. MCPS doesn't serve kids with disabilities well. I say this as the both the parent of a 2E kid, and as a special educator who specializes in kids with ID.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're in DC and have been time that MoCo has a good 2e program by enough people that I was contemplating a move.

It used to, but has been gutted. Last school year one of the GTLD programs moved from a model with small classes to throwing the kids into a Gen ed class with almost 30 kids. The special ed part was having one para for the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in DC and have been time that MoCo has a good 2e program by enough people that I was contemplating a move.

It used to, but has been gutted. Last school year one of the GTLD programs moved from a model with small classes to throwing the kids into a Gen ed class with almost 30 kids. The special ed part was having one para for the class.

+1 same for Autism Connections (formerly Aspberger’s program). Kids are in Gen Ed most of the day with some supplemental time in a separate classroom with special Ed/behavioral supports. My kid would say that they would have rather stayed in their homeschool because the Gen Ed classes were just as large and the autism program kids were ignored or othered by the Gen Ed kids in the class. It just made my kid feel bad. It also was boring as it didn’t address the academic needs of a 2e.

We ended up pulling for private.
There is no alternative in public for an at grade level kid who needs small class sizes. At least in mcps…