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Sociology article on how private schools screen out disability
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Anonymous
| This is not shocking. Only public schools are inclusive. Private school only care more about customer experience, which is ok, after all they charge big money for that. |
Anonymous
They really don't though |
Anonymous
| This is a troll post. Private schools screen for all kinds of things, ability is just one of many factors. And as a poster pointed out, huge numbers of private school kids are disabled as per extended time and other accommodations their student populations receive. If your point in this post is to oppose all forms of private education I understand that - I do not agree with that position but I do understand it. |
Anonymous
It’s more like public schools have a responsibility to deal with all-comers, with varying degrees of success. At our prior DC charter, SPED needs were pretty much the center of gravity. We understood this and were fine with it for elementary; our kids were well-supported and supplemented outside of school. Other “normal” families had a tough time, with feeling that their children were a necessity after thought. |
Anonymous
I'll push back on t his. Not the "Big 3" or any of the oft discussed swishy privates but the Diocesan Catholic High Schools offer Options programs for moderate intellectually disabled students. This is not a hs diploma but some sort of alternate track. However: it offers the traditional high school experience to a variety of kids, integrates them into the life of the school in all the other aspects and allows families to keep their siblings together. Additionally, more and more of the Diocesan Catholic grammar schools are offering a similar program at the K-8 level. So, not all private communities are excluding people or have the sole goal of college placement bragging. These programs probably couldn't happen without being underwritten by the Diocese so it is clearly a priority to offer a home and growth opportunities for all students... not exclusively the strivers. |
Anonymous
They used to do this, but it was challenged legally and now they can’t do it anymore. |
Anonymous
Religious schools have a different mission. I think this issue particularly pertains to the elite private schools. |
Anonymous
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All area privates know that they have many neurodivergent students enrolled. In fact, I know of at least two non-specialized schools that embrace the neurodiversity of their student body. Often students come to the school without a diagnosis. Children arriving in K are usually too young for effective evaluation anyway. For kids who arrive in later grades, their parents express that the child would benefit from smaller class sizes or a little more attention, but rarely speak of a known diagnosis. After enrollment, it usually takes another one to three years before a referral for a neuropsych gets made for a student with probable disability. In the several local privates where I worked, diagnosed ADHD rates were actually higher than estimates of ADHD in the general population and the public school population.
I’ve never come across a school with a stated mission of non-renewing contracts for children with disabilities. However, if a child cannot succeed with the typical curriculum and the resources the school has, then the family may be advised to look elsewhere. In many cases, these are students whose manifestation of disability is more severe or students who have multiple diagnoses. While I have certainly seen teachers and administrators become frustrated while communicating with families, they don’t counsel families out because of malice or deliberate prejudice. In my experience (which is perhaps different from others’) there is genuine concern that the student is not adequately advancing academically and the school has not been able to find effective intervention despite multiple attempts at accommodation and remediation. For children who cannot work independently and on grade level, even public schools struggle to provide adequate resources. Still, they have more special education staff than privates—co-teachers, paraeducators, speech-language pathologists, reading specialists, ELL teachers, math specialists. Some districts have specialized schools or centers within schools to accommodate certain disabilities. Yet, publics often fail to meet the needs of blind, deaf, severely dyslexic, and emotionally disturbed children. These conditions are part of what drive the lawsuits against DCPS to get private placement for disabled students. |
Anonymous
| This doesn’t surprise me. Kent School (prestigious boarding school) told me 20 years ago that they “couldn’t” accept me because they didn’t think they could support my math-focused learning disability. Myself and my parents really appreciated the honesty. Ended up at another boarding school that was amazing for me. |
Anonymous
| I think one of the main drivers is that it simply costs more money, and more organizational efforts and focus, to provide an education to kids with certain kinds of disabilities. It’s simply a different service that those kids may need, and the school may not want to provide it, including because the costs are then distributed among the other parents who are essentially the schools clients. Personally, I think there are lots of ways in which some students cost more to educate than others, but certainly if you look at public schools, the cost per pupil per students with certain kinds of disabilities is quite disproportionate. And that sense it doesn’t surprise me that the system would provide for the general public to support these higher costs through taxes in public schools, rather than having smaller groups of parents and private institutions cover that financial burden. Of course we could take a different approach as a matter of public policy, and have the government make payments to private schools or taking on these additional costs, but that would be also problematic in many ways. |
Anonymous
| This is pretty much why private schools exist, so I'm not surprised. |
Anonymous
Yes - it’s hardly about screening out disabled students in particular. It’s about screening out most types of people and families, disabled kids just being one of sort on the outside. |
Anonymous
Religious schools like Sidwell Friends, National Presbyterian School, St. Albans? |
Anonymous
Most awful comment on DCUM I’ve read in a while. You’re horrible. |
Anonymous
Why? If they did not meet the same standards shouldn’t that be made clear? |