Moving...Which School Districts to Seek/Avoid for ASD Special Ed

[Anonymous]

OP, I am sorry to say that that in our experience, like so many other things, it is a truly individual experience. At our school in Arlington we have had a very good experience with a very similar profile, but I know other families that are just as happy and equally unhappy. I feel like as soon as I meet someone with a great experience at one school, I meet another with a bad experience at the same school, sometimes even in the same class. Our IEP experiences over the years in Arlington have varied greatly depending on who our case manager was.

[Anonymous]

I agree with pp. The only problem with shooting for a particular DC charter is they are hard to get into and if you are stuck with regular DCPS SPed services, well, they have a bad reputation. DCPS also places a lot more special ed kids in private SN schools than MD or VA which is ultimately a failure to educate and accomodate in their LRE.

The turnover for special ed staff is insane. IMO. Regular classroom teachers never seem to leave our school but the Special Ed staff seems to turnover at least 50% each year. It seems like a stopping ground while teachers wait to move on to "regular" teaching assignments. Maybe just our school.

[Anonymous]

I look at the private placement in a different way. They place more kids there because they are more flexible and willing to work with families. MCPS does this rarely but it's not because the child is succeeding but because they don't want to spend the money. Often they will let a child beyond a crisis point in their schools and the parents must spend tens of thousands on attorneys before they will consider outside options. That is not in the best interest of the child.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with pp. The only problem with shooting for a particular DC charter is they are hard to get into and if you are stuck with regular DCPS SPed services, well, they have a bad reputation. DCPS also places a lot more special ed kids in private SN schools than MD or VA which is ultimately a failure to educate and accomodate in their LRE.

The turnover for special ed staff is insane. IMO. Regular classroom teachers never seem to leave our school but the Special Ed staff seems to turnover at least 50% each year. It seems like a stopping ground while teachers wait to move on to "regular" teaching assignments. Maybe just our school.

[Anonymous]

Avoid the Churchill and Whitman cluster schools. They expect parents to have enough money to pay for private services and it's extremely hard to get an IEP without an advocate and attorney.