s/o can you tell me about your child getting kicked out of Maddux?

[Anonymous]

Kids with behavioral challenges get kicked out of almost every special ed school. A child at my son's school was kicked out of Ivymount for very ASD behaviors, and I thought they were supposed to be the gold standard.

[Anonymous]

Now that is shocking. I thought they were a school of last resort, for very impaired kids. If that happens what the hell are you supposed to do? The poor parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am one of the posters who had a kid kicked out of Maddux. I know other families who were as well. My goal, in telling people that his happened, is to dispel the myth that Maddux is a cure-all for everyone, as was its reputation when I first started hanging out on this board. People seemed to think that if your kid got in they would fix him. I know I felt this way. They are well meaning people at Maddux but they are overstretched and they are not able to deal with all behaviors or needs. I just want people to be realistic about expectations. My guess is that 1-2 kids are asked to leave every year (that's totally a guess) so not a lot but it hurts tremendously when it happens because you put so much faith in these people and if they can't help him what does that say about the kid's potential for improvement in general. Some of us were asked not to return for the following year, some were asked to leave mid-year.

I find this to be really sad!
Our son was kicked out of regular preschools and offered public preschool with a group of professionals that horrified us (unnurturing, critical).
There was no Maddux back then.
Our son was pretty severe - total hyper nonverbal autistic kid with crazy tons of obsessions . Still he was a happy kid and when we tried meds for him he was not. So, we homeschooled him with no meds and worked to broaden his horizons with many activities and experiences.
Remarkably he DID calm down - as a teen now he is a calm, happy and sweet natured guy who participates in many activities (including playing a musical instrument in recitals and many sports). Still nonverbal (but he signs).
If we could do this at home it could be done in a school as well if they just adapt things to him. It's disappointing that there seem to be no special schools to take kids who REALLY need a special school and to give them what they need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now that is shocking. I thought they were a school of last resort, for very impaired kids. If that happens what the hell are you supposed to do? The poor parents.

Yeah - that's the rub - the whole time I was homeschooling my crazy impaired son people (with no actual knowledge ) would always say ''there are programs for that you know' so you doubt yourself. But really no - no there are not programs for him. Lots of programs for higher functioning less difficult kids, not so much for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now that is shocking. I thought they were a school of last resort, for very impaired kids. If that happens what the hell are you supposed to do? The poor parents.

Not true, really. They are very selective about who they take and the kids are ones they do take are impacted but not that severely and the staff is sure they can do well very quickly with their help with their environment and specific level of support. There is a whole community of other schools that are for children who are more impaired and may take more time. But I'm also in shock that they would accept a kid and then ask the child to leave. I would think that once they had a child in their system they would do everything they possibly could.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we were there it seemed to be one kid a year who was asked to leave, or not return the next year, always because of disruptive behavior that just proved to be unmanageable. They are very patient and good at what they do, but are not set up for kids who need a ton of 1:1 support. So I think you should ask yourself whether your kid can, with whatever medication intervention you are willing to provide, sit in a chair and perform classroom work most of the time. If he cannot help himself from jumping up and running around the room frequently, or from hitting other kids, then Maddux probably isn't going to be a good fit. There are plenty of kids with ADHD there (including ours) but the ADHD is either mild enough or well controlled enough with medication that they can function in a 15 person classroom with two teachers reasonably well.

What makes this hard, I think, is that there are a lot of kids who aren't doing well in their current big public school classrooms who turn out to do much better at Maddux--because the teacher/student ratio is better, because the teachers are better trained, and because they are meaningfully included in classroom activities rather than on the periphery. So sometimes they take a hopeful chance on a kid that doesn't end up working out. I don't think that's a bad thing. It wouldn't be good if they were much more cautious and didn't take chances. it just means (as PPs have said) that they are not perfect and not a panacea for everybody. Still, I believe they are going to make a better educated guess about whether it makes sense to try than you can. When I first visited I thought it would be a real stretch for them to take our son, because the kids and the classroom environment just seemed more orderly and capable than he was at that time. And I worried that they would decide they had made a mistake--especially when we took him off, for a time, the stimulant meds that he had been on for his evaluation visit. Over time it became clear that I was wrong, and that in that environment our DS was actually right at their sweet spot.

Why in the heck are they having special/ADHD preschool kids sitting in a chair 'most of the time' performing school work?
Geez - don't tell me you're considering this as a school for your kid are you OP?

Could you not send him to an active nursery school where they are mostly outside with a 1-1 aide?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that is shocking. I thought they were a school of last resort, for very impaired kids. If that happens what the hell are you supposed to do? The poor parents.

Yeah - that's the rub - the whole time I was homeschooling my crazy impaired son people (with no actual knowledge ) would always say ''there are programs for that you know' so you doubt yourself. But really no - no there are not programs for him. Lots of programs for higher functioning less difficult kids, not so much for him.

I think it's just really rare to find an institution that truly believes that their job is teaching children AS THEY ARE. When you find a rare teacher or program like that, it's like gold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that is shocking. I thought they were a school of last resort, for very impaired kids. If that happens what the hell are you supposed to do? The poor parents.

Yeah - that's the rub - the whole time I was homeschooling my crazy impaired son people (with no actual knowledge ) would always say ''there are programs for that you know' so you doubt yourself. But really no - no there are not programs for him. Lots of programs for higher functioning less difficult kids, not so much for him.

I think it's just really rare to find an institution that truly believes that their job is teaching children AS THEY ARE. When you find a rare teacher or program like that, it's like gold.

We never found that for our son. We just found endless stress in people trying to fit our 'years away from being able to sit' kid into the 'sit at circle time every day at 3 years old' world. He can now happily sit for an hour long music (and academic) lessons - who cares if he couldn't sit for circle time at 3 ? Or for years after that.
We're (his parents) scientists and not teachers and I'm sure that helped keep things in perspective. I think it made adapting things for a particular kid - and not going by a script - easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now that is shocking. I thought they were a school of last resort, for very impaired kids. If that happens what the hell are you supposed to do? The poor parents.

My child (who was placed at a special needs school by a public school system) was rejected by Ivymount as well even though his behavioral problems were ASD-driven (elopement, poor social skills, severe anxiety). They wouldn't even meet with him, just rejected him based on the file the school system sent.

[Anonymous]

I think PP meant that when seated for work, a child is most of the time able to participate... not that they are sitting most of the time. I know... I have a child there.

The Maddux kids get plenty of movement, way more than public school kids. But it's not a free-for-all. The child has to be able to do regular, grade-level classwork. This means that there will be some sitting involved. The child has to be able, for the most part, to sit and not be disruptive.

So, if a child cannot perform to that level, it's not the school for them. This is not a negative judgement on the child or family. It's just that the school has a profile that they are set up to work with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that is shocking. I thought they were a school of last resort, for very impaired kids. If that happens what the hell are you supposed to do? The poor parents.

My child (who was placed at a special needs school by a public school system) was rejected by Ivymount as well even though his behavioral problems were ASD-driven (elopement, poor social skills, severe anxiety). They wouldn't even meet with him, just rejected him based on the file the school system sent.

What did you end up doing? Where did you child go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think PP meant that when seated for work, a child is most of the time able to participate... not that they are sitting most of the time. I know... I have a child there.

The Maddux kids get plenty of movement, way more than public school kids. But it's not a free-for-all. The child has to be able to do regular, grade-level classwork. This means that there will be some sitting involved. The child has to be able, for the most part, to sit and not be disruptive.

So, if a child cannot perform to that level, it's not the school for them. This is not a negative judgement on the child or family. It's just that the school has a profile that they are set up to work with.

Yes thanks, I'm the PP and that is exactly what I meant. There is plenty of movement time and tons of participatory activities and a huge arts and music focus at Maddux, but also an appropriate amount of seated academic work. They are trying to fill an important unmet need for the group of kids who are reasonably close to being able to succeed in a more mainstream school environment (and often have succeeded, academically at least) and may just need some help building skills for a few years. That's their mission, and why the school ends after second grade. It's an essential part of that mission that the kids experience something pretty close to a typical school day and classroom environment, just with more supports. And they deliberately fade the supports in second grade to help prepare kids for the transition to new schools. That isn't a good formula for every kid. It was perfect for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that is shocking. I thought they were a school of last resort, for very impaired kids. If that happens what the hell are you supposed to do? The poor parents.

My child (who was placed at a special needs school by a public school system) was rejected by Ivymount as well even though his behavioral problems were ASD-driven (elopement, poor social skills, severe anxiety). They wouldn't even meet with him, just rejected him based on the file the school system sent.

What did you end up doing? Where did you child go?

The school system gave us 3 options, including Ivymount. He ended up at Phillips in Annandale for 2 years (the third choice would be too much information but it was in Fairfax and a complete non-starter and honestly, I'm shocked FCPS sends kids there), now we are homeschooling, which is not ideal either.

[Anonymous]

Op here - my kid is on target academically and ca sit and learn but he has severe ADHD and impulsivity. He's actually the exact child they claim to cater to who will not receive services in public school but needs help, but, big but, I'm fairly sure he's too impulsive for them. It's tough. Also most of the children there need to be drawn out more. That is not at all what my kid needs. Things to think about.

[Anonymous]

My son was rejected for k. He has severe ADHD. He has no trouble sitting for circle time at preschool or preferred activities but has trouble sitting for non-preferred activities like writing. So maybe they don't think your son's ADHD would impact him.