DC charter school for 3rd grader w/IEP for ADHD, sensory processing, social skills - and gifted

[Anonymous]

DC bilingual is off the red-line so an easy commute from NOMA (assuming the red-line ever works again)

[Anonymous]

Inspired Teaching has been a good fit for our child fitting that description. That said, it took our kid four years of playing the lottery to get in. And there is no gifted program or substantial differentiation.

[Anonymous]

OP you need to figure out if your child does indeed have high functioning autism. "Sensory issues" are a symptom, not a diagnosis in and of itself; it could be anxiety or autism or something else.

I say this because if your child DOES have HFA, there are HFA programs in both Arlington and DC. Your child's IEP can be whatever you need it to be, but you need a diagnosis that makes the challenges clear.

Figure out what your child really needs, get a better IEP and then figure out whether a move makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume you know that in DC, unlike in Virginia, there are no programs for gifted children in DC schools at all - charter or public.

The odds of getting into Two Rivers or even most charters at 3rd via the lottery are really small -- you'd have to get an amazing lottery pick. It can happen though.

I recommend gong and visiting a half dozen schools you would consider, and asking questions about how they differentiate the curriculum for advanced learners, and support students with ADHD.

Then enter the lottery and see what happens.

Look at historical data - 3rd grade is going to be close to hopeless for a lottery school. Unless you are comfortable in your IB school (is it Wheatley?) then I would be very hesitant to move. Talk to Wheatley, though! They have a great principal.

https://public.tableau.com/profile/aaron2446#!/vizhome/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. Forgot to reply to this - our IB school is JO Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume you know that in DC, unlike in Virginia, there are no programs for gifted children in DC schools at all - charter or public.

The odds of getting into Two Rivers or even most charters at 3rd via the lottery are really small -- you'd have to get an amazing lottery pick. It can happen though.

I recommend gong and visiting a half dozen schools you would consider, and asking questions about how they differentiate the curriculum for advanced learners, and support students with ADHD.

Then enter the lottery and see what happens.

Look at historical data - 3rd grade is going to be close to hopeless for a lottery school. Unless you are comfortable in your IB school (is it Wheatley?) then I would be very hesitant to move. Talk to Wheatley, though! They have a great principal.

https://public.tableau.com/profile/aaron2446#!/vizhome/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. Forgot to reply to this - our IB school is JO Wilson.

I would not absolutely not choose some of the charters people are mentioning here over JO Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given the rarity of 3rd grade spots I would look at those which have a good number of K openings. I also would really check out a Montessori program - we are at one, and it's definitely all about "follow the child" and independent work. I think in upper elementary it's a bit different but a good teacher could be awesome for him. That said, I have no idea if any of the montessori charters in DC accept at that grade, given that they like kids to grow up in the model. The schools to look up are: Lee, Shining Stars, Breakthrough (but I think they haven't got a 3rd grade yet), Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan.

It's going to be a long shot to get something better suited than what you have, definitely try and talk to parents of kids at the upper grades in these schools. You may want to look into Creative Minds and Bridges which are known to have programming for special needs, though they may not handle gifted well.

It's off your commute path - but for 3rd, you could also legitimately try to lottery into Mann school - while they don't have a 'gifted' program, they have a strong experience with lots of very high performing kids and have figured out a way to accommodate more off the books differentiation and challenges for kids than most schools...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume you know that in DC, unlike in Virginia, there are no programs for gifted children in DC schools at all - charter or public.

The odds of getting into Two Rivers or even most charters at 3rd via the lottery are really small -- you'd have to get an amazing lottery pick. It can happen though.

I recommend gong and visiting a half dozen schools you would consider, and asking questions about how they differentiate the curriculum for advanced learners, and support students with ADHD.

Then enter the lottery and see what happens.

Look at historical data - 3rd grade is going to be close to hopeless for a lottery school. Unless you are comfortable in your IB school (is it Wheatley?) then I would be very hesitant to move. Talk to Wheatley, though! They have a great principal.

https://public.tableau.com/profile/aaron2446#!/vizhome/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. Forgot to reply to this - our IB school is JO Wilson.

Really? I haven't looked into it yet. It's good?

I would not absolutely not choose some of the charters people are mentioning here over JO Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume you know that in DC, unlike in Virginia, there are no programs for gifted children in DC schools at all - charter or public.

The odds of getting into Two Rivers or even most charters at 3rd via the lottery are really small -- you'd have to get an amazing lottery pick. It can happen though.

I recommend gong and visiting a half dozen schools you would consider, and asking questions about how they differentiate the curriculum for advanced learners, and support students with ADHD.

Then enter the lottery and see what happens.

Look at historical data - 3rd grade is going to be close to hopeless for a lottery school. Unless you are comfortable in your IB school (is it Wheatley?) then I would be very hesitant to move. Talk to Wheatley, though! They have a great principal.

https://public.tableau.com/profile/aaron2446#!/vizhome/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. Forgot to reply to this - our IB school is JO Wilson.

Really? I haven't looked into it yet. It's good?

I would not absolutely not choose some of the charters people are mentioning here over JO Wilson.

It wouldn't be considered one of the top schools in the city, but given the challenges facing its population (more than 60% eligible for free or reduced price lunch), the test scores are pretty good. Compare it head to head with the charters you are thinking of before ruling it out, and especially before moving. Because chances are that is where you will end up for at least one of your children.

[Anonymous]

I have 3 friends that left JO for Inspired Teaching. 2 have kids with IEP and very happy.

[Anonymous]

I came as a teacher from the suburbs. I never thought my old district was that great--they did ok but weren't making any top ten lists. Switched to DCPS when I moved to DC and it is a HOT MESS. You can't even compare the functioning of DCPS to a sub-par surburban district. Individual schools have their act together but as a district, it's pretty bad. So just be aware that disfunction and confusion is the norm here.

[Anonymous]

I have a kid with similar issues and have been pretty happy at one of the immersion charters that feeds to DC International. I would 100 percent take Inspired Teaching over JO Wilson or probably any DCPS as I do not trust DCPS and its awful reputation with IEPs. Know many families at Inspired including some with IEPs and they’re all pretty happy. Nothing is perfect of course but complaints are minor.

Our own experience with the IEP is that the team is cooperative and we get pretty much what we ask for in terms of support. And the program is truly individual as opposed to in the subdued where kid would be in the X program or the Y program. From reading the Special Needs boards on DCUM I feel lucky to be in my charter rather than the suburbs at least for elementary.

[Anonymous]

Suburbs, not subdued.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what's the zoned school for the house?

if your kids are getting IEP services for sensory processing and being "emotional" it sounds like you must be in a place that has good services. not clear why you would want to take chances on charter lottery.

I'm surprised Arlington has IEPs for preK4 ... I didn't realize there were public preK4 programs for mild disabilities. I would reconsider moving.

Fyi, every jurisdiction has IEPs for 4 year olds (and 3 year olds) because it's required by federal law. Some jurisdictions, like DC, have universal PK and so can serve kids within that system. Other jurisdictions have public PK just for kids with disabilities (and sometimes typically developing peers, who either pay or are part of headstart). Those jurisdictions have to have a range of programming to serve a range of disabilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what's the zoned school for the house?

if your kids are getting IEP services for sensory processing and being "emotional" it sounds like you must be in a place that has good services. not clear why you would want to take chances on charter lottery.

I'm surprised Arlington has IEPs for preK4 ... I didn't realize there were public preK4 programs for mild disabilities. I would reconsider moving.

Fyi, every jurisdiction has IEPs for 4 year olds (and 3 year olds) because it's required by federal law. Some jurisdictions, like DC, have universal PK and so can serve kids within that system. Other jurisdictions have public PK just for kids with disabilities (and sometimes typically developing peers, who either pay or are part of headstart). Those jurisdictions have to have a range of programming to serve a range of disabilities.

OP here - just to clarify, our 4yo is at a private preschool (no free preschool here!) but the County still approved him for an IEP. As far as I understood, by law they have to support preschool-aged kids. What his IEP entails is that a school psychologist comes to his preschool 2 mornings a week for 30-45 min to work with him on emotional control. I do feel lucky for this but he's made such good progress in the past year that it's looking like he won't need it in a year.

[Anonymous]

JO Wilson's previous principal was quite good on special ed issues; they have a new principal this year so it's hard to know if that will continue. The school psychologist a few years ago was terrible but I don't know if she's still there.

I liked a lot of things about it for an upper grade student, including the level of contact the teachers had with parents. It is more ethnically and economically diverse in the younger grades. One thing that was hard if your kid is sensitive to noise is that they often gather multiple grades in the cafeteria for breakfast and a morning meeting and it is loud. You may want to build an alternative into the IEP like having pull-outs first thing and going to that room, or going to the main office, or dropping the kid off a few minutes later and directly to the classroom. JOW is not as fancy as schools in upper NW (or Brent, Maury, or School Within School) but I think it's well above average for DCPS.