APS elementary schools and special needs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:by "increase capacity" I meant increasing the number of reading specialists who can conduct small group remediation for those who need direct instruction.

by "hateful" I mean I was yelled at and my child was horribly mistreated and was allowed to be bullied. When I complained about my SN child coming home bloody after being jumped by two kids, for the second time, she said it was the SN child's fault.

That's the worst story but I also had a mom/volunteer from the school call me to tell me about unacceptable behavior that she witnessed.

And, there's quite a few family who have experienced similar. My child goes to another school now and while McK says bulling isn't allowed, at the school my kids at, bullying is just not accepted at all and the "victim" is never blamed. The perpetrator's behavior by other classmates, administration and teachers and changed.

Oh my gosh, this is horrendous. How can this person have been promoted?

Did you report this to anyone outside of McKinley?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:by "increase capacity" I meant increasing the number of reading specialists who can conduct small group remediation for those who need direct instruction.

I can't speak to the rest of your post, and am sorry to hear it, but FWIW this is not a decision at the school level. APS has defined ratios in terms of how many specialists are assigned based on the population size of a school. No principal can just decide to add a reading specialist, or art teacher, or math coach. Those decisions are at the system level.

Exactly!! That is why a school with 800 kids is not a good choice. The same number of specialists are assigned to other schools with much fewer kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:by "increase capacity" I meant increasing the number of reading specialists who can conduct small group remediation for those who need direct instruction.

I can't speak to the rest of your post, and am sorry to hear it, but FWIW this is not a decision at the school level. APS has defined ratios in terms of how many specialists are assigned based on the population size of a school. No principal can just decide to add a reading specialist, or art teacher, or math coach. Those decisions are at the system level.

+1. Staffing levels are determined by central administration and while principals can request additional staffing based on extenuating circumstances, those requests are rarely granted and are only granted for a single year at a time.

Thank you and that is my point. Due to McK's overcrowding, some students aren't being served. Leaders need to demand more of what the population needs (more reading specialists for example) rather than act like they've "got it covered" because they don't. APS can improve and think it is in some ways, but has a way to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:by "increase capacity" I meant increasing the number of reading specialists who can conduct small group remediation for those who need direct instruction.

I can't speak to the rest of your post, and am sorry to hear it, but FWIW this is not a decision at the school level. APS has defined ratios in terms of how many specialists are assigned based on the population size of a school. No principal can just decide to add a reading specialist, or art teacher, or math coach. Those decisions are at the system level.

+1. Staffing levels are determined by central administration and while principals can request additional staffing based on extenuating circumstances, those requests are rarely granted and are only granted for a single year at a time.

Thank you and that is my point. Due to McK's overcrowding, some students aren't being served. Leaders need to demand more of what the population needs (more reading specialists for example) rather than act like they've "got it covered" because they don't. APS can improve and think it is in some ways, but has a way to go.

I generally agree with you, but I think sometimes we blame school-level administrators more than they deserve. We don't know what they may be pushing for with central administration, and without more resources they can only do so much. When parents respond to insufficient hours and other supports by blaming the school-level administration rather than pushing central administration to increase SpEd staffing, I think that tends to make things worse because it gives central administration an excuse to blame the school admin when a complaint comes in rather than evaluate whether they're providing enough resources to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:by "increase capacity" I meant increasing the number of reading specialists who can conduct small group remediation for those who need direct instruction.

I can't speak to the rest of your post, and am sorry to hear it, but FWIW this is not a decision at the school level. APS has defined ratios in terms of how many specialists are assigned based on the population size of a school. No principal can just decide to add a reading specialist, or art teacher, or math coach. Those decisions are at the system level.

+1. Staffing levels are determined by central administration and while principals can request additional staffing based on extenuating circumstances, those requests are rarely granted and are only granted for a single year at a time.

Thank you and that is my point. Due to McK's overcrowding, some students aren't being served. Leaders need to demand more of what the population needs (more reading specialists for example) rather than act like they've "got it covered" because they don't. APS can improve and think it is in some ways, but has a way to go.

I generally agree with you, but I think sometimes we blame school-level administrators more than they deserve. We don't know what they may be pushing for with central administration, and without more resources they can only do so much. When parents respond to insufficient hours and other supports by blaming the school-level administration rather than pushing central administration to increase SpEd staffing, I think that tends to make things worse because it gives central administration an excuse to blame the school admin when a complaint comes in rather than evaluate whether they're providing enough resources to the school.

This. Let's break it down.

1. Schools grow too big. Staffing is set b/c APS at Syphax didn't really plan for anything over 725. Even at 725, they didn't realize how much more of a resource strain that was than 650.

2. School admin requests more staff to make up for student needs.

3. Syphax tells schools to make it work. They stress all the cuts that already happened and that they have nothing to give. School admin is stuck looking like the bad guy when they can't get more people and they can't throw their employer under the bus.

4. Parents get mad at school staff, whose hands are tied. Parents should go to Syphax and SB members and demand that the outdated ratios can't be the end-all-be-all and that some schools/grades have greater need.

[Anonymous]

Want to add- even when schools are authorized to add sped staff- it takes time to locate and hire them. There aren’t long lines of sped teachers and assistants lined up for jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Want to add- even when schools are authorized to add sped staff- it takes time to locate and hire them. There aren’t long lines of sped teachers and assistants lined up for jobs.

Half of the open assistant positions are for sped. assistants and several schools need sped teachers. Once teachers sign on for the year, they can't switch schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Want to add- even when schools are authorized to add sped staff- it takes time to locate and hire them. There aren’t long lines of sped teachers and assistants lined up for jobs.

+1. Further, the universe of providers is smaller than people may think and word gets around. If, for instance, a whole slew of parents were to file complaints against a school's SpEd program, do you think it might affect people's willingness to fill SpEd vacancies in that school the next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:by "increase capacity" I meant increasing the number of reading specialists who can conduct small group remediation for those who need direct instruction.

I can't speak to the rest of your post, and am sorry to hear it, but FWIW this is not a decision at the school level. APS has defined ratios in terms of how many specialists are assigned based on the population size of a school. No principal can just decide to add a reading specialist, or art teacher, or math coach. Those decisions are at the system level.

Exactly!! That is why a school with 800 kids is not a good choice. The same number of specialists are assigned to other schools with much fewer kids.

Thank you to the poster who posted the ratio PDF. I wish I had the time to work for these changes. One teacher asked 3 times to have a child put into reading pull-outs and was denied. Another sped teacher, after mid-year pals, had her small pull-out group double and progress stopped for all. This is clearly not enough. Maybe I should go get a sped credential. I could get paid and tutor my own child with competence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Want to add- even when schools are authorized to add sped staff- it takes time to locate and hire them. There aren’t long lines of sped teachers and assistants lined up for jobs.

This is true in every district I have ever worked in. Good sped teachers and assistants will always be able to find jobs and there are still plenty of vacancies for crappy ones too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ashlawn and Patrick Henry and Long Branch have the best reputation for special needs. McKinley and Nottingham have the worst, although I've heard they are trying to improve that this year.

Have heard that about Nottingham. Will look into the others. I know I've seen threads on Ashlawn being good for special needs, but have also seen recent threads on huge class sizes - but that's not an issue?

Thoughts on Tuckahoe? Taylor? Discovery?

We had great experience in Discovery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APS gets a lot of criticism for its special education services, but I'm not sure it's all deserved. I know of two cases in the past few years where people who were unhappy with the special education services in APS elementary schools that get particular heat here moved to other counties in part because they thought special education would be better. One family now has their kids in private school and the other family is homeschooling because the services they got in those other systems were actually worse than APS. None of that means APS gets it all right, but I don't know of any school systems that get it all right when it comes to special education.

Agree we moved from FCPS to APS while the system is not perfect I do think its better than FCPS. In FCPS they changed my kid SN pre school without telling me and I only knew when the new teacher emailed me. The new bus ride was 40 minutes and then they complained that my kid misbehave in the bus. We couldn't get them to a dress the root causes of the issues instead they added hours for someone to be with him. APS had been much better for us, while its not perfect, they listens, communicates well and I got all the services my kid need so far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:by "increase capacity" I meant increasing the number of reading specialists who can conduct small group remediation for those who need direct instruction.

I can't speak to the rest of your post, and am sorry to hear it, but FWIW this is not a decision at the school level. APS has defined ratios in terms of how many specialists are assigned based on the population size of a school. No principal can just decide to add a reading specialist, or art teacher, or math coach. Those decisions are at the system level.

Exactly!! That is why a school with 800 kids is not a good choice. The same number of specialists are assigned to other schools with much fewer kids.

Thank you to the poster who posted the ratio PDF. I wish I had the time to work for these changes. One teacher asked 3 times to have a child put into reading pull-outs and was denied. Another sped teacher, after mid-year pals, had her small pull-out group double and progress stopped for all. This is clearly not enough. Maybe I should go get a sped credential. I could get paid and tutor my own child with competence.

So you are admitting the problem is not the teachers, it's the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our team at Arlington Science Focus School is amazing.

I know people love to disparage ASFS but I couldn't be happier.

I totally agree. Was nervous because I knew nothing about the program but it is amazing and exceeding my expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:by "increase capacity" I meant increasing the number of reading specialists who can conduct small group remediation for those who need direct instruction.

by "hateful" I mean I was yelled at and my child was horribly mistreated and was allowed to be bullied. When I complained about my SN child coming home bloody after being jumped by two kids, for the second time, she said it was the SN child's fault.

That's the worst story but I also had a mom/volunteer from the school call me to tell me about unacceptable behavior that she witnessed.

And, there's quite a few family who have experienced similar. My child goes to another school now and while McK says bulling isn't allowed, at the school my kids at, bullying is just not accepted at all and the "victim" is never blamed. The perpetrator's behavior by other classmates, administration and teachers and changed.

Oh my gosh, this is horrendous. How can this person have been promoted?

Did you report this to anyone outside of McKinley?

I still want to know if the McKinley problem was reported and WHO yelled at, mistreated you?