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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
Churchill Getting a New Principal
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Anonymous
It depends on the issue. If it relates to an assignment, I first try to have my child email a teacher. If my child is having difficulty receiving accommodations, I will email the teacher directly because by the time I find out there’s a problem, there’s a paper trail to cause concern. A few times, a teacher has emailed back that my child doesn’t need XYZ even though XYZ is on a 504 plan, that will get an email to the principal. Accessing accommodations has been a continuous struggle for my child at Churchill. For my child in college, receiving accommodations was much easier in a large university than at Churchill. I don’t know if teachers forget who have 504 plans and IEPs or if they just didn’t care of the impact it causes a child when accommodations were not provided. I hope the new Principal makes improvements for compliance at Churchill. |
Anonymous
| Any updates? Really disappointing that Dr. Moran has not sent a message to the community. It goes to show how much he supported Churchill over the past 3 years. He comes in for a crisis and disappears before problems are fixed. |
Anonymous
The new principal will be appointed at the July 15th board meeting. I wouldn't expect to hear any updates until then. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
MCPS has many problems with Section 504, ADA, and IDEA compliance. Yes, it stems from Central Office and their desire to litigate versus teach students with disabilities. However, I know parents at Walter Johnson who are happy with special education services so I do think leadership at the school level can improve the outcome for students with disabilities. I’ve been a parent at Churchill before Heckert, and while compliance wasn’t great under Benz and bullying of students with disabilities was awful, the disorganization and lack of implementing plans has definitely gotten worse. Mrs. Heckert did not have a clue as to the rights of students with disabilities and the impact of not providing accommodations and services. Heckert didn’t supervise staff to address issues of compliance, especially during online learning. Without retraining and/or reorganizing staff underneath the principal not much will change to help students with disabilities at Churchill. Hopefully the new principal will understand Section 504, ADA, and IDEA to make needed adjustments. Otherwise discrimination against students with disabilities will continue at Churchill. I’m not sure if Central Office understands what Churchill is doing to limit the opportunities for students with disabilities or if Central Office just doesn’t care. Many in Central Office have been complicit in letting problems continue at Churchill instead of intervening to help students. High school is only four years so for the majority of students with disabilities who have attended Churchill under Heckert, time for them ran out. |
Anonymous
| Have the interviews happened for the position? |
Anonymous
It’s sad that DCUM is the only source for an update on the principal search. Per the last communication from Dr. Moran, interviews were supposed to have taken place July 18th. We know that didn’t happen because MCPS took a holiday that day. It’s amazing to me how part of Dr. McNight’s 100 days goal is to re-engage communities but her staff underneath her does not provide updates to the community. Perhaps Dr. McNight could visit the community and provide us an update since her subordinates are dropping the ball. |
Anonymous
| Who doesn’t have a 504 plan at Churchill? |
Anonymous
A PP posted that the interviews had been rescheduled to July 1st. |
Anonymous
It’s actually hard a Churchill to get a 504 plan or IEP. For our family, we were told my child did not have a disability because my child had passing grades. A private evaluation gathered the data that proved otherwise. Beyond that, there’s little follow up with the services and supports Churchill says they will provide a student with disabilities. Online learning magnified this problem exponentially. Teachers were very vocal that they couldn’t support my child’s needs online but nothing was done to come up with alternative supports. We were told to wait for compensatory services. Now we are being told to wait till December 2021 for a meeting to discuss compensatory services. A good chunk of students will have graduated or be close to graduating by then. Finally, a student’s disability is supposed to drive supports and services. However, students with disabilities are led into inappropriate pull out placements at Churchill as a matter of convenience for the school but one that doesn’t meet the needs of the student. As a result students are not taught independent skills but a reliance on the adults around them. It’s a system of learned helplessness that limits educational access to honors and AP classes solely so students can access their supports. Central Office needs to do more to train staff on their responsibilities for students with disabilities. Hopefully a new principal will bring a new perspective. However, the new principal is walking into a disaster that the previous staff created. |
Anonymous
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Central Office has proven that more resources go to less socio economic schools. Compare Churchill cluster schools with other clusters. The less the resources, the more restrictive the opportunities for students with disabilities to get the services and supports they need.
Then there’s the lack of understanding and discriminatory bias that runs through some administrators in the cluster. Hoover is a prime example. If it takes Churchill to identify a child with a disability, the whole pipeline leading up to Churchill failed to evaluate a child and meet that child’s needs. There is a tendency from K-12 to pass along a child till that child becomes someone else’s problem. Just like the racial problems in the cluster, discrimination of students with disabilities is an issue through out the cluster. Early intervention is best. Staffing has long been neglected in the cluster. Staff need training to understand 504 Plans and IEPs because if they don’t follow them, students are denied opportunities solely because of their disabilities. That is systemic discrimination. |
Anonymous
You are cleary new to/don't understand the long/laborious/bureaucratic process. First meeting is for an IEP. If your child is "on grade level," the meeting is over pretty quickly, and feels like a waste of time, but it is part of the process. Next meeting is for 504, which you will probably get approved based on your post. Just push for it to happen sooner. And before it happens, talk to other parents with 504s, or an advocate, so you can learn about how the system/process works. -parent with a child with a 504 who went through the same thing and found it frustrating |
Anonymous
On grade level should have no real bearing on an IEP. |
Anonymous
+1 There’s all type of falsehoods told to parents at 504 and IEP meetings at Churchill. Churchill wants to exclude students from supports and services instead of meeting the needs of students. Before the initial 504 or IEP meeting, get a private evaluation so you have data for the diagnosis and the supports your child needs. Start private supports because even with data, Churchill will drag out the process and probably deny support. For an IEP - it’s a really long road to actually writing the IEP. First meeting is a screening meeting. Do they suspect a disability. That is where the team will argue that your child is passing and therefore does not qualify. This is a total violation of the IDEA, so ask the team to write their response in the “Prior Written Notice”. You present your private evaluation with data that shows the educational impact of the disability. If they don’t go forward to next meeting, file a State Complaint with the team’s Prior Written Notice and your private evaluation. If the team decides to go forward, the next meeting is when the team reviews any tests that they did and your private evaluation. Carefully consider what they want to test for. If you have a private evaluation, there is nothing that they need to test your child for and they will skew the results to their objective - contradict the private evaluation and exclude your child from services. My advice, do not ever consent for Churchill to evaluate your child. If they say they need more data, ask them to put in the Prior Written Notice your request for a Private Evaluation at Public Expense with your explanation that you believe your private evaluation is comprehensive and enough. Then comes writing the IEP at Churchill. This is not done at the meeting. Even though you may receive a copy before the IEP meeting, anything you want changed will probably not be included. There’s a specific part on the IEP for parental input which ours was left empty. Read through the IEP entirely before you sign it. You probably will find errors so ask in writing for a new IEP meeting to fix the mistakes. It’s better for your child to get the errors fixed vs. signing a bad IEP. Be prepared to continue private services and track whether or not Churchill provides the services on the IEP. Keep a calendar at home. If missed services become excessive, ask in writing for another IEP meeting to ask why the services are not being provided. Ask for compensatory services to make up for the services. File a State Complaint if Churchill doesn’t provide compensatory services. Special education absolutely sucks at Churchill. By my post, you see the process is designed to be adversarial and if you work, you constantly have to take off time for school meetings. The focus is not the needs of the child, so if you can afford it, your child might do better at a private school where supports are easier to get and pay for private services. |
Anonymous
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If you think the process of getting an IEP or 504 Plan is bad, just wait till your child goes into a classroom with either of these documents. My child actually had teachers that said that they didn’t agree with the document so they weren’t going to provide certain accommodations. Where was their input when writing the IEP?
Many Churchill teachers treat students with disabilities as a burden. They seem to think they can pick and choose what they have to implement. Not sure if there is going to be much change with a new principal but under Mrs. Heckert, there were a lot of problems with staff she never addressed. |