MCPS teachers - what would you tell parents in your class(es) if you could?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not a special education teacher but a general education teacher. From what I have seen, no one is trying to lie and hide things on purpose. The special education team at my school genuinely cares about kids and advocates for them. It just becomes impossible sometimes to provide all the supports that some students need. The staff is overwhelmed. Some iep meetings take several hours and that is just for one student. Some parents can also be unreasonable and unrealistic. Lawsuits happen frequently and cause additional stress along with an extra deluge of paperwork.

This is like saying it's impossible for me to stop at all stop signs and red lights. It slows me down, increases gas consumption, wears out brake pads. Sped is governed by a federal law. It's literally your school's admin's job to request the resources. So why bother them with that, right, it's not nice to force the admin to their job and the central to do their job? Why make noise to all these important people who allocate budgets. Instead, in your head you call it "it just becomes impossible" and poof, it's just an amorphous concept. Nobody to blame, it's just how it is. No, dude, no.

Reminds me how they said about Vietnam war in the end "Mistakes were made". Decision makers f'ed up big time, costing lives and resources, hiding their failures, etc... Buck stops somewhere, always. You're enabling people who get paid to allocate resources by pretending that no big deal is happening here.

No, for your analogy to work there would have to be 15-20 signs at every intersection. All of them are there for a reason, and all of them deserve to be followed. Good luck trying to follow all of them at once!

I'm a parent of a kid with an IEP who has had an awful time in MCPS. We have an advocate, and while that helps tremendously it doesn't change the number of staff available at school on a given day (unless you're talking about a 1:1 being part of a plan). I definitely agree there are some people who should not be teaching at all and definitely not teaching special education students. We have definitely been at schools were staff were actively being difficult to push special needs kids out. But unless you have spent time in a classroom recently, you just don't understand how thinly stretched gen ed and special ed teachers are right now. There are a lot of really good teachers who genuinely want to help every kid in their class and on their caseload and it's just not possible.

I think you are failing to grasp what I am saying. Schools (ie. admins) have to request more resources, the school district is legally obligated to provide them. These resources are based on IEP and needs (e.g. 1:1 paraeducator, increased hrs of speech or OT would necessitate allocation of SLP or OT accordingly, small group instruction would require additional staff in classrooms). This is not happening because teachers lie in IEP meetings and in IEP reporting and paperwork. It's that lie that enables the school to pretend that they don't need more para educators, more sped teachers, etc. There is a cause and effect, you see where I am going? If admin and teachers pretend something, then they don't get funding for what's really happening. This is how big classrooms and lack of staffing happens. It doesn't materialize from spare molecules. Admin and teachers create this situation. Woe is me overstretched teacher who lied in an IEP meeting pushed themselves into that corner. How they don't get it is beyond me.

NP. And what you aren't grasping is that there is no more staff to request. They can't fill the vacancies they already have, let alone filling new ones. The SLP's caseload is ALREADY too high, has been too high for years, and no help is coming, because the district posts the positions and nobody applies. Everybody knows they need more allocation; whether the teacher says honestly in an IEP meeting that they can or can't do what's being discussed, doesn't matter, because they won't get any help either way. You sound so naive and literal-minded, thinking that there's a straight line path from "teachers are honest about their needs in IEP meetings, means the district will know to hire enough staff!" Nope. They try. They can't find people. They paper the cracks with long-term subs and contractors and pulling their other providers in to cover so they're effectively working more than full time, which burns them out and causes them to quit, which exacerbates the issue. These vacancies are sitting listed in MCPS Careers for 6+ months. The first step is making special ed a job people actually want to do.

I truly believe that IDEA is past its breaking point. It's a bottomless, unfunded pit of endless entitlements. If Congress isn't going to fully fund it, they need to cap the entitlements and give IEP teams the legal ability to be honest and say no, we can't manage XYZ, the max is ABC. Not politically popular? Then fund it. The current magical thinking is breaking everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends - if they have an iep? I’d tell them that most of the services are delivered by the general Ed teacher because inclusion spec Ed teachers are stretched too thin and we spend so much time on paperwork and not with kids. I’d also tell them no matter what they “advocate for” in the iep, it doesn’t actually happen during the school day due to limited resources and time so half the time we just agree to make you go away

I’m a public school teacher who also has taught private. When I read what the teacher wrote, they were communicating that it’s the system that we work under that can lead to IEP hours not being met, which is due to understaffing, which is due to budget, which is due to policy. Also, not to mention the lack of planning time. Not meeting all the needs we all would want and aspire to is not due to people “failing” at their job. It’s the system in the US public school system that does not set up teachers for true success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not a special education teacher but a general education teacher. From what I have seen, no one is trying to lie and hide things on purpose. The special education team at my school genuinely cares about kids and advocates for them. It just becomes impossible sometimes to provide all the supports that some students need. The staff is overwhelmed. Some iep meetings take several hours and that is just for one student. Some parents can also be unreasonable and unrealistic. Lawsuits happen frequently and cause additional stress along with an extra deluge of paperwork.

This is like saying it's impossible for me to stop at all stop signs and red lights. It slows me down, increases gas consumption, wears out brake pads. Sped is governed by a federal law. It's literally your school's admin's job to request the resources. So why bother them with that, right, it's not nice to force the admin to their job and the central to do their job? Why make noise to all these important people who allocate budgets. Instead, in your head you call it "it just becomes impossible" and poof, it's just an amorphous concept. Nobody to blame, it's just how it is. No, dude, no.

Reminds me how they said about Vietnam war in the end "Mistakes were made". Decision makers f'ed up big time, costing lives and resources, hiding their failures, etc... Buck stops somewhere, always. You're enabling people who get paid to allocate resources by pretending that no big deal is happening here.

No, for your analogy to work there would have to be 15-20 signs at every intersection. All of them are there for a reason, and all of them deserve to be followed. Good luck trying to follow all of them at once!

I'm a parent of a kid with an IEP who has had an awful time in MCPS. We have an advocate, and while that helps tremendously it doesn't change the number of staff available at school on a given day (unless you're talking about a 1:1 being part of a plan). I definitely agree there are some people who should not be teaching at all and definitely not teaching special education students. We have definitely been at schools were staff were actively being difficult to push special needs kids out. But unless you have spent time in a classroom recently, you just don't understand how thinly stretched gen ed and special ed teachers are right now. There are a lot of really good teachers who genuinely want to help every kid in their class and on their caseload and it's just not possible.

I think you are failing to grasp what I am saying. Schools (ie. admins) have to request more resources, the school district is legally obligated to provide them. These resources are based on IEP and needs (e.g. 1:1 paraeducator, increased hrs of speech or OT would necessitate allocation of SLP or OT accordingly, small group instruction would require additional staff in classrooms). This is not happening because teachers lie in IEP meetings and in IEP reporting and paperwork. It's that lie that enables the school to pretend that they don't need more para educators, more sped teachers, etc. There is a cause and effect, you see where I am going? If admin and teachers pretend something, then they don't get funding for what's really happening. This is how big classrooms and lack of staffing happens. It doesn't materialize from spare molecules. Admin and teachers create this situation. Woe is me overstretched teacher who lied in an IEP meeting pushed themselves into that corner. How they don't get it is beyond me.

I’m the PP who told the TRUTH during an IEP meeting. It led to threats and accusations.

You are woefully unaware of the dire situation in schools. You act as if there’s some reserve of special Ed teachers and aides somewhere. There’s not. The remaining people in the system are being exploited and abused, forced to do far more than they were hired to do.

Your anger is misplaced. If you need to spew hate, then focus it toward the very people who caused this: policy makers. It certainly isn’t the teacher patching this nightmare together with supplies she purchased herself.

[Anonymous]

If they need more slps, they can contract out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they need more slps, they can contract out.

You’re just not listening. No they are not these hidden reserves. Not everyone slp wants to work for MCPS either. Like damn, you’re showing your refusal to listen along w ignorance proving previous posters exactly right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they need more slps, they can contract out.

Wow, brilliant idea! You should definitely suggest that to MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they need more slps, they can contract out.

For who? Will they find a hidden reserve?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not a special education teacher but a general education teacher. From what I have seen, no one is trying to lie and hide things on purpose. The special education team at my school genuinely cares about kids and advocates for them. It just becomes impossible sometimes to provide all the supports that some students need. The staff is overwhelmed. Some iep meetings take several hours and that is just for one student. Some parents can also be unreasonable and unrealistic. Lawsuits happen frequently and cause additional stress along with an extra deluge of paperwork.

This is like saying it's impossible for me to stop at all stop signs and red lights. It slows me down, increases gas consumption, wears out brake pads. Sped is governed by a federal law. It's literally your school's admin's job to request the resources. So why bother them with that, right, it's not nice to force the admin to their job and the central to do their job? Why make noise to all these important people who allocate budgets. Instead, in your head you call it "it just becomes impossible" and poof, it's just an amorphous concept. Nobody to blame, it's just how it is. No, dude, no.

Reminds me how they said about Vietnam war in the end "Mistakes were made". Decision makers f'ed up big time, costing lives and resources, hiding their failures, etc... Buck stops somewhere, always. You're enabling people who get paid to allocate resources by pretending that no big deal is happening here.

No, for your analogy to work there would have to be 15-20 signs at every intersection. All of them are there for a reason, and all of them deserve to be followed. Good luck trying to follow all of them at once!

I'm a parent of a kid with an IEP who has had an awful time in MCPS. We have an advocate, and while that helps tremendously it doesn't change the number of staff available at school on a given day (unless you're talking about a 1:1 being part of a plan). I definitely agree there are some people who should not be teaching at all and definitely not teaching special education students. We have definitely been at schools were staff were actively being difficult to push special needs kids out. But unless you have spent time in a classroom recently, you just don't understand how thinly stretched gen ed and special ed teachers are right now. There are a lot of really good teachers who genuinely want to help every kid in their class and on their caseload and it's just not possible.

I think you are failing to grasp what I am saying. Schools (ie. admins) have to request more resources, the school district is legally obligated to provide them. These resources are based on IEP and needs (e.g. 1:1 paraeducator, increased hrs of speech or OT would necessitate allocation of SLP or OT accordingly, small group instruction would require additional staff in classrooms). This is not happening because teachers lie in IEP meetings and in IEP reporting and paperwork. It's that lie that enables the school to pretend that they don't need more para educators, more sped teachers, etc. There is a cause and effect, you see where I am going? If admin and teachers pretend something, then they don't get funding for what's really happening. This is how big classrooms and lack of staffing happens. It doesn't materialize from spare molecules. Admin and teachers create this situation. Woe is me overstretched teacher who lied in an IEP meeting pushed themselves into that corner. How they don't get it is beyond me.

Neither do the people you think they can find to hire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they need more slps, they can contract out.

For who? Will they find a hidden reserve?

They can do private contracts like infant and toddler does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they need more slps, they can contract out.

For who? Will they find a hidden reserve?

They can do private contracts like infant and toddler does.

Do you understand that there is a shortage? That the few there are, may not want to work for a school division?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of middle and HS students - your kids are on their cell phones way more than you think during school despite what they tell you.
Please advocate for tougher cell phone rules in schools. Private schools are doing a much better job of enforcing cell phone rules and their kids are getting a better education because of it. Also, for high school, I don’t mind the early start but period 1 is a waste because kids are either half asleep or arrive late. If I was a high school parent I would advocate for a later high school start time. Many states have adapted to a later start time. I feel so bad for high school kids who look so tired in school but not much I can do about it.

THIS THIS THIS! I can't think of any two changes that would have a bigger impact on my students' success than this.

Honestly, the biggest advantage kids may be getting from a private school education is the ability of privates to restrict phones in the classroom.

-- public high school teacher whose child just graduated from a Catholic school.

If it were not phones it would be something else. Stop blaming phones and learn classroom management. When we grew up teachers were clear of expectations, no non sense and not trying to be our friends.

Tell me what you would like me to do. How should I enforce a no cell phone policy in the classroom? I am constantly telling kids to put away their phone but at my school we are not allowed to take the phone away or deduct any points. We cannot call security or send the kid to the office. We cannot do lunch detention. I don’t think parents want to face the reality of phones in schools. If you cannot control it at home, trust me it is not better at school. And I wish I could invite you to my classroom to see for yourself what first period in high school is like.

DP - does the principal prohibit you from taking away the phone, or is it central office? That policy needs to change. In my view, if a kid has it out and they're not allowed, that phone goes away and they can get it at the end of the day.

DP here. We used to collect phones, but no longer. Quite honestly, I don’t want to. If that phone gets taken out of my desk, I will be held liable and I’ll have to pay the family back. I’ve found students rummaging through my desk on occasion, so this idea isn’t too hard for me to imagine. (I even have clear policies about not going behind my desk and I’m known as a firm teacher. That doesn’t matter anymore since there are students who don’t respect rules or boundaries.)

I would give my kid a fake phone. No way I’d allow them to hand it over. My kids have phones for my needs, not theirs.

And this right here is a huge part of the problem. Parents are actively teaching their kids that the rules don't apply to them and how to skirt the rules. This right here is why I want to quit.

We have had serious safety issues that included an er visit. If I felt teachers would do best and keep my kids safe and communicate and not lie I would not need to send a phone. Nothing like picking up your child from school and seeing them have an allergic reaction because a teacher gave them a treat they could not eat.

Mcps as a whole needs to focus on safety for students and staff.

And hold staff accountable for mistakes.

Then teach your kid that the phone is for emergencies only. True emergencies. Medical emergency, school shooter. And it stays in the bag. And if the teacher sees it the kid is in the wrong because it should stay buried in the bag unless the world is ending. It won't get confiscated if it is in the bag at all times.

Why do you assume we don’t? Phones are not the issue. You need to learn better classroom management. Our kids devices are heavily locked down and monitored. We also monitor their mcps accounts heavily.

Ok so if your kid isn’t using their phone during class then there isn’t a problem. It won’t get confiscated. But if you’re the same poster who said above that you text with them during math class because you’re a better teacher than their teacher, then you’re contradicting yourself.

My kids phones are locked down but if they asked for help as the teacher was not responsive of course I’d help.

Is this what your kid is telling you? That the teacher refuses to help? Cut out the baloney.

No, they don’t tell me, i have seen it. They gave up complaining about bad teachers.

How have you “seen it?” Are you sitting in class with your MS/HS kids? Honestly, with your repeated absurdly helicopter parent replies, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were.

Well, yes, we generally have a parent in the room or nearby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends - if they have an iep? I’d tell them that most of the services are delivered by the general Ed teacher because inclusion spec Ed teachers are stretched too thin and we spend so much time on paperwork and not with kids. I’d also tell them no matter what they “advocate for” in the iep, it doesn’t actually happen during the school day due to limited resources and time so half the time we just agree to make you go away

We know. Thanks for being a failure in your life's work.

Likewise for being a failure at actual life. (Lack of empathy is the first sign of being a psychopath)

"I decided to use an anonymous forum to taunt distraught parents of special needs kids in a blasé manner about how we fail their children. But you're the psychopath! Poor me!"
PP

The thread is what we would tell parents if we could. I appreciated that teachers transparency and didn't read it as a taunt. You're clearly dissatisfied with your child's service, but you're lashing out to someone who is telling you there is literally nothing they can do to solve your problem.

I’m the one who posted about spec Ed. Not a taunt just the hard truth. And I’m not a failure at my job, I’m actually a really good spec Ed teacher and I advocate hard for the kids on my caseload. But these are the truths of the conditions in mcps and that’s what the thread asked about. Sometimes I wish parents knew so they didn’t believe the BS . That being said, parents should not be angry at the teachers - it’s the system and lack of appropriate resources

If you really wanted parents to know, why not tell them instead of lying to them to get them to “go away”? I don’t get it. That’s something that is absolutely in your power to do, and doesn’t even take a lot of effort.

You really “don’t get it?” Really? Are you simple, or merely being disingenuous?

No, I really don’t. I’ve absolutely had IEP teams refuse to provide services, and to put down their poor justification in wriring. And I’ve had members describe the process for requesting additional resources from central as a prerequisite for being able to provide one.

I really don’t get what the pp thinks she can’t say those things. She obviously can- she’s choosing not to out of a fear that it could complicate matters for herself.

“WAH! Why don’t you say this so I can sue the school?”

You’re absurd.

For those of you unfamiliar with special education, this teacher is acknowledging that MCPS is violating state and federal law. But, in order to prevent parents from taking legal action, she lies by saying she'll provide supports she knows she won't. And since parents generally aren't allowed in class, they would have no way of knowing those supports aren't being provided.

For those of you who can’t read, the poster to whom you are responding is not a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they need more slps, they can contract out.

You’re just not listening. No they are not these hidden reserves. Not everyone slp wants to work for MCPS either. Like damn, you’re showing your refusal to listen along w ignorance proving previous posters exactly right.

You are not listening. They can contract out. They would not work for mcps. Or pay private therapists for parents who can take the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

“WAH! Why don’t you say this so I can sue the school?”

You’re absurd.

Honestly? I have kids of my own and a mortgage. Just like everyone else, I am going to protect myself first. Sorry, I am human and my ability to live the rest of my life is simply more important than other people’s kids.

I’m a teacher who posted above. This is why I quit working at one school. I was threatened with legal action even though I calmly and repeatedly explained I can’t perform a task the family required. They may as well have asked me to move a mountain or drain an ocean; I didn’t have the time, ability, or access to resources to do what they wanted.

I quit to protect myself. I knew the demands were going to escalate and no reason or logic on my part was going to make a difference. I loved that school and would have preferred staying, but my health and family have to come first.

Threatened *you* with legal action or threatened MCPS with legal action while talking to you? Almost certainly the latter.

Why would that be bad? The only way MCPS will begin to staff special education appropriately is if they begin to lose lawsuits.

JFC. You people are beyond clueless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not a special education teacher but a general education teacher. From what I have seen, no one is trying to lie and hide things on purpose. The special education team at my school genuinely cares about kids and advocates for them. It just becomes impossible sometimes to provide all the supports that some students need. The staff is overwhelmed. Some iep meetings take several hours and that is just for one student. Some parents can also be unreasonable and unrealistic. Lawsuits happen frequently and cause additional stress along with an extra deluge of paperwork.

This is like saying it's impossible for me to stop at all stop signs and red lights. It slows me down, increases gas consumption, wears out brake pads. Sped is governed by a federal law. It's literally your school's admin's job to request the resources. So why bother them with that, right, it's not nice to force the admin to their job and the central to do their job? Why make noise to all these important people who allocate budgets. Instead, in your head you call it "it just becomes impossible" and poof, it's just an amorphous concept. Nobody to blame, it's just how it is. No, dude, no.

Reminds me how they said about Vietnam war in the end "Mistakes were made". Decision makers f'ed up big time, costing lives and resources, hiding their failures, etc... Buck stops somewhere, always. You're enabling people who get paid to allocate resources by pretending that no big deal is happening here.

No, for your analogy to work there would have to be 15-20 signs at every intersection. All of them are there for a reason, and all of them deserve to be followed. Good luck trying to follow all of them at once!

I'm a parent of a kid with an IEP who has had an awful time in MCPS. We have an advocate, and while that helps tremendously it doesn't change the number of staff available at school on a given day (unless you're talking about a 1:1 being part of a plan). I definitely agree there are some people who should not be teaching at all and definitely not teaching special education students. We have definitely been at schools were staff were actively being difficult to push special needs kids out. But unless you have spent time in a classroom recently, you just don't understand how thinly stretched gen ed and special ed teachers are right now. There are a lot of really good teachers who genuinely want to help every kid in their class and on their caseload and it's just not possible.

Holy crap. Common sense!