Life after special education in MCPS

[Anonymous]

I'm feeling especially worried today. I just had an IEP meeting for my DS will be entering Kindergarten this fall. He's been in PEP Classic for the past 2 years. He will be in a LAD classroom for 3 hours per day, and in a regular Kindergarten classroom 3 hours/day. I had high hopes that he would be doing better at this point. I am still hoping that he might eventually move out of special education and catch up to his peers. For what it's worth, his issues relate to HFA ASD: attention, language processing and social communication.

Has anyone had their child start in LAD and eventually become more "typical?" Am I being realistic?

[Anonymous]

Talk to the guidance counselor at WJ.

[Anonymous]

I would supplement with private services, if you are not. I would do speech and socialization. Several companies have camps for speech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would supplement with private services, if you are not. I would do speech and socialization. Several companies have camps for speech.

OP here. Yes, we're already doing this. I'm glad on the one hand that LAD services are being offered, but I also feel discouraged that he's not doing better.

[Anonymous]

I think it's not uncommon for kids to need a fair amount of support during the "transition" years, K, 6th, 9th, and then to settle in and show progress. ASD is a lifelong condition, but kids with it can make enormous gains and can certainly move from needing the support of LAD to being ready for full inclusion. I wouldn't assume that your son's IEP in 5th grade will be similar to what he needs in K.

[Anonymous]

Where does your child go to school? I was told the county had no more separate LAD classrooms. They told me the LAD classes are now a regular sized classroom mixed with typical kids.

[Anonymous]

FYI: my son was in PEP, back in the day when they had "infant"'PEP. He was in PEP, LAD, and the learning centers, when they existed, for MS and HS. He improved all along the way. Went to college. Drives a car. Holds a job.
Didn't envision he would do so well when he was in PEP, but here he is as an adult doing ok. Yes he still has issues. A kid with learning disabilities grows up to be an adult with learning disabilities, it seems. Don't get discouraged though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI: my son was in PEP, back in the day when they had "infant"'PEP. He was in PEP, LAD, and the learning centers, when they existed, for MS and HS. He improved all along the way. Went to college. Drives a car. Holds a job.
Didn't envision he would do so well when he was in PEP, but here he is as an adult doing ok. Yes he still has issues. A kid with learning disabilities grows up to be an adult with learning disabilities, it seems. Don't get discouraged though!

Thanks! This is definitely encouraging!

[Anonymous]

I used to work in PEP and would watch many of our former students do fabulously as they got to the upper grades in elementary school. Some of the kids stood out a little bit but were functioning well academically and among their peers. Many schools have lunch bunch with the counselor and mentoring programs with the staff. See if that is something your DS's school has.

[Anonymous]

I am curious about the 3 hours of LAD too. LAD at my DD's school is all in the main classroom with only a little pull out. I was told this was the new normal in the county.

[Anonymous]

My son is in PEP INC and headed to a separate LAD classroom all day for K. They are definitely still there.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all your responses so far. I hesitate to name the specific school, as I think I would be easily identified. We're in south/west montgomery county.

[Anonymous]

I am way past this point and no longer remember all of the acronyms, but here's our story. My son went to preschool with services from MoCo, not PEP. In Infants and Toddlers, he got every service known to mankind except PT, but the services once he hit age 3 dropped to only speech. When it came time for kindergarten, the county wanted to place him in a non-mainstream special ed program full time. I held him back for a year and supplemented MoCo services with private services. He was reassessed the following year and was placed in a regular classroom with some pullout services. It was tough for a couple of years and then in second grade, he really started to excel. He even tested into the GT program, which we declined because the workload was too much - it was all I could do to keep him successful in a regular classroom at that point. Anyway, he is now going into sixth grade in above grade level and honors classes. He still has an IEP and accommodations, which I expect will continue through high school. If I'm remembering correctly, he stopped with the supplemental services when he started kindergarten, but I could be a little off on that.

I think my story is a miracle, but I am sharing because when I was at the place where you are now, everyone so underestimated my son and I didn't know what to think. The goal for my child was to be able to order a meal in a restaurant by the time he graduated from high school and he was expected to get a certificate of attendance and not a diploma. I didn't know if they were right or wrong at that time but I remember feeling like people were making judgments without giving my son the time to develop. It was all about pushing him because of his age instead of giving him the time he needed to develop.

[Anonymous]

My son transitioned out of I&T at 3 (developmental delay, then diagnosed with ADHD and has HFA tendencies).
Private therapies until K.
Mainstreamed but repeated K.
Now in 3rd grade the IEP team told me he wouldn't need speech therapy anymore. Yay!

He has come so far. It's rather incredible.

Good luck, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talk to the guidance counselor at WJ.

really freaking helpful......