Frustrated with lack of Special Needs schools in this area
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Anonymous
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OP here & yes, we are beginning to work with a consultant. I will disagree with everyone that says there are lots of options. Maybe there are on surface but if you have an early elementary child with language disorders, there are none other than in MD. Public school is great on surface but not when your child gets put in a specialized program lumped together with kids who are physically aggressive and your child can’t communicate for help. Out of the suggested schools here, once you tell them lack of verbal communication, you can’t even apply, so no, I don’t think there are a lot of options.
We were overseas and there actually were much better options for private bc they seemed less into labels and evaluations and reports and more into working with the individual child. |
Anonymous
| OP, I agree with you 100%. My child who is average IQ but has ASD with expressive language issues but really zero behavioral problems and is truly a sweet, kind child who wants to do well is going to a very small private school right now but will eventually have to go to public school because most small privates for middle and high school won't accept any child with an ASD diagnosis. |
Anonymous
There are no good options for kids with language disorders in this area. There is Maddox but even so they aren't specific to language disorders, especially if your child doesn't have behavioral or other issues. Your best bet may be a small regular private if your child can do the academics but just needs a bit more support and private therapies for a few years. |
Anonymous
This isn't necessarily true for MS and HS if your chid is doing well. Some schools are more flexible than others. We looked at MS and found several schools who said if they had space they'd take our child but our child wasn't really interested in them. |
Anonymous
MoCo has very little in terms of gifted for kids. I wouldn't move here for that. Look at the number of available slots and its very few given the need in MoCo. |
Anonymous
| Hire an education lawyer or advocate and fight for your rights to needed services on the IEP. www.wrightslaw.com |
Anonymous
So just don’t disclose the diagnosis? What would you gain by disclosing if your child doesn’t have any behavioral challenges? My child was diagnosed with ASD (Asperger’s) as a preschooler. Later, ADHD was added. Now, as a teenager, the ADHD diagnosis fits but the ASD is less apparent. We’ve kept an IEP in public school but he’s in Gen Ed classes with little to no SpEd support. If your child doesn’t need a lot of support, why does the school need to know? |
Anonymous
Mainstreaming a kid with autism into advanced classes is what I’m talking about. “Gifted” education is going away everywhere. The main point is that the place for a bright child with autism is public school with a strong IEP. OP seems to have formed an opinion about publics (and “those” kids she doesn’t want her child to be around.) Her loss. |
Anonymous
Correct. Also, at least as of 2-3 years ago, Diener was not great for a child who was arguably gifted as well as autistic and have language based learning disabilities. |
Anonymous
The OP said she was on ACPS which I think is very poor for 2E students. |
Anonymous
It depends on the child and school. We had a terrible experience in elementary school and the principal was terrible. If we had a better, affordable option, anything had to be better than that. We heavily supplemented with private therapies and tutoring. |
Anonymous
You’d be surprised at the number of teachers at non-public SN schools who are largely unqualified to teach ANY student, especially students with SN. |
Anonymous
Unless her child is gifted-gifted (unlikely, statistically) what 2E elementary students need is basically just really good mainstreaming. My impression is that elementary school is where you are more likely to accomplish this. Harder in middle and high school. |
Anonymous
It does depend, but you also have federal law on your side, and experts you can hire. I was amazed at what I could unlock at a school that otherwise seemed like they were fine letting my child ruin his education (and that of the other kids in his classroom), once I brought in some reinforcements for myself. |
Anonymous
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There are a lot of SN private options but they only cover 60-70% of the kids. Your kiddo clearly falls into the 30%. Unfortunately if you cannot move you need to work with your public school. If your child cannot effectively communicate their needs, if they need help, or are in a dangerous situation you should be able to lobby for a full-time aid that stays with your child 100% of the time. If you cannot afford one that will be a battle with the school. You may want to lawyer up, not just a consultant.
You could also try some of the parochial schools in the area. I believe Flint also does well with IEP's. |