FCPS is in big trouble

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having all those meetings is a colossal waste
of time.
"Compensatory time" can't happen with no staff.
Can they use ESSR money and just cut families checks to pay for private services?

No one is getting “checks.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think every single parent who spent the year on FB ranting about schools having to be closed and those who were the mask police should be forcibly taxed to cover the cost of the compensatory services for these kids.

And that will never, ever happen. Cope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think every single parent who spent the year on FB ranting about schools having to be closed and those who were the mask police should be forcibly taxed to cover the cost of the compensatory services for these kids.

And that will never, ever happen. Cope.

WHY are you so invested in defending FCPS here? They messed up. It’s ok to admit it. Are you Brabrand??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Office of Civil Right’s investigation “found that the School Division inappropriately reduced and limited services provided to students with disabilities, based on considerations other than the students’ individual educational needs, and failed to adequately remedy these denials of FAPE.” OCR said it also “identified concerns with staffing shortages and other administrative obstacles that may have limited the School Division’s provision of FAPE, as well as its ability to sufficiently track its FAPE services."

So FCPS was unable to provide FAPE because of staffing shortages and other obstacles - because there was a pandemic.

IME, this was an issue well before the pandemic. There wasn’t one year where DC did not have a FAPE violation. Some years they were more egregious than others. The pandemic just caused things to get worse.

[Anonymous]

All they did was focus on ensuring teachers would not have to work and covering their own behinds doing little to know work. Typical government funding employees with no accountability. They need to hold them accountable by providing vouchers to parents or other means

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

This would be my DS. Excellent grades pre and post Covid, but grades tanked during distance learning. His college options now aren’t the same caliber as they would have been if schools had not been closed so long. I doubt there’s anything we can do about it, though. Lesson #1 of adulthood is that life isn’t fair.

Same for my son without an IEP or 504. Virtual learning was awful for him and some of his grades suffered. His college options were drastically changed from that year. He is a freshman in college now and it’s fine but not great.

Oh please. You have no idea where your son would have gone to college if there had not been a pandemic year. Sorrynotwsorry that your kid is not as entitled as you thought he was.

Wow, you reported my reply but your rudeness was allowed to stand. More proof of what I was saying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

This would be my DS. Excellent grades pre and post Covid, but grades tanked during distance learning. His college options now aren’t the same caliber as they would have been if schools had not been closed so long. I doubt there’s anything we can do about it, though. Lesson #1 of adulthood is that life isn’t fair.

Same for my son without an IEP or 504. Virtual learning was awful for him and some of his grades suffered. His college options were drastically changed from that year. He is a freshman in college now and it’s fine but not great.

Exactly, the teacher should have come in like other essential services

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is way too large and horribly (and corruptly) managed. At some point maybe it will collapse of its own weight and be broken into smaller, more manageable districts but until then the disasters will just continue to pile up.

You think smaller districts don't have corruption and major problems too?

I’m in New Jersey which has notoriously small school districts - and excellent public schools and services.

Having been around both FCPS and this system, I can undoubtedly say the smaller districts have more advantageous and fewer issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

This would be my DS. Excellent grades pre and post Covid, but grades tanked during distance learning. His college options now aren’t the same caliber as they would have been if schools had not been closed so long. I doubt there’s anything we can do about it, though. Lesson #1 of adulthood is that life isn’t fair.

Same for my son without an IEP or 504. Virtual learning was awful for him and some of his grades suffered. His college options were drastically changed from that year. He is a freshman in college now and it’s fine but not great.

Oh please. You have no idea where your son would have gone to college if there had not been a pandemic year. Sorrynotwsorry that your kid is not as entitled as you thought he was.

Wow, you reported my reply but your rudeness was allowed to stand. More proof of what I was saying.

DP. Jeff is only human, not perfect. Your report button works as well as anyone else's. Fwiw, I agree with both of you, college admissions are a lottery now and no one has any idea where their DC would be admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is way too large and horribly (and corruptly) managed. At some point maybe it will collapse of its own weight and be broken into smaller, more manageable districts but until then the disasters will just continue to pile up.

You think smaller districts don't have corruption and major problems too?

I’m in New Jersey which has notoriously small school districts - and excellent public schools and services.

Having been around both FCPS and this system, I can undoubtedly say the smaller districts have more advantageous and fewer issues.

You’re using New Jersey as an example of small districts without corruption? If FCPS was New Jersey, the only difference would be that different towns would be their own districts do McClean would have one of the best districts in the country without RT 1 kids pulling down the over all stats. For the privilege of a better ranking, you get school boards with taxing authority spread throughout the county

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Office of Civil Right’s investigation “found that the School Division inappropriately reduced and limited services provided to students with disabilities, based on considerations other than the students’ individual educational needs, and failed to adequately remedy these denials of FAPE.” OCR said it also “identified concerns with staffing shortages and other administrative obstacles that may have limited the School Division’s provision of FAPE, as well as its ability to sufficiently track its FAPE services."

So FCPS was unable to provide FAPE because of staffing shortages and other obstacles - because there was a pandemic.

The crushing scheduling and paperwork burden of having to do an extra IEP meeting for every single current student and a bunch of former students is going to cause even more burnout among the remaining staff and probably feed the spiral.

I don't know what the answer is. Special ed students were failed during the pandemic. They're being failed now. But there are serious, serious structural problems with IDEA, funding, staffing, all of it, and it's coming apart at the seams. OCR's "remedy" is not a solution to any of it and will probably just make things worse. It'll end up with more empty promises and garbage on paper because they can't hire anybody to fill them.

This was my first thought. I wouldn’t have wanted to be a special education teacher even before this. My other thought was that many other districts are probably in the same boat.

I’m concerned this will make things worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Office of Civil Right’s investigation “found that the School Division inappropriately reduced and limited services provided to students with disabilities, based on considerations other than the students’ individual educational needs, and failed to adequately remedy these denials of FAPE.” OCR said it also “identified concerns with staffing shortages and other administrative obstacles that may have limited the School Division’s provision of FAPE, as well as its ability to sufficiently track its FAPE services."

So FCPS was unable to provide FAPE because of staffing shortages and other obstacles - because there was a pandemic.

The crushing scheduling and paperwork burden of having to do an extra IEP meeting for every single current student and a bunch of former students is going to cause even more burnout among the remaining staff and probably feed the spiral.

I don't know what the answer is. Special ed students were failed during the pandemic. They're being failed now. But there are serious, serious structural problems with IDEA, funding, staffing, all of it, and it's coming apart at the seams. OCR's "remedy" is not a solution to any of it and will probably just make things worse. It'll end up with more empty promises and garbage on paper because they can't hire anybody to fill them.

This was my first thought. I wouldn’t have wanted to be a special education teacher even before this. My other thought was that many other districts are probably in the same boat.

I’m concerned this will make things worse.

It's going to fuel resentment when kids are placed in front of computers so that teachers can have time to comply with this agreement. Too bad the concept of FAPE doesn't exist outside of special education

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is way too large and horribly (and corruptly) managed. At some point maybe it will collapse of its own weight and be broken into smaller, more manageable districts but until then the disasters will just continue to pile up.

You think smaller districts don't have corruption and major problems too?

I’m in New Jersey which has notoriously small school districts - and excellent public schools and services.

Having been around both FCPS and this system, I can undoubtedly say the smaller districts have more advantageous and fewer issues.

Virginia law would have to be changed.

[Anonymous]

I’d prefer they just start by having school 5/ week. That would help my kid a lot more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems like all FCPS focuses on now is special Ed. They just spent hours this week on special Ed, they had multiple long work sessions this fall on the special Ed audit and paid who knows home much for that study. Now they’re gearing up for more special Ed planning based on the results of that study. I guess this will just be another special Ed issue that the system focuses on. Forget about everyone else.

You guys are a trip. First it was “they’re focusing too much on critical race theory”. Now it’s “they’re focusing too much on special Ed” (because they had a few meetings and audit all of which took place outside of teaching). What’s next? There’s no white history month?