Teachers, would writing a letter to Dr. Reed do anything?

[Anonymous]

It means that if a child didn't make "adequate" progress during the virtual part of the pandemic then they are in need of additional services. It could mean that they had trouble accessing virtual services due to lack of equipment, had trouble attending, did not learn in that manner, etc. The trouble is that you need to document for every student and hold a meeting and document in several places. It's very time consuming. It's a lot of work and then the services being offered are not much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is to make up for work that wasn’t done during the pandemic, right? So I guess it evens out.

The irony is that the superintendent and school board decided to keep schools closed while most of the country returned. And FCPS was dumb enough to put it into writing that they would fix this instead of just saying from the start that they will do their best.

And this affects All teachers even if these students weren’t in FCPS at the time. Even kids last year who had IEP and in school.

All students could return to school as soon as the teachers were vaccinated. What more could you want? Absolutely no one should have had to work in person until they were vaccinated. Absolutely no one.

Whatever. Most of the country was back in school that year.

And then last year most of the country wasn’t requiring masks, doing 10 day pauses and all the crap FCPS pulled.

I’m saying this as teacher. And no kids weren’t back until a few months after teachers were vaccinated and even then many schools could only offered 2 days in and 2 days out. No one was back in school 5 days a week.

NP. As a parent who wanted my kids to be back in the building, I was frustrated at how the 2020-2021 school year started - but it was clear that FCPS was complying with CDC guidelines with all the restrictions. Some states ignored the CDC, Virginia didn't.

TBH, I don't understand what the compensatory services agreement is about, if it's just about virtual school or something else. I can see how the additional meetings are a burden. Will there also be additional services to make up for the learning losses from the pandemic? What does that even mean?

It means more services. I’m happy. FCPS screwed up big time. Time to make it right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s time for school choice in Fairfax - FCPS is far too incompetent to have a near-stranglehold on education in the county. And maybe OP can find a school that won’t necessarily pay more but will offer better working conditions.

OP can go to any school in Fairfax they want if they get hired there. I’ve worked at 3 FCPS schools.

Every school in the county is doing this compensatory review though. It had nothing to do with how well run the school is. I work for phenomenal admin who are trying to take care of us as best they can, but we are tasked with just as much sht as teachers at the poorly run schools I worked at prior.

School choice is the ability to take your child’s educational dollars and find a private/charter school or hire a private one-on-one teacher.

It’s NOT the just ability to choose another FCPS public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is to make up for work that wasn’t done during the pandemic, right? So I guess it evens out.

It’s more about the “Temporary Learning Plans” that were put in place. Never should have put in writing that the IEP hours & services were being reduced.

It was an emergency, a state and federal emergency. Things aren't business as usual during an emergency. It made sense to make temporary IEPs for kids then. Instead of just lying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s time for school choice in Fairfax - FCPS is far too incompetent to have a near-stranglehold on education in the county. And maybe OP can find a school that won’t necessarily pay more but will offer better working conditions.

OP can go to any school in Fairfax they want if they get hired there. I’ve worked at 3 FCPS schools.

Every school in the county is doing this compensatory review though. It had nothing to do with how well run the school is. I work for phenomenal admin who are trying to take care of us as best they can, but we are tasked with just as much sht as teachers at the poorly run schools I worked at prior.

School choice is the ability to take your child’s educational dollars and find a private/charter school or hire a private one-on-one teacher.

It’s NOT the just ability to choose another FCPS public school.

Employees have choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is to make up for work that wasn’t done during the pandemic, right? So I guess it evens out.

It’s more about the “Temporary Learning Plans” that were put in place. Never should have put in writing that the IEP hours & services were being reduced.

It was an emergency, a state and federal emergency. Things aren't business as usual during an emergency. It made sense to make temporary IEPs for kids then. Instead of just lying.

Illegal

[Anonymous]

It’s all such a mess.

We have services and when they contact us, I want to say no thanks. Don’t even have a meeting. Save yourselves some work. Is that an option? I really feel for these teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It means that if a child didn't make "adequate" progress during the virtual part of the pandemic then they are in need of additional services. It could mean that they had trouble accessing virtual services due to lack of equipment, had trouble attending, did not learn in that manner, etc. The trouble is that you need to document for every student and hold a meeting and document in several places. It's very time consuming. It's a lot of work and then the services being offered are not much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is to make up for work that wasn’t done during the pandemic, right? So I guess it evens out.

The irony is that the superintendent and school board decided to keep schools closed while most of the country returned. And FCPS was dumb enough to put it into writing that they would fix this instead of just saying from the start that they will do their best.

And this affects All teachers even if these students weren’t in FCPS at the time. Even kids last year who had IEP and in school.

All students could return to school as soon as the teachers were vaccinated. What more could you want? Absolutely no one should have had to work in person until they were vaccinated. Absolutely no one.

Whatever. Most of the country was back in school that year.

And then last year most of the country wasn’t requiring masks, doing 10 day pauses and all the crap FCPS pulled.

I’m saying this as teacher. And no kids weren’t back until a few months after teachers were vaccinated and even then many schools could only offered 2 days in and 2 days out. No one was back in school 5 days a week.

NP. As a parent who wanted my kids to be back in the building, I was frustrated at how the 2020-2021 school year started - but it was clear that FCPS was complying with CDC guidelines with all the restrictions. Some states ignored the CDC, Virginia didn't.

TBH, I don't understand what the compensatory services agreement is about, if it's just about virtual school or something else. I can see how the additional meetings are a burden. Will there also be additional services to make up for the learning losses from the pandemic? What does that even mean?

It means more services. I’m happy. FCPS screwed up big time. Time to make it right.

Can you explain further? What services are being offered? What are the metrics for progress?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s time for school choice in Fairfax - FCPS is far too incompetent to have a near-stranglehold on education in the county. And maybe OP can find a school that won’t necessarily pay more but will offer better working conditions.

OP can go to any school in Fairfax they want if they get hired there. I’ve worked at 3 FCPS schools.

Every school in the county is doing this compensatory review though. It had nothing to do with how well run the school is. I work for phenomenal admin who are trying to take care of us as best they can, but we are tasked with just as much sht as teachers at the poorly run schools I worked at prior.

School choice is the ability to take your child’s educational dollars and find a private/charter school or hire a private one-on-one teacher.

It’s NOT the just ability to choose another FCPS public school.

Well then thank goodness charters are illegal in Virginia, because historically they have no better outcome than public’s with way worse working conditions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s all such a mess.

We have services and when they contact us, I want to say no thanks. Don’t even have a meeting. Save yourselves some work. Is that an option? I really feel for these teachers.

You can say that. Teachers still have to hold the same meeting without you the whole settlement is stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s all such a mess.

We have services and when they contact us, I want to say no thanks. Don’t even have a meeting. Save yourselves some work. Is that an option? I really feel for these teachers.

They still have to hold the meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone link to the staff training materials? Is there an FAQ?

+1

Staff here and I hope someone leaks the materials to parents.

I attended both the parent and staff meetings. There WAS additional material covered in the staff meeting than in parent meetings. There were specific examples to help staff know how they should determine eligibility and services. If I was a parent, I would want to review the slides and FAQs before the IEP meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It means that if a child didn't make "adequate" progress during the virtual part of the pandemic then they are in need of additional services. It could mean that they had trouble accessing virtual services due to lack of equipment, had trouble attending, did not learn in that manner, etc. The trouble is that you need to document for every student and hold a meeting and document in several places. It's very time consuming. It's a lot of work and then the services being offered are not much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is to make up for work that wasn’t done during the pandemic, right? So I guess it evens out.

The irony is that the superintendent and school board decided to keep schools closed while most of the country returned. And FCPS was dumb enough to put it into writing that they would fix this instead of just saying from the start that they will do their best.

And this affects All teachers even if these students weren’t in FCPS at the time. Even kids last year who had IEP and in school.

All students could return to school as soon as the teachers were vaccinated. What more could you want? Absolutely no one should have had to work in person until they were vaccinated. Absolutely no one.

Whatever. Most of the country was back in school that year.

And then last year most of the country wasn’t requiring masks, doing 10 day pauses and all the crap FCPS pulled.

I’m saying this as teacher. And no kids weren’t back until a few months after teachers were vaccinated and even then many schools could only offered 2 days in and 2 days out. No one was back in school 5 days a week.

NP. As a parent who wanted my kids to be back in the building, I was frustrated at how the 2020-2021 school year started - but it was clear that FCPS was complying with CDC guidelines with all the restrictions. Some states ignored the CDC, Virginia didn't.

TBH, I don't understand what the compensatory services agreement is about, if it's just about virtual school or something else. I can see how the additional meetings are a burden. Will there also be additional services to make up for the learning losses from the pandemic? What does that even mean?

It means more services. I’m happy. FCPS screwed up big time. Time to make it right.

Can you explain further? What services are being offered? What are the metrics for progress?

Services being offered are individual to the student and what progress wasn’t made.

Johnny usually makes 1 year of growth in reading levels during a normal school year, but during virtual only grew half a year? Maybe an hour of private tutoring once a week after school to work on reading.

Suzy has an IEP for speech but didn’t get a physical person present because FCPS was not meeting in person and therefor made minimal progress in speech goals because no one was able to physically shape her mouth? She will qualify to have a SP come to her house on Saturday for an extra 30 minutes a week.

Larlo’s parents were worried he was going to fall behind during virtual so hired a math tutor (and have receipts to prove it?) They may be able to submit those receipts for reimbursement, if he didn’t get his math pull out accommodations.

A kid who usually makes minimal growth in reading and online made minimal growth in reading should not qualify. A child who usually keeps up with grade level expectations and online met grade level benchmarks won’t qualify. There has to be proof (through testing data, sol scores, IEP narratives) that less than normal progress was made that year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s all such a mess.

We have services and when they contact us, I want to say no thanks. Don’t even have a meeting. Save yourselves some work. Is that an option? I really feel for these teachers.

They still have to hold the meeting.

And that really stinks. I don’t want even the meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone link to the staff training materials? Is there an FAQ?

+1

Staff here and I hope someone leaks the materials to parents.

I attended both the parent and staff meetings. There WAS additional material covered in the staff meeting than in parent meetings. There were specific examples to help staff know how they should determine eligibility and services. If I was a parent, I would want to review the slides and FAQs before the IEP meeting.

But those staff materials didn’t have answers to anything. They were just “what would you do?” Scenarios with no “yes, he qualifies” or “no, she doesn’t because…”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is to make up for work that wasn’t done during the pandemic, right? So I guess it evens out.

STOP! STOP with the pandemic nonsense just stop! Teachers were working and did their best in an unprecedented pandemic. And we all know you are from the same group of crazies that run around this board yelling about Covid. Get a hobby.