New to ADHD - does MCPS screen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mom with ADHD of a ADHD child here in MCPS. Please post over in special needs forum. There is a ton of inaccurate information and responses here, OP. MCPS does not screen for this. If you notice an issue, first speak to your student’s teacher, then the guidance counselor, and then talk to your pediatrician. Typically a formal diagnoses of ADHD is done via a neuropsychiatric evaluation and it is administered by a neuropsychologist. It takes a while to do and can be costly - some providers change 5-6000 or more and insurance may or may not pay. We opted to get on waitlists for the neuropsych at KKI in Baltimore and CNMC - they are each about a year long. That meant for us that insurance would cover the cost of the testing. Others choose to go with private psychologists who do this. Some also just go to their pediatrician to try and get a diagnoses and meds but honestly It’s better to do the full work up because they look at other conditions it could be like autism, anxiety, etc. and can give a complete diagnosis. With kids who are neurodivergent, there can be multiple things going on and more than one issue. For our kid, it was both anxiety and ADHD. After the exam the neuropsychologist provides a full report and they meet either you and give you the diagnoses and a report suggesting next steps. This includes specific suggestions for school, then you take this to your MCPS school administrator and meet with them to determine if a 504 plan (school
Accommodations needed for a disability) or an IEP plan (to address needs from a disability that is impacting the student’s academic performance/education) is needed and they will take it from there. Some kids need just a 504 (like ours) because her academic performance was fine, she just had attention and behavior issues and needed additional supports in class. Some kids need an IEP. It just depends. Then you follow up with a pediatrician of child psychiatrist if you want to pursue meds. There you go - please ignore some of these other bad and inaccurate responses. I just did this this year so I know.

You are wrong- mcps has a legal child find obligation to screen kids for disabilities including adhd. They will avoid this obligation as much as possible because thet don't have the manpower to assess and then address all the neurodovergent kids in the county.

-mcps educator

I was on the phone with Child Find 2 weeks ago. Their job is to prove a child has an educational disability. So the disability has to be proven to impact their educational performance. If your child just has behavior issues and test scores are normal, you are on your own.