Where to send a kid with Profound Dyslexia? Rejected everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This absolutely sucks, but I think you only have bad choices right now, so it may be a matter of figuring out which bad option you can swallow.

1) Find the money for Lab School even if it means asking family for help, taking on a weekend job, or dipping into retirement or a 529.

2) Home school and deal with the loss of income.

3) Enroll in public and make yourself an enormous pain their ass until they agree that they can't meet his needs and help fund something that will work.

4) Move someplace known for special education and roll the dice that they have better resources.

This list sounds about right. Another choice is to rent out your house for a year and move somewhere so your dc can attend a great school and learn skills that they will then take back to public school. I’m currently reading The Woman Who Changed Her Brain, and the Arrowsmith School in Toronto sounds interesting. I haven’t done the research yet to know if this woman is for real or just blowing smoke.


I’m sorry your choices are so terrible. Could you pause saving for college right now? Kid isn’t going to college if they don’t learn to read. We had to stop saving for a while because our child’s autism was so out of control. It was not great financially, but he wasn’t on the college path anyway. Now he is. When we get there, we might be a little short, depending on how the markets do. It was still the right choice for our family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op again. For those who said “move” districts. We cannot. We have two other kids who are older and happy and doing well in HS.

Just saw this. Online school might be another option for your dc who is struggling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi. This is the OP and I’m so grateful for these suggestions. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I’d hug every single one of you if possible.

DC is now enrolled in the ASDEC summer program for this coming summer. We have tried to find an ASDEC academic therapist for the last year, but no availability. We didn’t know about the Holy Child, Chelsea or Jamicy school options. We are in NoVA so logistics might be tough but we will figure it out. We can’t give up our jobs, but I am a fed, so that might work itself out anyway. DC has been tutored for OG privately for years and makes more progress that way but also loves school and is social. DC plays several sports, has a lot of friends, does scouting, loves sleepaway camp, is well adjusted and socially normal…. but can’t read or write. Is making progress (not illiterate anymore thanks to tutor) but very slowly. And is probably 2.5 years below grade level.

OP, I just want to affirm that you are a great parent. You’re doing everything you can. I’m sorry your options are so crappy.

[Anonymous]

What about McLean school in Potomac. They are a great community for special needs kids with dyslexia and ADHD.

[Anonymous]

McLean does not remediate for dyslexia. You will still have to hire an outside tutor for that.

If you don’t believe me; call them yourself. They might say they can help, but they can’t especially for a kid who is so severely behind. Ask around.

[Anonymous]

I would look at Newton in Sterling. I know a student who had an OG tutor there plus they were very accommodating and have lots of supports. Excellent experience for my child as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my kids with multiple special needs spent K-12 in MCPS on an IEP (apart from a short stint in private), and we were happy with his services and accommodations. However, he did not have dyslexia. Also, we moved to Bethesda from a problematic school district, because we'd heard the schools were better at dealing with SN and also generally more able to focus on such needs instead of student hunger, physical safety, etc, since the neighborhood is wealthier. He was still bullied in elementary, but the school was very responsive and it stopped rapidly. There were still a few fights, but he was not part of them.

Can you move inbounds to a different public school that has a better reputation? We reasoned it was worth it, to invest our money in more expensive real estate instead of "consuming" it on private school... even if we could have found a private we liked (we never did).

Dyslexia seems to be the only learning disability that schools don't readily cater to, for some unfathomable reason, which is incredibly irritating! So your child needs intensive OG tutoring regardless of where he's educated. I suppose he's doing that right now? So a mix of public plus expensive and frequent OG tutoring might be a better use of your resources than trying to find a unicorn private school. DS had multiple therapies that happened every week, and then on days we didn't have them, I copied what happened in those sessions at home with him. It was the most rapid way to overcome his delays, both physical, behavioral, and academic. A ton of hard work on both our parts, but that way I leveraged the cost of therapies, coaching and tutoring in a really optimal way.

Best of luck, OP.

Money. Pure and simple: dyslexia remediation doesn’t come cheap. Op - you must AVOID the frequent calls on the board for MCPS. They are peculiarly bad for dyslexia. I would say Jemicy is your best option at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This absolutely sucks, but I think you only have bad choices right now, so it may be a matter of figuring out which bad option you can swallow.

1) Find the money for Lab School even if it means asking family for help, taking on a weekend job, or dipping into retirement or a 529.

2) Home school and deal with the loss of income.

3) Enroll in public and make yourself an enormous pain their ass until they agree that they can't meet his needs and help fund something that will work.

4) Move someplace known for special education and roll the dice that they have better resources.

This list sounds about right. Another choice is to rent out your house for a year and move somewhere so your dc can attend a great school and learn skills that they will then take back to public school. I’m currently reading The Woman Who Changed Her Brain, and the Arrowsmith School in Toronto sounds interesting. I haven’t done the research yet to know if this woman is for real or just blowing smoke.


I’m sorry your choices are so terrible. Could you pause saving for college right now? Kid isn’t going to college if they don’t learn to read. We had to stop saving for a while because our child’s autism was so out of control. It was not great financially, but he wasn’t on the college path anyway. Now he is. When we get there, we might be a little short, depending on how the markets do. It was still the right choice for our family.

Blowing smoke. And she has tried to fund several double blind studies…results always ‘next year.’

Now anecdotally she gets happy parents and CEO Nadella sends disabled daughter to one of her schools in Seattle (and that’s a serious endorsement- but I live in Indian hood so likely biased)

Only Cohen-kadosh at Oxford’s brain shocks on kids at London based dyslexia school really improved these kids but experiments ceased due to ethical issues - would the therapies harm another talent? Also classic issue - small sample. So tutoring is the only way to remediate.

[Anonymous]

OP, if you are interested in ASDEC they have a summer intensive program for three weeks in July, and your child would then most likely be able to continue on with one of the program therapists.

I know how hard it is to figure out this balance - we are in a school zone with lots of violence even at the elementary level and we didn’t think it would be good for our dyslexic kid (not good for anyone’s child!) and the private we had him in and loved not only didn’t remediate but had a whole language reading program that didn’t work. Given the not-great options we kept him there for socio-emotional reasons and had him do OG tutoring 3x a week for three years. It was a lot of money, and we weren’t able to go on vacation or fix the roof or save for college. But we got through it, and so will you. Hang in there.

[Anonymous]

While this group is in Texas, they do some great tutoring and other therapy. They've been super helpful! https://dyslexiaondemand.com/

[Anonymous]

I would also start really pushing the school for assistive technology accommodations. I know if is important to continue to remediate and work on closing the gap but if you haven’t already you also need to push the school to find ways for your child to be able to demonstrate what they are capable of academically. Text to speech, speech to text, audiobooks, word production, a scribe, decreased amounts of hw, are just a few.

The transition to middle school is big and you want to protect their self esteem as much as possible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would encourage you to look at Chelsea in Hyattsville. DS is happy and learning a ton. They specialize in dyslexia and don't restrict admission based on how many years behind a student is. It's expensive but not as bad as Lab. Call the admissions director tomorrow to see if they have openings for 6th.

Yes to Chelsea. Friend’s kid was six grade levels behind. Paid for by PGCPS. More than two grade levels should warrant non-public placement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would encourage you to look at Chelsea in Hyattsville. DS is happy and learning a ton. They specialize in dyslexia and don't restrict admission based on how many years behind a student is. It's expensive but not as bad as Lab. Call the admissions director tomorrow to see if they have openings for 6th.

Yes to Chelsea. Friend’s kid was six grade levels behind. Paid for by PGCPS. More than two grade levels should warrant non-public placement.

It's probably too late to get non public placement for next school year due to school system red tape, but Chelsea does have rolling admissions. That school has really restored our kid's confidence and has a great group of kids.

The families I know who got non public placement for dyslexia had to work with their school systems for years while less intensive interventions failed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would encourage you to look at Chelsea in Hyattsville. DS is happy and learning a ton. They specialize in dyslexia and don't restrict admission based on how many years behind a student is. It's expensive but not as bad as Lab. Call the admissions director tomorrow to see if they have openings for 6th.

Yes to Chelsea. Friend’s kid was six grade levels behind. Paid for by PGCPS. More than two grade levels should warrant non-public placement.

Two grades behind is (or should be) within the capacity of a public school to handle. I would bet the majority of students with SLD are at least two years behind. I can't imagine a student who is working one grade level behind even qualifying for SLD.

[Anonymous]

I have a 6th grader in ACPS that goes half day to local public, and then a half day at Lindamood Bell. Two years ago he didn’t know the difference between letters and numbers. He goes full time to LMB in the summer. He got a private placement but no special needs privates would take him bc his learning profile is so unique and he was many years behind academically (like academic level of a 2 year old), which is how the half day split came up as an alternative. He is now independently reading at grade level (not like the average DC area reader but average US). It is miraculous. LMB is the only remediation that has ever worked with him after years and years of multiple schools, multiple interventions, and an investment in a lawyer that could support me with the school system. Now the question is what next? He is still years behind in math, and in addition to severe dyslexia has severe dyscalculia and dysgraphia, and other social developmental delays. He likely will never be able to live independently and it is not clear that he can get a regular high school diploma because of the math requirement. Middle school is sort of a no-man’s land for him. My understanding is that 9th grade may open up new possibilities for him either at special needs privates or public such as life skills classes (learning date, time, days of week/months of the year) and possibly vocational education opportunities. And of course I worry that dismantling the Dept of Education will contract options for him.