Moving...Which School Districts to Seek/Avoid for ASD Special Ed

[Anonymous]

Hello,
My family is considering a move to the DMV area - exactly which area will be determined which public school system(s) offer the best services AND are willing to actually provide the necessary supports to our son without fighting all the time. In my current district, there are plenty of services, but it's easy to get good services when the child is low functioning. My child is high-functioning so it's important to find a district in DMV where they are supportive of kids at all areas of the spectrum - after all, it's a spectrum health issue.

So, which districts (or counties) should I consider and which to avoid?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

How old is your child? Does he / she have any areas of particular strength you wish to support in addition to his/her challenges (e.g. math).

[Anonymous]

5 years old.
He's academically strong and so I'd like to continue that and is very social (so obviously want to continue that interest), but needs support in appropriate social communication/pragmatics. He learns best when he's involved in highly-motivating activities or when he's interested in the subject matter /given opps to explore on his own (I know, that's common).

[Anonymous]

School districts here are enormous, so the question isn't really what district but rather what pyramid within a district would meet your child's needs.

[Anonymous]

What will be the commute and what is your budget?

[Anonymous]

I am in Montgomery County, MD with a five year old ASD. Similar profile: high functioning,can read, etc. supports are not great. There is no special programming or class for HFA. It's mostly mainstreaming with whichever additional supports your child might need,like OT or speech services.

There are wonderful private school options but be prepared to shell out $30-40k/ year.

[Anonymous]

I think all of these districts, due to size and budget constraints, will involve 'fighting' for supports.

There are some new (less than 5 years old) charter schools in DC that were founded around inclusion and supporting exceptional learners that err on the side of more supports, rather than less and smaller class sizes. The only challenge is that you gain admission by lottery, so you wouldn't want to purchase a home here hoping to secure a spot. The schools i am thinking of are Creative Minds Public Charter School and Bridges Public Charter School. Both, I believe, plan to go through 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Do you have another reason to move to the area or are you moving solely b/c you think you will get better services for your child? If it is the latter, I would expand your search to other areas of the country. As pp's alluded to, the school districts are so large and they are only getting bigger. I also have a high functioning child and we ended up pulling him out of public (MCPS) and putting him in private which wasn't necessarily the answer either. We left the DMV area (we lived in Montgomery County) and are now in a different state in a small K-12 school district with local control (i.e., I could call up the superintendent if I needed to, the school board members live in my town, etc.). Of course, one negative is that property taxes are almost double what we paid in Montgomery County...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have another reason to move to the area or are you moving solely b/c you think you will get better services for your child? If it is the latter, I would expand your search to other areas of the country. As pp's alluded to, the school districts are so large and they are only getting bigger. I also have a high functioning child and we ended up pulling him out of public (MCPS) and putting him in private which wasn't necessarily the answer either. We left the DMV area (we lived in Montgomery County) and are now in a different state in a small K-12 school district with local control (i.e., I could call up the superintendent if I needed to, the school board members live in my town, etc.). Of course, one negative is that property taxes are almost double what we paid in Montgomery County...

I would say that this is one of the hardest profiles in some ways, because they can keep up in the classroom it seems like they don't need support so there is minimal intervention until behaviors start to interfere.

[Anonymous]

My impression from hanging out on these boards over the years is that special ed in MCPS is worse than FCPS in general.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My impression from hanging out on these boards over the years is that special ed in MCPS is worse than FCPS in general.

Our FCPS experience has been pretty terrible for HFA with a bright kid. DC pass advanced several SOLs this year and the school systematically refuses access to honors classes because they're not team-taught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My impression from hanging out on these boards over the years is that special ed in MCPS is worse than FCPS in general.

Our FCPS experience has been pretty terrible for HFA with a bright kid. DC pass advanced several SOLs this year and the school systematically refuses access to honors classes because they're not team-taught.

Seriously? Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Howard County, MD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My impression from hanging out on these boards over the years is that special ed in MCPS is worse than FCPS in general.

Our FCPS experience has been pretty terrible for HFA with a bright kid. DC pass advanced several SOLs this year and the school systematically refuses access to honors classes because they're not team-taught.

Our DC, while not HFA (LDs and ADHD), takes team taught English, but his IEP accommodations are supported in his Honors and AP classes. What accommodations does your DC need that can only be supported in a team taught class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in Montgomery County, MD with a five year old ASD. Similar profile: high functioning,can read, etc. supports are not great. There is no special programming or class for HFA. It's mostly mainstreaming with whichever additional supports your child might need,like OT or speech services.

There are wonderful private school options but be prepared to shell out $30-40k/ year.

There are a few classes for HFA starting age 6/first grade but not a ton of them in Montgomery County (and it's a really big county). Otherwise, most of the children with HFA are in a LAD class (learning and academic class) which is smaller and mainstreamed into the K classes with mostly pullouts for speech/OT.