Private Placement
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Anonymous
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Would love to hear tips from parents who've gotten FCPS to pay for private placement.
How did you do it? What were the specifics of the case? DS is 2e w/ HFA and ADHD combined type. DS would probably do well at a school like commonwealth academy but too $. |
Anonymous
Nobody???? |
Anonymous
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A few years ago, the Post had an article about the number of private placements in Fairfax, Montgomery and DC. Dc was Above 2000, Montgomery was in the 500-600 range and Fairfax was around 250. this despite total enrollment in Fairfax being much larger. The students who get private placement tend to have severe issues and behavioral issues. I don't even think Commonwealth accepts public school private placement (not all schools do). You would have to have prolonged egregious and continuous denial of FAPE to have a chance.
Besides, Commonwealth is more for ADHD. Do they even consider HFA? |
Anonymous
| IDK... I feel like there is a long way to go between a kid who "would do well" with private placement vs is failing out miserably or can't be in the class bc of behavior issues. Meaning... You sound like no where near the type of case that the school system would even consider putting into a private placement. But maybe if you provide more detail... |
Anonymous
| The only private SN school who gets funding for that profile is Ivymount MAP. Go visit before you decide to pursue getting funding. |
Anonymous
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OP - it's my understanding that only the most severe cases of disability qualify for private placement within FCPS. In most cases you have to litigate. The process will take years. It will tear up your family. The litigation expenses will be immense and the district's fierce lawyers will make mincemeat of yours if yours doesn't know what he or she is doing. I've never heard of a 2e (ADHD + HFA) receiving private placement money. If I had, I would have fought for it for my two kids.
That said, I know of one private placement but the poor child had had a series of strokes and ten surgeries. He is taken by private bus to a school that helps children with severe handicaps. It's a school I had never heard of before so can't offer a name. Commonwealth is a college prep school for kids with ADHD and dyslexia. It once had one private placement from D.C. but that was for profound dyslexia which DCPS couldn't handle. It's not licensed for HFA so even if you were to get a private placement, your child would not be sent to Commonwealth - he would be sent somewhere else. It's very rare for any of the SN schools you read about on this board to receive private placements. The type of schools that the private placements are sent to are equipped to handle severe physical and mental handicaps, with perhaps the exception of Ivymont, mentioned above, which handles autism students. Good luck! |
Anonymous
I didn't respond earlier because you wanted responses from people who had successful experiences 
I'm in FCPS and have a kid our well respected/experienced advocate believes would be better (not best) served in a private school. The public school is not the least restrictive environment for him because of the severity of his LDs/communication disorder. I can't tell you how much money/energy we spent trying to get it. The best we could get was an aide/add'l teacher in all academic environments and we only got that by filing a state complaint. The complaint wasnt upheld but it did seem to be effecting in getting us the additional support. |
Anonymous
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Something like under 1% of special education students in Virginia get an out of district placement. Even allowing for a major concentration of that percentage in FCPS, that's still a very small number.
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Anonymous
FCPS also places students with ASD (and usually other issues as well) at Phillips in Annandale, Oak Valley in Fairfax, Accotink Academy in Springfield, Kellar Center in Fairfax (if there are also mental health issues) and Frost in Rockville. There may be more that I don't know of. I knew a student who had public placement approved through Fairfax and a HFA diagnosis and Ivymount wouldn't take him because they didn't like his behavioral profile. Ivymount is selective about who they take (which always makes me a little skeptical when they publish all their research success stories) and often runs a waiting list, especially for boys. I strongly suggest touring the schools where FCPS places kids before you go down this path. There are basically two categories of special ed schools: the kind that take public placements and the "nice" kind of school that most middle class parents would find acceptable (Commonwealth, Auburn, Newton, Oakwood). Ivymount is kind of in the middle, and I don't know as much about Maryland because I work mainly in VA. |
Anonymous
It is a lot more likely if he has serious behavioral problems. Is that the case? IME, the FCPS schools will recommend increasingly restrictive placements with FCPS before they consider private placement. (A self-contained ED class, for example). |
Anonymous
This poster. We looked at SN schools for a similar child last fall, very high IQ with HFA and ADHD combined type. The ideal school according to our neuropsychiatrist will have high academic content combined with an integrated social skills curriculum. Our education advocate told us our options in this area were Ivymount MAP and Auburn. The school that came closest was Auburn but they don't take publicly funded students. But we can afford it and would have paid except that the academics while good does not offer a foreign language (neither does Ivymount MAP and their differentiation especially for math wasn't as good). DS attends an immersion language charter (mandarin) since preschool so he would be giving up the language. The change in placement would have been solely for behavioral issues but after a FBA and behavioral plan, all problems resolved. It is difficult for SN schools to offer the same amount/level of academics as mainstream schools while providing the same integrated social supports. |
Anonymous
Does anyone have a dc or is familiar with any of these schools? Would they be appropriate for an HFA child who is very academically advanced but with poor social skills? |
Anonymous
Kellar would not be a good fit. Classes are too small and most of the kids have other more serious mental health issues. |
Anonymous
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I have two children one HFA and one has multiple LDs, both are "gifted" in math and science. No private school could match the math available in our local public school- not even close. We have chosen to stick it out in public school and supplement ourselves and privately.
Here is what worked for my HFA bright child with major social skill issues: A weekly ongoing social skills group from early ES to 12th grade. It included a monthly parent group. HFA is on going and children can make progress, but I have yet to see a child "catch up"- so the ongoing social skills group provided help as different issues arose. Think tortoise and not hare. Boy Scouts- with parent participation and intervention when needed. Practicing social protocols Practicing controlling emotions Sunday school and then youth group in our Congregation.- parental participation until HS. Orchestra (or band or chorus) Try to get the school to do social skills group too- or a lunch buddy thing. The more he does and the more exposure to people the better. The tendency is to stop doing social things and that just makes them progress more slowly. Cultivate friendships with other families with similar children and host potlucks. DC did not do theatre, but that is another great activity where the odd duck is embraced and included. This is long slog for the parents. It requires more years of more intense parenting than an NT child. Many more. You can't hire it out, you have to slog through it with them. Take care of yourself, but know that you will have to be actively involved for quite some time. In first grade my HFA son was not invited to one birthday party. When he had his, we invited all the boys in his class to his and everyone but one came. they all dropped off- no parent stayed. They seemed to be using it for babysitting. Most would not look me in the eye at drop off or pick up either. None reciprocated. He was at the bottom of the social ladder in a very toxic group. He was ostracized, kicked, spit on..... We eventually transferred him to another FCPS for the rest of ES. The refresh button helped. It wasn't a cure, DC was still DC and still alienated some of the kids, but not all. He has learned quite a bit- but he had to learn it all cognitively- nothing came naturally. He still has trouble with sarcasm, nuance and body language- but there is improvement. He is now a college freshman at a top ten college (for his major) and is starting to build friendships. It is still hard for him and he still needs coaching, but he is adjusting. He is the stereotype for his major, so he is with his tribe (think Big Bang Theory). |
Anonymous
I looked at Phillips, Accotink, and Kellar (that one only online) for my 2E, HFA funded kid. None of those was appropriate. Frost was the most appropriate but they were full. It was a particularly difficult search because of the behavior and social needs combined with strong academic skills. Being funded is not the Holy Grail I had hoped for, honestly. I really wish the school district could do something within a neighborhood school, but it just never worked for them or for us. Still we are feeling blessed at the amount of help DC is finally receiving. |