Northern Virginia schools accepting students with Down Syndrome

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Think long and hard about what you want for your kiddo. Most teachers in Catholic aren’t special Ed teachers and don’t know the first thing about how to adapt the curriculum to fit a student with special needs so they actually access learning. Most Catholic schools are not equipped with special resources such as speech therapy, OT, PT and special Ed. It’s ok to admit that special need kids learn differently and need a varied and more targeted approach based on where they are developmentally. If you go Catholic, you’ll be foregoing all the specialized support that they can get early on that’s imbedded in the classroom. It just does not happen even if they tout the buzz terminology “inclusion”. At best they’ll be stuck with an aid who isn’t super knowledgeable who will just do everything for them or have a limited understanding of where they are developmentally and which activities are the “right fit challenge”. The student sadly ends up being along for the ride, but not in the drivers seat. I’ve seen teachers try to make a kid trace their name when they could not even hold a pencil correctly or consistently draw a vertical line. If you have a whole support system of specialists set up who then consult with the teacher that’s certainly better. No doubt Catholic schools have awesome and caring cultures. They want to help but aren’t equipped. Consider public to gain some skills and revisit in HS. Then you can look at O’Connell, which has a specialized program.

You clearly don’t know anything about the Porto Charities programs at the Arlington Diocese schools. There are specialized support programs for K-8 and high school throughout the diocese. These schools have resource centers with dedicated specialists. It’s not just O’Connell.

Here’s a video about the programs: https://youtu.be/d_GKAqi_Ol4

Here’s a list of schools, including K-8s: https://portocharities.org/education

My kids go to one of the schools on the list. It’s wonderful to see all that they do for kids with varying disabilities.