Best mainstream privates for kids with mild learning support needs
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Anonymous
Not from the DC area, originally. Would not go public at all if you're hoping to stay private (and based on your list, it sounds like you're interested in highly competitive privates at least for the future if not now). River School (this seems like it would be my top choice based on your description of your child's current needs), NPS, St Patrick's all have more warm environments. Lab and McClean are most similar to the school I was referencing above in another large metro area. |
Anonymous
| Sounds like OP is interested in the higher prestige schools though. |
Anonymous
Your child with mild dyslexia did not need any academic supports? |
Anonymous
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It does seem odd to me, OP, that you are so laser-focused on the biggest name schools in our area. Considering that in the lower grades, many of the K-6 or K-8 schools are arguably more supportive and flexible (and still feed into your schools of interest later), the big name school focus seems less about what is bets for your daughter now and about getting her into a "top" school for the long haul.
I think you are getting this feedback because you haven't listed a single school that isn't in that "top" ilk, and yet the schools you mention are quite different in their approach. Perhaps think about a couple of schools of multiple varieties, and then see how supportive they will be with full disclosure? An educational consultant could also be very helpful here and can look at your daughter's testing/reports, meet her, and then tell you not only where would she get in, but where would she thrive? |
Anonymous
DP. Not dyslexia. |
Anonymous
Not PP, but similar experience and profile. Student did not require in-school academic supports. Did receive out of school supports and at home supports. |
Anonymous
Total opposite experience. Daughter needed support for social emotional, auditory processing/mild dyslexia - was very open and honest during admissions process. Admitted for K. Had a fantastic experience. Learning specialist are all trained in OG; I did not even need additional outside support. Daughter is doing exceptionally well at Holton as a 7th grader. I guess it really depends. I fell, if they thought they could accommodate your child, they would have. NPS is very open to educating ALL children. |
Anonymous
NP. There is a HUGE gray area though. The standards can be very low and the goals can be set very low. Public schools want to see students "make progress" not necessarily "meet their potential." In any case, only extremely needy hard-to-manage kids would get an aide and likely only in K or 1st. I have a child with a very serious writing disability (think under 1st percentile) and his IEP allowed for 30 minutes per week of OT. Needless to say, this was utterly inadequate and thankfully I recognized it immediately and left. Not saying the "pressure cooker" elementaries are the right place either... it's hard to find places where a child can grow in confidence, where his strengths are acknowledged and encouraged and where the weaknesses are addressed (or at the very least supported). Some people can do that in public but many cannot. My friends who's kids have serious LDs but who could not afford to pay for services privately ended up having to send their kids to special needs high schools (Lab and so on) whereas mine is in mainstream now. |
Anonymous
What are the class gender ratios at NPS? Our DS has mild dyslexia, works with an OT tutor for 45 minutes a week, no in school supports needed, and is one of the ALL children that can't be educated in most privates. Ended up in Catholic and it's been great. No in school supports. |
Anonymous
NOT River School. They specialize in hearing impaired students but otherwise not helpful with special accommodations. McClean would be worth a look, Harbor too. NOT Lab for your child unless they have learning disabilities which they don't from what you say. |
Anonymous
What does that have to do with anything? It was pretty even when my kid was there. What do you mean by ALL children can't be educated. What happened? |
Anonymous
Thank you for the further information! Based on what you wrote, I really do think you should at least consider a DCPS with a strong IEP for K. Here's why: in addition to the OT, speech, and push-in you would hopefully get in your IEP, many/most DCPS schools have a very strong K curriculum that is really focused on teaching writing and reading fundamentals. They do a LOT of practice laying the groundwork to form letters, phonics, etc, for all kids. They have very clear goals for ELA. What this meant for my DS with severe fine motor skills (fine motor skills of a 14 month old baby at 4 years old, per the assessment - I didn't actually believe that, but it was bad!) is that in addition to the focused support, he got a TON of practice in methods that are designed to teach young kids from all backgrounds how to read and write. It really worked for him. In contrast, from what I know about privates and some charters, K and 1st are much less focused and still revolved around being play based, etc, and they take more of the attitude of "oh, our kids will learn to read and write, we don't have to worry about it!" Which, fine, may work for some kids. But would not have worked for my kid, and likely not your kid either. Another hint - we ended up getting a strong IEP for K from the DCPS Central private school section because we were entering our IB K from a private preschool. It seems much easier to deal with them then to have to go through the school. So you're in a good position to do that as well. Our first IEP was 2.5 hours of push-in per week, plus 60 mins of OT per week. The special ed teacher often pushed in during writing instruction. What this amounted do was an average of 45 mins/day spent with 1:1 help on his writing. What was really great though was that the whole team also supported him developing his writing skills, so for example the art teacher would encourage him and not let him just do nothing, etc. DCPS also has an aid assigned to each K class, and the aid would give him some additional encouragement. (My DS's issue was that writing was hard, so he would just opt to do nothing unless someone encouraged him to get started.) It's possible you could find the same level of support at a private, but I really think the combination of support PLUS curriculum was what got our DS off to a really great start. He has now aged out of his IEP (3rd grade) and we are letting it lapse for now. |
Anonymous
The problem is this is in no way typical unless you have a child really in need. You really lucked up! |
Anonymous
NP- it's not luck, it's based on evaluations done in school that are not available to private school students. The PP clearly described that their student qualified and then listed the services provided per the IEP, which is a process triggered by school administered test results. If your DC does not meet the evaluative criteria, then no services. It's that simple. No luck involved in public. Private on the other hand can do whatever they want. |
Anonymous
This, usually they hold kids to a higher standard except if you have a lot of money to donate or siblings. I'd find a smaller private school that is more flexible. We have a child with language issues and did this. The school was very warm, welcoming and our child thrived. They made a huge difference and ours was then able to transition to a different school easily after they aged out of that school. Even a k-2/3 would work. |