MCPS special programs

[Anonymous]

We are trying go get one DC into ARS once she starts middle school (we’ve been told by the autism unit that she would be appropriate for this program once middle school starts but they declined to agree to place her in the aspergers program). We are beginning the process now of requesting that our older DC be placed in the GT/LD program (she just started middle school and is struggling - she meets to criteria for GT/LD). My question is this. We live in DCC area. Assuming MCPS agrees with us or we get an advocate who is successful in persuading them, will our DC necessarily be placed in Silver Spring International (where the ARS program is) and Lee Middle School (where the GT/LD program is), to move on to HS at Northwood? Or, is it possible for example to be placed in a different area of the county? In other words, are your home School boundaries always the determining factor in terms of the location of the special program where the child is placed?

[Anonymous]

They use home school boundaries. Specific HS clusters are feeders into specific program locations. If you're in the Churchill cluster your child might go to the GT/LD program at North Bethesda MS but if you're in Germantown there might be a different location.

The child would return to his or her home HS at the end of MS unless the IEP teams she will be moving into another program and the HS locations for those programs aren't necessarily the zoned HS for the MS program for the same type of disability.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/enriched/gtld/faq.aspx

If you want more information you should ask for this to be moved to the special needs section.