Lab School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know there are some public placements there.

Okay, but the majority of students there are not public placements. How do the majority of you manage to pay the cost to go there? I understand financial aide is limited. What is your personal experience? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Either you are really, really wealthy *or* you get the public school to place your child there which is very difficult. Same as any other special needs private school. They are all outrageously expensive (what is Ivymount? 70k?)

[Anonymous]

My understanding is its much harder to get a private place at Lab than some of the other school, such as Ivymount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is its much harder to get a private place at Lab than some of the other school, such as Ivymount.

And, this comment is relative how?

[Anonymous]

I thought Ivymount frequently ran wait lists.

[Anonymous]

What is the tuition for an 8th grade Lab student?

[Anonymous]

If you have to ask, you can't afford it. Generally the rule with SN school tuition. I think it is around 40k plus addons if you need ST or OT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous[b wrote:]If you have to ask, you can't afford it[/b]. Generally the rule with SN school tuition. I think it is around 40k plus addons if you need ST or OT.

Don't be a twit.

PP, the tuition is on the website: http://www.labschool.org/Page/Admissions/Tuition-and-Fees

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]If you have to ask, you can't afford it[/b]. Generally the rule with SN school tuition. I think it is around 40k plus addons if you need ST or OT.

Don't be a twit.

PP, the tuition is on the website: http://www.labschool.org/Page/Admissions/Tuition-and-Fees

These are this years fees. When will they update site for 2015-2016 tuition. I'm sure it's gone up. It does yearly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]If you have to ask, you can't afford it[/b]. Generally the rule with SN school tuition. I think it is around 40k plus addons if you need ST or OT.

Don't be a twit.

PP, the tuition is on the website: http://www.labschool.org/Page/Admissions/Tuition-and-Fees

Yeah, no snark on Special Needs. WE all have enough troubles as it is.

[Anonymous]

Lab's HS, grades 9-12 WILL coast you $200K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought Ivymount frequently ran wait lists.

Ivymount ALWAYS runs a wait list and are not hurting for students according to our Neuropsych. Hard to get public funding and there is no guarantee that Ivymount will accept the kid into their program even if you can get funding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Ivymount frequently ran wait lists.

Ivymount ALWAYS runs a wait list and are not hurting for students according to our Neuropsych. Hard to get public funding and there is no guarantee that Ivymount will accept the kid into their program even if you can get funding.

+1. Ivymount cherry-picks their students as well. I know a child with autism who had public funding approved
and they wouldn't even meet him-just rejected him based on behavioral problems in the file.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lab's HS, grades 9-12 WILL cost you $200K.

This is true. It may cost a little more, actually. Lab's HS is about $45,000 per year but you have to add the cost of the 1-3 time a week speech therapy sessions (the student is pulled from PE, music or Art) and the OT therapy sessions. These "highly recommended" extras are about $120 a pop and will add up to approx $5K more a year. The shuttle transportation for Virginia or Maryland students cost $2K per year.

You really have to think about this kind of investment. It may be wiser to invest that $200K for your child's future? Our child had a 3.9 in Lab's high school, had excellent grades, was a top student and was accepted to a few colleges.
Unfortunately, like most of her classmates, she was not able to keep up in college, despite hard work, tutoring and some accommodations. It was a huge blow going from being an A student at Lab to failing low level classes at a less than rigorous college.
Today, she struggles with 9 credits (3 classes) at our local community college. Lab did a great job giving her confidence but she is now struggling with the reality of being an LD student in the Real world where she is not the cream of the crop, academically.
For LD kids, The DMV area is brutal. She has become aware that she may not earn enough to live comfortably in this area. Tough realities.

Everyday, we question if we made the right decision spending that kind of money on high school. $200K could have been turned into much more. It could have been a nice little fund to supplement her life expenses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lab's HS, grades 9-12 WILL cost you $200K.

This is true. It may cost a little more, actually. Lab's HS is about $45,000 per year but you have to add the cost of the 1-3 time a week speech therapy sessions (the student is pulled from PE, music or Art) and the OT therapy sessions. These "highly recommended" extras are about $120 a pop and will add up to approx $5K more a year. The shuttle transportation for Virginia or Maryland students cost $2K per year.

You really have to think about this kind of investment. It may be wiser to invest that $200K for your child's future? Our child had a 3.9 in Lab's high school, had excellent grades, was a top student and was accepted to a few colleges.
Unfortunately, like most of her classmates, she was not able to keep up in college, despite hard work, tutoring and some accommodations. It was a huge blow going from being an A student at Lab to failing low level classes at a less than rigorous college.
Today, she struggles with 9 credits (3 classes) at our local community college. Lab did a great job giving her confidence but she is now struggling with the reality of being an LD student in the Real world where she is not the cream of the crop, academically.
For LD kids, The DMV area is brutal. She has become aware that she may not earn enough to live comfortably in this area. Tough realities.

Everyday, we question if we made the right decision spending that kind of money on high school. $200K could have been turned into much more. It could have been a nice little fund to supplement her life expenses.

To get a little off topic, we feel that the tuition we pay at another private LD high school program is worth it - DD is learning and enjoying herself. I do question though whether it is a good investment to pay for an expensive private college that provides a lot of additional tutoring (depending on the college that may be not be included in the tuition and may be a few thousand more dollars per year). At some point you do have to face up to the fact that in "real life" you don't have a lot of accommodations and have to do the best you can without them. I am wondering if sending the child to community college and then helping them set up a business might not be a better use of the money.