Private day schools in VA for ASD and ED?
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Anonymous
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We are in the western end of Prince William County, so maybe this is a long shot, but is anyone familiar with placement options at private day schools for a middle schooler with HFA, dyslexia, and emotional disability? DS is on grade level and on a diploma track but has significant issues with flexible thinking and behavioral outbursts. He's at a public school for kids with ED -- Pace West -- but he continues to have verbal outbursts that are being escalated rather than de-escalated and a couple of times he's taken a swing at a teacher. The other professionals are a little surprised that the school hasn't been better able to handle this, but we all have the sense the school just wants DS out. My DH had a meeting with county resources today and they brought up placement at a private day school but I don't know what those options are. I've started reaching out to get a special education advocate, but I'm just hoping to maybe stop worrying quite as much in the meantime if I have some idea of the options going forward.
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Anonymous
| My friend had a really bad experience with her son at Alternate Paths-Manassas.I would look into the Phillips -Fairfax building or the Kellar Center. There aren’t a lot of options in PWC that I know of. |
Anonymous
| An advocate is a waste of time. You will get better info on here for free. Google “VAISEF”—there will be a list of schools that take public placements. |
Anonymous
This is OP. Since PWCS has invested so much in Pace West and Independence Hill, my sense is that they don't do placements very often. I know our psychiatrist mentioned Phillips but I'm completely unfamiliar with Kellar School. |
Anonymous
| Phillips and Kellar. |
Anonymous
| Kellar focuses more on mental health issues; Phillips focuses more on autism/behavioral. The kids at Kellar are “higher functioning” for lack of a better word and more likely to be kids who were able to be in mainstream/general ed classes before a mental health crisis. You can call both schools and talk to their admissions people and see which might be a better fit. I have also heard bad things about Alternative Paths in Manassas. There aren’t a lot of options at all in PWC. |
Anonymous
| I just looked up “pace west”—it’s part of the “independence non traditional school”? The article about independence (if it’s accurate) about it sounds amazing. You won’t find anything better than that at the local private special ed schools. Have they brought in a behavioral specialist to amend his BIP (if he has one)? |
Anonymous
Independence non-traditional school is what used to be Pace East / Independence Hill before the new buildings and rebranding. Pace West is a sister school in Gainesville/Haymarket. Both are schools for kids with ED and related special education needs so all students have an IEP and, I would guess, most have BIPs, including my son. On paper, it does sound really good with the small class sizes, integrated services, etc. It's really frustrating that we've reached this point where DS is having escalating outbursts. He goes weeks where everything is perfect and then something happens. At a meeting last week I did bring up redoing an FBA and BIP and got some pushback. I understand that when DS's school counselor talked to his therapist and the therapist brought it up, they didn't seem to want to budge (but I got this 2nd hand from DH). |
Anonymous
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Find out what schools they are recommending before you agree to change the placement from public special ed to private day. They will push back because it sounds like they want to get rid of home but be 100% firm that you aren’t agreeing to a more restrictive placement until you have toured what they are offering.
I would try to figure out what is going on at school to drive the outbursts, what does your son say? Is there a certain staff member who is usually involved in the situation? |
Anonymous
| Is switching to the Independence building an option? |
Anonymous
| If he is going multiple weeks between outbursts at a special ed school for kids with ASD and ED, then he is doing OK there and I would want the FBA redone to try and figure out what is going on. I would also look at adjusting any medication (has he grown a lot since it was last adjusted etc). Moving to a more restrictive setting should be a last resort. |
Anonymous
DS's outbursts are almost always motivated by an instance of perceived unfairness. The last one could have been prevented if someone had walked him through the implications of a decision he was making -- he was doing something very good but he didn't understand that by making the choice to work on one thing, he would loose the opportunity to participate in something else due to limited time. Then when he was ready to move on to the second thing and was told that time was up, he lost it. To me it would be second nature to walk him through the implications of a decision because it's predictable what would happen and pretty shocking to me that this is somehow new considering they claim to have ~15% of the student body with ASD. |
Anonymous
His psychiatrist is reluctant to change meds because we're not seeing the same problems at home that we are at school. |
Anonymous
I don't know .. that's an interesting question though. It's less convenient and a longer bus ride but maybe a better fit for DS. |
Anonymous
Still is probably a lot closer to you than Fairfax or Annandale, where the private day schools are |