What are MCPS Self-Contained Classrooms Like for Child with Autism?

[Anonymous]

DS is in first grade in MCPS and has high functioning autism and ADHD. He has a lot of issues with communication beyond subjects he likes and this has led to a lot of general learning delays and behavioral issues (inability to communicate with his peers). DS is currently in the general education classroom with pull out services but we are wondering if he would be better in self-contained classrooms, particularly once they return to school in person.

[Anonymous]

It will be worse. The self contained classrooms are under staffed, and all of the children have behavior problems that yours will learn, and all of the kids are low functioning, and non-verbal. I wish I kept my child in special Ed, instead of moving over to the self contained autism program. Have you considered trying to get your child a personal aide? It's easier to attain if your child is not in a self-contained classroom.

[Anonymous]

HFA kids often go into the Asperger's program. Those are not understaffed. He would spend half the day in self contained with a teacher and two paras, and the other half in general ed with a para for about 3 or 4 asperger kids. He would have to be at or near grade level and comminicate well enough to understand the general ed teacher.

Getting a one-to-one aide is almost impossible in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will be worse. The self contained classrooms are under staffed, and all of the children have behavior problems that yours will learn, and all of the kids are low functioning, and non-verbal. I wish I kept my child in special Ed, instead of moving over to the self contained autism program. Have you considered trying to get your child a personal aide? It's easier to attain if your child is not in a self-contained classroom.

Not my experience at all. Kid was in the Learning Center at Burning Tree. 5 or 6 to a class and all kids were verbal. Biggest problems were number of staff, lack of differentiation and non-adapted specials.

[Anonymous]

Our school has an autism program and it was not understaffed and it's a great program that is completely not appropriate for your child if he's HFA and verbal.

I think there are two Asperger's programs in the county. Diamond and another one. You should ask about those.

[Anonymous]

I didn't see the part about the general learning delays. The Asperger's program is kids who are at grade level or above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't see the part about the general learning delays. The Asperger's program is kids who are at grade level or above.

OP here...His last report card shows he is at grade level (for Kindergarten). He is not good when verbal directions are not directed at him (i.e., given to everyone in the class). He can read simple words and understands what sound each letter of the alphabet makes. His math skills are okay if he is concentrating. He can do double digit addition using methods we've taught him and is starting to understand the concept of multiplication. He can watch a movie and tell us the plot, the characters, and the outcome. We are working on translating those concepts to books.

[Anonymous]

In the self contained programs they are smaller so you run a higher “risk” of a favorable mix or unfavorable mix (relatively speaking). So you child may have good peer modes, or poor peer models. And by good or poor I mean relative to your. Holds strengths/weaknesses, not some absolute scale. This is also the risk in a larger setting but the sample size is larger. For my kid, we chose to stick with the gen ed class with push in/pull out sped. And every year we cross fingers for great case managers and IAs. It’s hit or miss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the self contained programs they are smaller so you run a higher “risk” of a favorable mix or unfavorable mix (relatively speaking). So you child may have good peer modes, or poor peer models. And by good or poor I mean relative to your. Holds strengths/weaknesses, not some absolute scale. This is also the risk in a larger setting but the sample size is larger. For my kid, we chose to stick with the gen ed class with push in/pull out sped. And every year we cross fingers for great case managers and IAs. It’s hit or miss.

Not op, but may I ask what kind of services does your child get in gen ed class with push in/ pull out services? My kid is going to k next year, and I want to know what kind of services are available & helpful for iep plan. He is high function autism, adhd, anxiety, and speech delay. He will be in gen ed class.

[Anonymous]

OP, this is a parent group that has a good breakdown of the various programs in MCPS: https://xminds.org/

Part of your decision will need to be deciding if your child is better served in a gen ed classroom or a self-contained one, but part of that decision will also be deciding if you want your child to remain on a diploma track or not. No judgement on which is right for any child but once you step off that path it is hard to get back on.

I used to work in a self-contained autism classroom, and at least at our elementary school we were well staffed - one teacher and two paras (sometimes a third when children needed 1:1 support) with 6-8 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the self contained programs they are smaller so you run a higher “risk” of a favorable mix or unfavorable mix (relatively speaking). So you child may have good peer modes, or poor peer models. And by good or poor I mean relative to your. Holds strengths/weaknesses, not some absolute scale. This is also the risk in a larger setting but the sample size is larger. For my kid, we chose to stick with the gen ed class with push in/pull out sped. And every year we cross fingers for great case managers and IAs. It’s hit or miss.

Not op, but may I ask what kind of services does your child get in gen ed class with push in/ pull out services? My kid is going to k next year, and I want to know what kind of services are available & helpful for iep plan. He is high function autism, adhd, anxiety, and speech delay. He will be in gen ed class.

Reading support from the sped teacher/case manager to work on academic goals. Usually pull out with a couple other kids
IA coverage (with a group of kids in the same class) during large chunks of the day
Pull out speech (kind of a joke though, and they mostly work on social skills)
PE support as my kid has trouble processing verbal directions in large groups

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is a parent group that has a good breakdown of the various programs in MCPS: https://xminds.org/

Part of your decision will need to be deciding if your child is better served in a gen ed classroom or a self-contained one, but part of that decision will also be deciding if you want your child to remain on a diploma track or not. No judgement on which is right for any child but once you step off that path it is hard to get back on.

I used to work in a self-contained autism classroom, and at least at our elementary school we were well staffed - one teacher and two paras (sometimes a third when children needed 1:1 support) with 6-8 students.

There are at least two MoCo autism programs that are self contained and still on the diploma track: the asperger's program mentioned above and the autism resource service (ARS), for kids who need more support academically but are still diploma track.

[Anonymous]

Avoid the Learning Center at Flora Singer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't see the part about the general learning delays. The Asperger's program is kids who are at grade level or above.

OP here...His last report card shows he is at grade level (for Kindergarten). He is not good when verbal directions are not directed at him (i.e., given to everyone in the class). He can read simple words and understands what sound each letter of the alphabet makes. His math skills are okay if he is concentrating. He can do double digit addition using methods we've taught him and is starting to understand the concept of multiplication. He can watch a movie and tell us the plot, the characters, and the outcome. We are working on translating those concepts to books.

Asperger's program usually starts later. I think in 3rd grade. They sometimes take younger kids but it's more of an exception.

[Anonymous]

What kind of behavioral problems? General spacey-ness, inability to get work done, lack of friends/inability to communicate well with peers, even breaking down if it's quiet are generally not taken too seriously by MCPS. If he's acting out they may be more responsive. It's the worst but that's how it works.