Dyslexia and Arlington Elementary
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Anonymous
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How does Arlington County Schools assist kids with dyslexia? What is their approach to teaching children to learn to read? Do they use a balanced literacy approach or a structured literacy approach within the classroom? If a child needs extra reading assistance from an ESE teacher, what programs do they use? Wilson? Seeing Stars?
Does the school even say the words dyslexia. My children have an official diagnosis and will have an IEP from out of state when we arrive, so I am not asking about the IEP process. Thanks. |
Anonymous
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APS is moving towards structure literacy and SOR but it is new. It’s not called ESE here, it’s called a special Ed teacher and the model for most is mainstream in general Ed setting. We started using Lexia this year and some schools also have Fundations, Wilson, OG for small groups. That’s really school dependent.
If you are coming in with an IEP the school will meet within a few days and create a transfer IEP matching the services you had before. Then they have 30 days to create a district IEP after getting to know your child. We do say dyslexia however dyslexia is a diagnosis and not a category of IEP eligibility. It falls under SLD as you know. |
Anonymous
| Our school has OG for small groups. One thing that bothers me is even with the IEP they wait 2-3 months to start it because they need to do “assessments” for everyone. I think the IEP should override that since it is an assessment for my child. In reality, perhaps they lack resources. Agree with pp, very dependent on Lexia, which is somewhat helpful when my child is focusing on it but we need to sit there otherwise they will press buttons randomly. Very hit and miss whether the school will incorporate tactile elements as recommended for dyslexia. |
Anonymous
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Public schools are not equipped to help kids with dyslexia. Teachers don’t receive training in dyslexia (maybe reading specialists, maybe, but you’d have to have them in a dedicated reading remediation class to access them if so). IEPs usually have completely inappropriate goals and supports because again, very few know how to address dyslexia or teach around it. It’s misunderstood and neither teaching programs nor PD actually prepare us for how to support students who have it. You will need OG or Lindamood Bell to see real progress.
-teacher |
Anonymous
X1000. Some schools will fight tooth and nail not to diagnose your kid or argue with your private testing. I know it’s changing but APS did not teach phonics for years. The basics for reading they just didn’t teach!! For dyslexic kids that’s disastrous. Schools are so overcrowded and short staffed in support area kids don’t get the help they need. Depending on the severity level of the dyslexia I wouldn’t even consider APS. If you do go with APS you will need a private OG tutor outside of school. School supports will be laughable. -mom of a recently diagnosed kid that APS deemed normal at grade level. We’re now private with 3x/ week OG tutoring because he’s 3 years behind grade level. But APS he’s fine. Run far far away from APS |
Anonymous
| Strategy: Go in super sweet and collaborative as opposed to guns a blazing. You get more with honey. |
Anonymous
Doesn’t matter how you go in. The supports are not there. You can be a sweet as you want but they don’t have the help you need. |
Anonymous
Yep. I’m the teacher PP. it’s not that if you’re mean they’ll withhold support and if you’re nice they’ll give it to you. You’ll get what they can give you either way but for dyslexia it simply will not be sufficient. It’s not out of maliciousness or spite. The training for that disability isn’t there for us to support your child with dyslexia as they need. |
Anonymous
Another teacher here, I am OG trained. Unfortunately one major issue is that dyslexic students really need early identification (which is starting to happen but not widely), and intense, explicit instruction for a good 45-1hr/day 4-5 days per week, ongoing. That's very difficult to do within the parameters of the typical school day without your child missing other general ed instruction and the staffing needed to have a small group meet that frequently. At my school we have 2 intense small groups and those students miss a lot of the general classroom instruction but at this point we've decided they've got to improve their reading before middle school. But it's at the expense of a lot of other content and instruction. |
Anonymous
| One thing that really got me in APS is that they wouldn’t permit us to bring in a private tutor during the day who was willing to meet with my child at lunch. My 3rd grader was not able to handle an hour of tutoring on top of a full school day, but the school was unwilling to give him meaningful interventions. |
Anonymous
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The advice you are getting above is good. Look at Lab, Siena or McLean. I know kids that have left Arlington to go to these schools. Those who have left early enough have sometimes been able to return for high school as they've caught up.
Signed, Teacher with a degree in Reading |
Anonymous
Public schools can’t just have some random “tutor” come in during the day when they are responsible for your child to pull them and tutor. |
Anonymous
Oh I get it, it just drove me nuts. The whole day was a waste of time. We bailed for private and our current school spends the whole day teaching my kid using instructional techniques that actually ... educate him. |
Anonymous
| Terrible!!!!! Run. Do not enroll your kid. They will do everything in their power to not help your kid. The parents I know with dyslexic kids either moved to expensive specialized private schools or hired educational consultants. |
Anonymous
NP. It was allowed previously in some schools. We were going to explore it for this year, but heard it wasn't allowed so we had to go private. |