Where can I find a list of DCPS and DCPCS with Early learning Support class rooms and Learning Labs?
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mcjd79
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I am trying to figure out what DCPS and DCPCS offer Special Education Class rooms. Specifically Early Learning support class rooms and Learning Lab / resource room for PrK students.
I can't find a way to sort on the DC schools website or any indication of s services offered and the schools guide book handed out at the educational fairs. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
| For charters - St Colettas, CMI and Bridges |
Anonymous
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Are you a parent, or a teacher looking for a job?
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mcjd79
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Parent. Possibly looking for a aid position after little is settled in school. |
mcjd79
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Thank you. Bridges is the only one with a sperate wait list for higher special needs correct? |
mcjd79
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Thank you! I totally missed that page when looking today. |
Anonymous
St Colettas is all SN; for very disabled children. Doesn't have a lottery. Bridges does a separate SN lottery for children w/IEPs that have a threshold level of hours. No separate lottery for CMI. The DCPS SN classrooms are accessed by working through Early Stages only. You can't just enroll or apply to them directly. It is an IEP team decision. |
Anonymous
For the prek3 & prek4 classrooms you get a spot through early stages, just to be clear. For older kid it's through the school where the child is enrolled. |
Anonymous
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No - not if your child needs a self-contained classrooms, which is what OP was asking about.
The early stages seats that are held for Early Stages are for students with IEPs in the general ed classroom. |
mcjd79
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Already working with Early Stages. For prek if a IEP is issued Early Stage will find a seat in a DCPS school that can provide all of the needed services (be it self contained or standard class room with extra support). Of course if it is a 'early stages seat' the family has no say in what school the seat is offered. Sure you can turn it down and go to a lottery charter or different DCPS. But then the services may be adjusted to 'equitable' if the needed support services are not available at the school you select or got through the lottery.
If we get a lottery spot at a charter it becomes more of a grey area of the school can do their own IEP. And they have some discretion providing exactly what is on the ES IEP vrs 'Equitable Services' depending on their in house resources vrs bringing specialists in for the student. Certainly not all schools can accommodate every special need as well as others. For some students a small group or private aide might work just as well as a specialized classroom for others it would not. (Not sure why charters who get DC money aren't held to the same standards for meeting IEPs. But that is a while different thead and conversation.) How much time spent pushing into a regular class room vrs in a specialized class room is still being determined. I did want to get my information gathered and be prepared for either possibility. Thanks for the help! |
Anonymous
I think they are held to the same standards for IEPs, but they are separate districts. If you enter a charter with an IFSP or an IEP from Early Stages/early intervention the new 'district' (aka the charter school) must match services as closely as possible immediately, and re-evaluate within 60 days. It's as if you went from DCPS to Arlington or Los Angeles with an IEP. For the first few weeks they have to follow what you negotiated with DCPS -- but then they can begin the whole process again, and even, potentially find you ineligible. Of course as a parent you are part of the IEP team. IME I have felt like I have more of a role in developing the IEP in charters, than I did in DCPS, which usually felt like 'here's what you get.' Good luck. |