Reply to Accomodations for selective mutism (MCPS)

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Reply to "Accomodations for selective mutism (MCPS)"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm sorry but I don't think this is going to happen in a public school. The teachers come back to school on a specific day to prepare their classrooms and according to their union contract. They aren't going to come to school on 3 separate occasions to meet with your daughter. Forget about it after school starts - there will be 25 other 5-year-olds in the classroom.

It sounds like your daughter would really benefit from a small and nurturing environment.[/quote]

We tried MCPS and were unsucessful; we moved our child midyear to a smaller private school that would take her.  (We did not need 'that much,' but MCPS was completely unable to provide it.)  My child had a rigid case, and the school was beyond impossible to work with. We tried to get an IEP etc., in advance, and MCPS kept saying no. The school kept telling us it was 'not a big deal.'  The teacher was caught in the middle and, we were told, due to union agreements, unable to help us.  If MCPS had been able to 'give' my kid what you are asking for--instead of having the teacher/guidence couselor/ etc. waste hours of time in meetings with us-- it would likely have been 'over.'  MCPS offered accomodations including to teach my kid sign language (for a child who had been verbal in preschool but was unable to make the transition to speaking to anyone in MCPS).

OP, you sound like you know what you need/are getting good support.  My advice is to ask in the Parents of SM Facebook Group (which is quite active-- I'll look for your question there and we can private message if helpful/you are in MCPS).  And, if it is a larger system like this (and especially one of the 'better' elementary schools)-- to try to get into a private setting for at least a few years. (We switched my kid to private--which was an unplanned for expense/a stretch; the school 'gave' us the probably 2 hours of time she needed in a way she needed it, and she was verbal immediatly in the school ).

Our analysis was that mcps is positioned to provide good supports to people with 'typical' issues like ADHD, autism, etc. (I know it is not perfect).  It was completely unable to provide support for SM, which is less standard.  Also, don't expect much from the guidence counselors at the public school. They are overwhemled and they have also likely been 'taught' things about SM that have not been accurate for the last 10+ years; we also kept getting told by the school that kids just grow out of SM.

Lastly, we were told that in the 'better' clusters/districts that SO many kids have IEPs etc.in kindergraten. We were seen as what today would be 'another set of karen parents.'  Our peer-SM families we knew locally, who happened to live in clusters that were not the 'better' clusters, had better luck/cooperation in getting less traditional accomodation for their kids.[/quote]

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