Reply to For your MCPS child with disabilities, how well is your school implementing IEP / 504?

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Reply to "For your MCPS child with disabilities, how well is your school implementing IEP / 504?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Students with disabilities were denied access to the curriculum during online learning because MCPS was quick to restrict accommodations and services. Now that school is in person, is your child receiving the accommodations and services formalized on an IEP or 504 plan?[/quote]
About the same as pre-Covid.    In my son's case the disaster that was online "learning" was not because MCPS was restricting services but more that there was nothing that could be done remotely.  We as a community failed my child and countless others by deprioritizing in-person learning.     He had a sham of a "plan" but there was truly nothing that could be done.  Completely lost year.   [/quote]

My child has lost two years.

Last year, staff sent in reports that said his accommodations could not be provided online. Services could have been provided online via Zoom, however a State investigation confirmed that the school just didn’t provide the services.  My child simply couldn’t keep up without the support. He fell behind in his classes and gaps in math are seriously impacting him this year.

This year, MCPS delayed discussing and providing compensatory services, teachers repeatedly failed to implement my child’s IEP, and staffing shortages impacted his access to special education services. Instead of helping my child make up progress lost last year, his school has been content to let him continue to decline.  About halfway through the year, we started paying for private services that my child should be getting at school. We are preparing to take MCPS to Due Process for the harm that has been done. [/quote]

I will start by saying that we are generally happy with our school and especially my DC main early elementary teacher. She seems to be doing well enough but I’m starting to get the sense her case manager is not supervising things as well as earlier and a few things have slipped lately. I have to imagine this is due to overwhelming needs of other children and since so far my kid is mostly doing well I have not complained but am trying to keep a sense of what is actually happening so I can complain if necessary. I feel the her main teacher is doing extra things to help out but I’m worried if next year’s teacher will not be so amazing.

During distance learning we had to sign a virtual IEP which basically admitted most accommodations would not happen. She did have one weekly service virtually which was fairly useless because my child just can’t access anything virtually. It was absolutely a lost year. We just had a discussion about compensatory services but we had already paid for private extra services starting in the fall with in person providers so the case manager really discouraged us from pursuing additional compensatory services through MCPS. That was the first time I felt really upset with how our child’s IEP was handled. Virtual learning was a disaster and my kid really needed help to catch up so yeah we weren’t going to wait until spring to talk about how that might happen. I think most of my frustration is related to virtual learning and the fall out from that, so it will be interesting to see how the next couple of years go.[/quote]

40% of students with disabilities fell behind in reading and math during online learning. When will the compensatory services students have been provided begin? Why can’t extra services be provided during school hours? Students with disabilities faced discrimination during the lack of services and accommodations during online learning and the way MCPS is planning on delivering compensatory services is to deny students an opportunity to participate in after school activities such as athletics to access the compensatory services.[/quote]

I’m sympathetic because I understand there is no magic want to make the staff appear for this to happen but also it’s been a year since we started to see signs about the effects of virtual learning on academic performance. Similar for behavior issues, although any parent could have told you that in March 2020! We are lucky that we can private pay for everything but it’s a lot to cram in. My kid doesn’t do any sports or dance or anything on school days because we are doing extra therapy and other stuff to catch up and it’s almost too much already. I wish more could be during the school day for that reason.[/quote]

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