Reply to Bridge Services at Churchill

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Bridge Services at Churchill "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]All kids are allowed to participate in extracurriculars and clubs. Most of the clubs are held during lunch or during PRIDE time (similar to homeroom). Clubs are very welcoming. Drama is also a great group of kids.

There are also new sports options called Allied sports which are supposed to be an easier way in for kids with disabilities. I know there is handball and bocce. There might be others. My child did not participate in them, but I have seen emails.

From what I have heard, Bridge is a school within a school. It is in the Churchill building but their classes are mostly separate. That doesn't mean that kids that can handle it aren't allowed to mainstream, but it sounds like it is an IEP team decision. Therefore, there is as much or as little interaction with the other kids as your child wants.[/quote]

NP.  If Bridge is a school within a school, do the Bridge kids change classes with the rest of the students.  I could forsee my kid having an issue with the number of kids in the halls in between classes and not understanding that when he gets jostled, it's not someone hitting him, it's just people moving fast through the halls.[/quote]

OP here.  My understanding is that Bridge is a hallway all on it's own and the self-contained classes are only Bridge kids, so your kid would not have to deal with the masses in switching classes.  But, my understanding (which I hope is true) is that they can join clubs that meet during lunch or take electives or other classes in the mainstream school if they want to.  [/quote]

My son went to ESESES which is also a self contained program within a school. In theory kids could join clubs and participate in after school activities. But in reality it had to be approved by the IEP team. They could also take classes in the regular school with IEP team approval. My son got approval to take theater in the regular school but he didn’t make it long. He was pretty ostracized. The other kids all had their groups and he knew no one. It’s really not that easy to go from self contained into the mainstream. Maybe if your DD takes the same school bus as the other Churchill kids, she won’t have the same issues. My son had his own bus and didn’t have a chance to meet kids outside the program.

Not sure if Bridge is the same but thought I’d share. [/quote]

Thank you for your honestly. Was it hard to get approved for clubs and activities?[/quote]

Not initially. But after it wasn’t successful it got harder. And everything was dependent on performance within the program which wasn’t where they had hoped. And then there was covid which added another layer.

One issue was elopement. The school did everything they could to prevent it and, frankly, it was harder to leave from the self contained wing so they didn’t like having kids in the mainstream areas. I really didn’t see or hear of kids successfully integrating. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics