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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I finally was able to get my child placed in a nonpublic setting after 15 months.  As the parent, I was begging for a placement change.  Being in a class of 28 kids was too overwhelming for my child and on a daily basis there was the flight or fight response.

As for discipline, schools cannot do anything.  Then can call the parents to come and get them or have them sit in an office but that's it.  Its a catch 22---if the child is out of the classroom a significant amount, a smart parent will argue that FAPE is not being provided and then the school needs to provide an IEP.  IEPs cost the schools money, they aren't staffed for it, and they cannot support the IEPs that they currently have so they don't want to create more so they don't create a situation where a parent can argue that their child needs one.

I eventually pulled my son from his school and got approved for homebound instruction while I waited for placement.  Here's the thing though--I had the ability to work from home and supervise my kid all day.  On homebound instruction, an adult must be in the house while the teacher is there.  If you don't have this flexibility, homebound is not an option for your family.

We moved from gen ed, to self contained class, to non public.  What surprised me most is how small these classes are.  His self contained class had 10 kids.  His non public has 5.  That's it--for the entire grade.  There has to be room in these programs for more kids.  Or expand the self contained classrooms to more schools.

I know there are more kids that need this type of support.  I believe that if classes were smaller a lot of the behaviors would go away.  Certainly not for all kids, but for a lot of them.  I think we all can agree that smaller classes would benefit all kids.  But that's not going to happen in MCPS.

On another thread, someone asked if you would pay extra taxes for increased special ed services.  I wouldn't for special ed but I would for smaller classes for everyone.[/quote]

Can you clarify what you mean by non public? Is that a charter school? Private? School paid with public funding? Free school provided by private benefactors?[/quote]

Non public is an IEP placement.  It is considered the most restrictive placement.  It is paid for by the school system but it is a private SN school like Ivymount.[/quote]

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