Anonymous wrote:I'm soooo confused by this. You say your child doesn't need a specialized school, but does require "frequent, intensive one-on-one tutoring" and "It would never work without the intensive tutoring". Frankly it sounds like your child is EXACTLY who should be attending a specialized school. I'm bemused by how you don't seem to see that.

NP here. Bemused, do you have experience with a specialized school that does intensive structured literacy with your child multiple times per week over and above the normal literature, grammar and writing instruction tailored to a student with dyslexia? I would be interested to hear where you are, and how your experience has been.

Anonymous wrote:We like option #2. I have difficulty gauging the severity but our child is nearing grade level with frequent, intensive one-one tutoring outside of school. This is clearly the most costly option but I prefer it for now as the child does not seem to require a specialized school and is attached to the school. It would never work without the intensive tutoring.

I think for many families you have to try one of the options and test it out before you know for sure. That’s not easy, I know! Good luck!

I'm soooo confused by this. You say your child doesn't need a specialized school, but does require "frequent, intensive one-on-one tutoring" and "It would never work without the intensive tutoring". Frankly it sounds like your child is EXACTLY who should be attending a specialized school. I'm bemused by how you don't seem to see that.

This is such a hard call and something we are thinking about. Currently leaning towards a Catholic school with a strong support program (ie teachers trained in OG) and may add additional tutoring if needed.s only 3 and we have time to figure it out and hopefully she won’t need the support.

I am dyslexic and thinking back about the experience of me and my friends (I went to a special camp for kids with learning disabilities) I think there are pros and cons to each of the options you listed (except none of my friends did public school with just an IEP, they also had tutors for what it’s worth). The sad truth is every option is expensive, and finding the perfect combination is difficult.

My recommendation would be to have your child evaluated by a psychologist that specializes in learning issues and discuss the options with them. That was useful for my parents when I was young and ultimately led us down option #2 with the psychologist helping my parents identify the right private school to meet my needs. Now that was supplemented by YEARS of tutoring and special programs, however by middle school I was on track with some accommodations.

My only complaint with my private school was as I got older, they had a hard time providing me with the appropriate level of support and challenge (essentially it felt like they did not know how to serve a bright kid with a learning disability).

We like option #2. I have difficulty gauging the severity but our child is nearing grade level with frequent, intensive one-one tutoring outside of school. This is clearly the most costly option but I prefer it for now as the child does not seem to require a specialized school and is attached to the school. It would never work without the intensive tutoring.

I think for many families you have to try one of the options and test it out before you know for sure. That’s not easy, I know! Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:We just started at Lab and it is amazing. We can finally be parents again. And her reading has improved dramatically.

What grade? Do you Olán to stay through middle/ high school?

Specialized School (we are at McLean School). Provided the intervention needed for dyslexia, but also gave us the more traditional private school experience of activities/sports/etc to get involved in. Was transformational for her b/c it gave her the right instruction she needed in a non-stigmatizing way.

Anonymous wrote:I also posted on S/N and public school board....

Which worked better for you:

- Public school (w or w/o IEP and outside tutoring)
- Private school w/outside tutoring (OG tutor, etc.)
- Specialized school (i.e. Lab, Siena, etc.)

I'm at a cross roads for my 2nd grader.....

It really depends on the severity of the dyslexia. Have you spoken about this with the provider who identified the learning difference?

We just started at Lab and it is amazing. We can finally be parents again. And her reading has improved dramatically.

PP here. Sorry, should be improved her reading, not her tutoring

We went with Option #2 (private with tutoring). I think the ideal is a specialized school but the closest one was too far away for a reasonable commute (think 2 hours in traffic).

We had tried public and had an IEP, but enforcing it was a full time job and DC was picked on by teachers and peers and very isolated. The resource room was helpful but more than she needed, but she would get nothing in the classroom. She only improved her tutoring with outside tutoring that we paid for.

If we were paying for tutoring anyway, we figured we might as well get the smaller class sizes, etc. in private. We chose a very small private. They were flexible in allowing us to do specialized tutoring online during the block when other kids were taking Spanish (my DD tried Spanish and it did not go well). Honestly, best decision we ever made.

If I had it to do over, I probably would have sucked up the commute (2 hours each way) for a few years, but I had to work to pay for it and it all seemed impossible at the time.

We went with option 1. DS had an IEP (in MCPS). It really did not offer much but something. By spending our money on tutoring rather than private school we got 1:1 help and we had complete control over who/when/how much/technique etc. Anything MCPS added was just icing. I suppose if we had found the perfect private school that would have been better but I am not sure that exists. A special needs school seemed too much and had kids with many issues. A more standard private that just offered smaller classrooms did not seem worth it to us. DS is in college. He still struggles but he reads well and knows that he needs to avoid handwritten things if at all possible.

We chose a specialized private school (Oakwood) for our then 4th grader. Tuition is expensive, but I don't have to find and pay for outside tutors. And, our child is actually happy (most of the time) at school.

FCPS does not have the capability to provide meaningful help for kids with dyslexia, despite what an IEP may say. We plan to switch back to public for middle school after 3 years at Oakwood and at a point when our child can focus mostly on accommodations rather than a need to reading instruction.

OP: I haven’t really had success in public school. Very tiring. The class size is huge and I feel, she’s falling more behind due to being ignored. She was supposed to get some sort of weekly reading help but they also cancel.

1)Specialized school, if it is an affordable option. These schools are honed in on how a child with learning differences learns and they have some amazing programs. Schools like lab have goals based on executive functioning and provide classes that are very multi-sensory.
2)Public if it is a strong one and if the team actually carries through on accommodations and goals (if you have an IEP). Sometimes if the deficits aren't wide enough to impact learning, you will not qualify for accommodations or IEP
3) Private with tutoring can make for a frustrating situation if your student is struggling all day and then needs to do tutoring outside of the school day, in addition to HW. If the private knows about your student's challenges and is familiar with how to address learning differences, then that's a different story, but seems doubtful (depending upon severity of the issue)

May want to seek out evaluation testing and have the psychologist make some recommendations-every child is so different!

I also posted on S/N and public school board....

Which worked better for you:

- Public school (w or w/o IEP and outside tutoring)
- Private school w/outside tutoring (OG tutor, etc.)
- Specialized school (i.e. Lab, Siena, etc.)

I'm at a cross roads for my 2nd grader.....