Anonymous wrote:I have a current 7th grade boy at SCMS. He claims that there is no bullying at the school. Fwiw, I have been a teacher for 20 years and have been extremely impressed by the school these past two years.

Anonymous wrote:I have an ADHD senior in an MCPS high school in Bethesda (not Silver Creek/BCC), and I just want to point out that the private-public transition will go more smoothly if you do it now in middle school, than in 9th grade when there is no more room for error. When your kid applies to college, admissions officers will see the first 3 years of high school and summers, and then first semester grades of senior year. High school is enough of a transition already, you want your kid to know the ropes, be used to MCPS, have the 8th grade counselors present their 9th grade options to them, etc, enroll in 9th grade classes early in the winter of 8th grade with the rest of their peers, etc.

My senior has severe inattentive ADHD, so not the same symptoms, but I have to say, MCPS is well-versed in ADHD! It's very common, and teachers know the symptoms. However, it's also public school, and their hands are tied if there are no formal accommodations. So the first order of business is getting that 504. According to your description, it does not sound like your child is severely impacted enough to get an IEP, but you can always ask the psychologist who evaluated him, if they're worth their salt, they will know.
You must contact the school, ask for a meeting to determine eligibility for an IEP, present your documents, and hopefully come out with a 504 with preferential seating, repeated directions, frequent breaks, possibly extended time if your kid needs it, or a resource class instead of an elective (pro: additional time with teacher to organize work, con: can be loud and full of behaviorally challenged students). The main point of the 504 for mildly affected kids is to flag the student to their teachers as having a legitimate need instead of being willfully rude. MCPS is GREAT (read - way too lenient) about letting kids do make-ups for tests, so your kid can take full advantage of that. Mine does! He's going to have a rude awakening in college!

Social skills are not taught in MCPS for such students, OP, so you'll have to work on that on your own. Several psychologists' practice in the area have social skills groups, but we've had mixed results with them - success is highly dependent on the particular group of students they can bring together, and you can't control that.

Academics: MCPS middle school is the ramping up to get to high school readiness, where students are tracked in math, and start foreign languages. If you harbor any ambition at all when it comes to colleges, be aware that the middle school track your child is placed into will determine what math courses (and then science courses, because there are prerequisites) they can access in high school. Make sure your child has rock-solid math, reading comprehension and writing skills, and tutor if necessary. In MCPS, with grade inflation and no - or +, anything less than an A means the student may not have entirely understood the material, which may pose problems later since many topics, particularly math and languages, build on the previous year.

Anonymous wrote:Middle school is the weakest part of MCPS. I’d keep him in private and then move for B-CC.

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t have a good experience but my kid was there during the pandemic and diagnosed at the same time. Being a girl the school was also not picking up on stuff. I’d say keep him in private until high school but others may feel differently.