When you say struggling do you mean behind grade level or that they have to work really hard to stay at grade level?

Anonymous wrote:What about Paper, the online tutoring service APS offers?

+1

Our middle school (DHMS) offers homework help after school. In addition to a study hall when you can reach out to teachers for help. Not exactly tutoring but some extra support is there if needed.

If your kid is testing behind I believe APS creates a learning plan to help remediate. How is he testing on school assessments?

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Virtual school was completely unhelpful for my DC. Have a strong aversion to online support services. Virtual school taught him how to manipulate Lexus and the iPad to work in his favor and make it look like he knew how to spell etc, while he just made the iPad work for him.

Really I was just hoping to get a baseline understand of what is being offered across the county and use that to shape my advocacy.

Our DC has a 504 for adhd though the pediatrician described it as quite mild. He bas always struggled with academics and we had him tested/evaluated and everything came back in the normal range with no learning disabilities.

He really just does best with focused small group or individual support. We do this at home but we also work full time and have another child. Also, it was APS decision to close for as long as they did during Covid—not mine—they can go ahead and use their funding and support kids with academic recovery like other districts are doing.

I get you are frustrated and feel this goes back to COVID and it is APS responsibility to help your child and you want to advocate for that. In the meantime, if you can afford it, you should hire a tutor. Don’t let your child keep falling further behind to prove a point.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Virtual school was completely unhelpful for my DC. Have a strong aversion to online support services. Virtual school taught him how to manipulate Lexus and the iPad to work in his favor and make it look like he knew how to spell etc, while he just made the iPad work for him.

Really I was just hoping to get a baseline understand of what is being offered across the county and use that to shape my advocacy.

Our DC has a 504 for adhd though the pediatrician described it as quite mild. He bas always struggled with academics and we had him tested/evaluated and everything came back in the normal range with no learning disabilities.

He really just does best with focused small group or individual support. We do this at home but we also work full time and have another child. Also, it was APS decision to close for as long as they did during Covid—not mine—they can go ahead and use their funding and support kids with academic recovery like other districts are doing.

If only they would have. But now the money is all gone. APE is the only group I’ve seen advocate for APS to do more to help kids recover academically. You’d think ASEAC or septa would be interested, but they haven’t been.

OP here. Virtual school was completely unhelpful for my DC. Have a strong aversion to online support services. Virtual school taught him how to manipulate Lexus and the iPad to work in his favor and make it look like he knew how to spell etc, while he just made the iPad work for him.

Really I was just hoping to get a baseline understand of what is being offered across the county and use that to shape my advocacy.

Our DC has a 504 for adhd though the pediatrician described it as quite mild. He bas always struggled with academics and we had him tested/evaluated and everything came back in the normal range with no learning disabilities.

He really just does best with focused small group or individual support. We do this at home but we also work full time and have another child. Also, it was APS decision to close for as long as they did during Covid—not mine—they can go ahead and use their funding and support kids with academic recovery like other districts are doing.

What about Paper, the online tutoring service APS offers?

Have you hired a tutor? What have you done to help at home? If you can afford it, that is step one. What does the teacher say? What interventions have been given already?

Anonymous wrote:OP here--couldn't agree more re: how APS disgustingly wasted their fed funds.

Will try out some of the other suggestions. Appreciate the thoughts.

We already have a meeting with the school following up on an OT evaluation in two weeks. We are on the radar, but, it seems like the preferred path is to wait for someone to fail and then maybe maybe offer them some intervention services. I'm wanting to be able to count on summer school since it sounds like DC may qualify this year, but, recall last year that they could barely staff it. Ugh.

Just feel disillusioned and helpless.

1) did you do just an OT evaluation? Or an educational as well? OT is a related service and not a standalone service. You can only get it as part of an iep, not the only thing.

2) summer school this year is for students in the red for DIBELS after mid year AND in below basic (red). Must be both.

Our school just finished a session of before/after school tutoring for reading Intervention. It was Lexia and lessons pulled from the Lexia curriculum.

There is almost nothing offered for the thousands of kids who need tier 2/3 intervention. Yes thousands. Tier 1 is generally regular instruction and tier 2/3 are more intensive interventions. APS hired only 12 interventionists with the millions of federal aid they got. 6 for math and 6 for reading. Teachers are burning out from the expectations.

No kind of plan to do before or after school tutoring. Fairfax offers before and after school tutoring. dc adding it. If your kid is in APS, they’ll get more dreambox and lexia. And they don’t have any plan to serve more kids in summer school. All the extra money is gone.

Don’t worry though, they’ll grade them on a compressed standard (yippee, everyone meets the standard! and give them SEL classes to make them feel better about the fact that they can’t read or write. And if gaslighting and SEL aren’t enough and your kid gets depressed and buys drugs in their school and ODs in the bathroom, the teacher can give them narcan so syphax doesn’t have to worry about bad media coverage.

Sorry OP. If your kid does need special education services , I hope they get the intervention they need. But you should be thinking about how to find what your kid needs because APS is just gaslighting everyone that everything is fine.

OP here--couldn't agree more re: how APS disgustingly wasted their fed funds.

Will try out some of the other suggestions. Appreciate the thoughts.

We already have a meeting with the school following up on an OT evaluation in two weeks. We are on the radar, but, it seems like the preferred path is to wait for someone to fail and then maybe maybe offer them some intervention services. I'm wanting to be able to count on summer school since it sounds like DC may qualify this year, but, recall last year that they could barely staff it. Ugh.

Just feel disillusioned and helpless.

Some APS elementary schools do a pre-SOL tutoring group after spring break for students they think are at risk of not passing the SOL. If your child is truly struggling it might be time to request an SST meeting to determine if he is a student with a disability that should be receiving special education services.

If they don't, you might try contacting the NHS advisors at your local high school -- they could have a teen help out for service hours.

I believe there Title 1 schools that have after school tutoring programs run by other entities (Aspire/ACH). Unfortunately APS blew its pandemic funding on virtual school program. It should have gone directly to parents to find interventionists/tutors on their own. What APS did with its pandemic $ seems criminal. I hope they are investigated.

Our DC is in 3rd grade at an APS elementary. Academics do not come naturally to our child, and they have to work harder. They are struggling to keep up with their classmates currently. We hired a tutor during COVID who came twice a week to our house to support academic growth and progress, but, we do not have endless funds, and also APS received pandemic related funding unlike families who received no money for pandemic related intervention needs. Before I push myself down this advocacy rabbit hole, I wanted to get a lay of the land to try and suss out how many of APS elementary schools may be offering supplemental post pandemic intervention services. Hopefully I'm not kidding myself, but, trying to understand the scope. Thanks!