Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard anything about the 504 process changing for next year?

I thought it might be that they would consider all children as having ADHD and make that the norm. Most kids these days have these accommodations, so it would be easier to just treat everyone the same.

Most kids do not really have ADHD.

-- Parent of kid with actual ADHD

10% of students in MCPS receive 504 /IEP services for a range of disabilities. So no everyone doesn’t have ADHD.

It's much higher than 10% at the wealthier schools where people can afford a private diagnosis.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Gen Ed teacher, I don’t feel qualified to do that.
As a parent of a kid with a 504, I don’t want an unqualified person managing my child’s case.

Counselors aren’t qualified to case manage either. It’s an “other duty as assigned” that was thrown at counselors years ago when 504s were far less complex than they are now. The problem is that there’s no funding allocated for section 504, it’s a civil rights law that schools are expected to comply with. 504s should be case managed by special educators because they’re the ones with the real training in how to determine which specific accommodations are best for individual students, but that would require funding, and schools aren’t allocated funds to comply with section 504 as they are with IDEA.

This is a crisis of MCPS’s own creation. Over the years, students who have diagnosed disabilities face roadblocks when requesting special education services. In my child’s case, MCPS kept adding accommodations to a 504 plan instead of teaching him skills for independence. This creates learned helplessness for the child.

MCPS doesn’t have a long term plan to address shortages of general education teachers, para educators, special education teachers, counselors, and school psychologists. Their short term solution is to push more responsibilities on general education teachers. If the general education teacher who teaches the student and is the student’s case manager advocates for the student to be evaluated for an IEP because the 504 is not meeting the child’s needs, then perhaps the student’s needs could be met.

Anonymous wrote:As a Gen Ed teacher, I don’t feel qualified to do that.
As a parent of a kid with a 504, I don’t want an unqualified person managing my child’s case.

Counselors aren’t qualified to case manage either. It’s an “other duty as assigned” that was thrown at counselors years ago when 504s were far less complex than they are now. The problem is that there’s no funding allocated for section 504, it’s a civil rights law that schools are expected to comply with. 504s should be case managed by special educators because they’re the ones with the real training in how to determine which specific accommodations are best for individual students, but that would require funding, and schools aren’t allocated funds to comply with section 504 as they are with IDEA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard anything about the 504 process changing for next year?

I thought it might be that they would consider all children as having ADHD and make that the norm. Most kids these days have these accommodations, so it would be easier to just treat everyone the same.

Most kids do not really have ADHD.

-- Parent of kid with actual ADHD

10% of students in MCPS receive 504 /IEP services for a range of disabilities. So no everyone doesn’t have ADHD.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard anything about the 504 process changing for next year?

I thought it might be that they would consider all children as having ADHD and make that the norm. Most kids these days have these accommodations, so it would be easier to just treat everyone the same.

Most kids do not really have ADHD.

-- Parent of kid with actual ADHD

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard anything about the 504 process changing for next year?

I thought it might be that they would consider all children as having ADHD and make that the norm. Most kids these days have these accommodations, so it would be easier to just treat everyone the same.

Anonymous wrote:Why would they put more demands on teachers?

Because it's cheaper than having to hire more personnel and sped teachers are in short supply

Why would they put more demands on teachers?

As a Gen Ed teacher, I don’t feel qualified to do that.
As a parent of a kid with a 504, I don’t want an unqualified person managing my child’s case.

And department chairs. Maybe more department chairs than team leaders. Maybe it’s up to individual principals.

The only change I know about is that counselors no longer are the only case managers. They are asking teachers to do it. That might look different at other schools. I’m at a W middle and team leaders are ticked off about having one more thing land on their plate. Beyond procedural stuff like that, it’s federal law, so Mcps cant change that much.

No, and we just had our yearly meeting. But then MCPS is not very forthcoming with keeping families in the loop.

No

Changing how?

Has anyone heard anything about the 504 process changing for next year?