We are in MCPS with an incoming kindergartener. Based on the people I know experiences have been varied. With certain less common issues (like apraxia) they are terrible. They just don't have the expertise to serve certain kids. Also kids with more subtle issues they just won't serve and you have to get them help privately.

At the same time, I have friends that have been really pleased with their experiences with services for preschool age, including the Preschool Education Program which is a special education preschool program (part day for most of the classrooms but they provide transportation to daycare). I do know that there have been complaints on DCUM that these classrooms are overcrowded - I don't have personal experience with the program so can't speak to that. They have different types of PEP classrooms for different types of needs. X Minds is a great resource for families of kids with autism in Montgomery County and their website has a good summary of PEP:

https://www.xminds.org/preschool-placement

Anonymous wrote:OP, my sibling is severely disabled and we grew up and still live in Montgomery county, MD. The special Ed services have been absolutely incredible here; K-12+ of one on one care, PT, speech therapy, etc all arranged by public school systems, all free. Services even included daily pick up and drop off from our home. I would highly recommend you look here, though I don’t know if pre-k is available. Certainly starting with K it’s been absolutely invaluable.

How long ago was your experience?

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t move for this reason alone. My child had apraxia which is a serious motor speech disorder. It also affected his coordination. He got the bare minimum in MCPS schools. We had to do a lot of intensive private therapies. They gave him a language class for 1/2 day I think 3 days a week. The speech therapy provided wasn’t even appropriate for apraxia. It was so stressful for him that I had to pull him out. They next gave him 1x a week group speech for the remainder of preschool. And that was all he got in K and 1st as well. No other services. Now if your child is diagnosed with ASD, you may have better results. MCPS seems to provide much better services for kids with autism from what other parents have shared. I know you mentioned public pre-K in DC specifically so maybe it is better there. But don’t move to MCPS thinking it will be great.

Parent of ASD child in mcps. Autism services are not what they used to be in mcps. It’s gone downhill post-covid and they are shrinking supports i. Next years budget.

OP, my sibling is severely disabled and we grew up and still live in Montgomery county, MD. The special Ed services have been absolutely incredible here; K-12+ of one on one care, PT, speech therapy, etc all arranged by public school systems, all free. Services even included daily pick up and drop off from our home. I would highly recommend you look here, though I don’t know if pre-k is available. Certainly starting with K it’s been absolutely invaluable.

If you want to move then move. If you are moving to DC for a magic cure then you are in for a stressful and expensive disappointment.

DC metro will be more of the same. Non-public/private pay special needs schools are in the same $50k+ price range and many have waiting lists. There are less options than in tri-state area and just as high a need.

Re: assumption MoCo is better for services. It’s not (anymore). 10+ years ago yes. It’s a hot mess right now due to top leadership scandals, financial mismanagement, and changing demographics that the county/district wasn’t prepared for. Can’t imagine it’s too different on the VA side.

Probably not a magic cure, but a better option would be to move cross border to NJ and live in the suburbs. NJ has strong programs and more private/non- public options.

Has he had a hearing test with a pediatric audiologist? I thought my language and speech delayed 3 heard perfectly fine. The pediatrician said he was too little to test and didn’t want to make a referral.

We paid privately for a pediatric audiologist which did play based testing in a sound booth. He sat in my lap and with light and sounds were able to test him. There were robotic stuffed animals who would make noise in different corners with sounds and lights to teach him to look in that direction and the animal would move. They stopped the lights and started lowering the sounds and I was amazed he couldn’t hear. A stuffed animal behind him made noise and the audiology from that speaker called his name a couple of times and there was no response. As soon as it got much louder my son instantaneously turned. It was so hard not to cry. I still feel guilty I hadn’t noticed anything earlier.

I wouldn’t move for this reason alone. My child had apraxia which is a serious motor speech disorder. It also affected his coordination. He got the bare minimum in MCPS schools. We had to do a lot of intensive private therapies. They gave him a language class for 1/2 day I think 3 days a week. The speech therapy provided wasn’t even appropriate for apraxia. It was so stressful for him that I had to pull him out. They next gave him 1x a week group speech for the remainder of preschool. And that was all he got in K and 1st as well. No other services. Now if your child is diagnosed with ASD, you may have better results. MCPS seems to provide much better services for kids with autism from what other parents have shared. I know you mentioned public pre-K in DC specifically so maybe it is better there. But don’t move to MCPS thinking it will be great.

Anonymous wrote:You’re going to need to stay very close to Baltimore or DC. Maryland might be a blue state but it’s 75% country folks and not everyone will take kindly to your type in those parts.

What is op’s ‘type’ pray tell? Special needs kids? You are saying the entire state of Maryland does not want a special needs 3 year old living there? Don’t be ridiculous

OP I have no advice on the schools. And forgive me for being so forward. I have a child the same age with autism and severe expressive/receptive speech delays though and telling you what I wish I’d known sooner.

Getting an ASD eval ASAP should be top priority. I made lots of calls and found a clinic that had recently opened and was private pay with almost no waitlist. ASD diagnosis (if that’s what it is) opens the door to SO many more services…my autistic toddler’s language (both receptive and expressive) has gone from maybe 5 words to talking in short phrases in 6 months of intensive ABA. That amount of one on one therapy can reach kids like mine in a way that just a few hours of speech wasn’t cutting at all. Look into Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions, wherever you end up living.

You’re going to need to stay very close to Baltimore or DC. Maryland might be a blue state but it’s 75% country folks and not everyone will take kindly to your type in those parts.

Look at MCPS and also DC has so many private schools

We are in VA, Fairfax County to be specific but started in Alexandria City when DS started receiving early intervention services. Both have been fantastic and DS is now a junior in HS; he’s thriving.

We have been happy with the IEP and now 504 plans for DS, he’s received a lot of services and support.

VA schools are much better than MD.

Look in montgomery county md. I’ve heard services are better there. Having said that, we had a great experience with early stages evaluating and drafting an IEP for my DC. Je now goes to a public elementary with a similar schedule as you kids’.

Long story short, our family is getting overwhelmed.
We are aging out of NY Early Intervention (birth to 3) and now transitioning to CPSE.
Our soon to be 3 year old child receives 1hr speech, 1hr OT, 1hr PT, 1hr special instruction between home and his preschool and has been diagnosed with a DD, which affects language and motor skills (gross and fine).
Language skills are slowly increasing, but are still limited to labeling a few objects, no receptive language as of yet. No behavioral issues observed so far, apart from frustration when it comes to communication.

Our child is receiving the services via an IFSP, but we'll have our IEP meeting later in June. We've already done most of the evaluations.
From the evaluator's feedback, it's likely they'll recommend more intensive instruction in some kind of a classroom setting. We're still on the waitlist for an ASD evaluation per the Dr's recommendation; it may take a year to get it.
Meanwhile we are supposed to get on all the waitlists for the private special education programs, some of which run upwards of 60-100k, which isn't even an option for us anyway.
Since NY metro doesn't have UPK, we have to wrangle with the school district to cover the costs at one of the more affordable programs, which may or may not be available, likely more waitlists followed by in-home services for however long it takes to get off of one.

We're leasing our home in August, and have the option to move to the DC metro to be closer to both our jobs, which are based there.
I'm unfamiliar with Early Stages and the DCPS in general for pre-k, but am I making a huge mistake? Our plan would be to rent for 1-2 years until we get a better idea for the area and then make a decision.