Anonymous wrote:OP - the reality is that if your child falls 2 grade levels below, one might not be able to grasp grade level teaching in high school. Your child needs the literacy class. View middle school as three years to bring up his reading, writing and math skills.
- See if you can get a clear breakdown of the reading and writing skills your son is behind on. Ask for suggestion of online sites which might enable you to work with him this summer.

- See if he could start out in a regular science class placement. It would seem that you could always pull back to the smaller class if too much even with the accommodations he needs. I would advocate for this.

- Also check now to be sure the academic goals and materials in the smaller classes are aiming at grade level goals though perhaps at slower pace to be able to take SOLs.

- Find out about MS clubs and sports that might be of interest and point out these are ways to meet new kids.

- Encourage his reading in areas of interest this summer with regular trips to the library and find the time to have him read aloud and talk about what he is reading.

- if you have the health care coverage, perhaps finding a therapist for him to sort out his feelings on having learning differences
might help.

- School may be tough for him so try to help him to find one interest outside he might enjoy to keep up his overall view of himself.

Anonymous wrote:Child has passed the reading SOL last year and this year and in 4th grade. I ready has tended to c=vary, such parts are great and other not so much, the teachers have wondered if it's more a test taking issue. Child does need a decent amount of Scaffolding with attention and check-ins to make sure they are on track.

I really don't think LD kids should be placed with ED and ID kids. They are completely differnt things. I feel like with the new Autism designation that 's what pushed Dc to the small group stuff, even though the child has always been in a Gen Ed class that is usually teamed with SPED teachers. Child was screwed over but losing one quarter of first 3/4 of second virtual and two years fighting for an IEP. I'm not sure I should have accepted the Autism piece, as they have masked pretty well, mostly social skills and some odd mannerisms when excited. I have thought about trying to get Science switched to team taught as I think they might do ok there since so much is new to everyone as science stinks in FCPS elementary school. I just felt so blindsided in the transition meeting and my husband couldn't attend even virtually as he had stuff at work and is a Fed trying to hang on.

Anonymous wrote:We have a similar situation and are pulling our child out of FCPS and placing in a specialized private school. He was going to be in self-contained classrooms for all of his required classes and the IEP team at his elementary school wanted to pull both electives and place him in the literacy class and the executive function class. After speaking with our advocate and talking with our son, we decided the best way for him to really thrive is to pull out of FCPS and go private. For those who cannot do that, I would consider the placements your team is suggesting. In middle school the class sizes are much larger - we were told 30-36 students per class - and their special ed focused on literacy is in that elective. At least that is what we were told. We just did not like the structure, especially when combined with the fact that the kids at his current school are actively picking on him for being a "SPED" and really making his life hard. Middle school is hard enough and when you add the special ed focus in self-contained classes and loss of electives, we were fairly displeased with the set up.