Congrats to your daughter. If she has her Maryland license she can go to any county. We do have reciprocity with Virginia and DC but the Praxis scores needed are a bit different, and she will have to apply for a license if she teaches out of state.

What about Arlington, if she's in DC? They are really hurting for special needs teachers.

Principals can change quickly so it really depends on the leadership and this year it can be good and next year, not MCPS is a hot mess.

You should post this also on the MD schools forum. Howard county and PG county schools have better working conditions conditions than MCPS.

Not MCPS. Your niece should making the connections with her student teaching. That will give her more answers on the working environment than anyone here can tell you.

Every single classroom has students with special needs. Every single one.

DuFief Elementary School is a great environment. It includes gen ed and a large learning center population.

My son attended and my daughter just started kindergarten there. They are both gen ed students but I love that they have been exposed to differently abled kids and that the learning center kids are also incorporated into class lessons.

The school is also a smaller one so I expect that the community feels more close knit than other schools.

Federal law requires inclusion, so all schools do this to some degree.

Does she want a gen Ed classroom or a more restrictive environment?

My niece is a fresh college graduate (elementary education with special education emphasis) hoping to work in a school classroom that does inclusion.

Any particular schools closer to DC or metro stops that do this work especially well while also supporting younger teachers?