My son has 5 kids in his LAD class and is doing very well. Teacher is so amazing and caring which makes also makes a big difference.

You could move to the part of the county where are Kindergarten classes are smaller. Ratio in our child's class is 16:1 + 1 paraeducator to help SN kids. Silver Spring

At least at our Bethesda elementary, LAD is a 'paper' program, meaning it exists on paper but not in reality. So our child who was slated for it would have ended up in a 27:1 ratio class with little support. Our PEP teacher begged us not to send DC to that setting but instead to do private, and we are so glad we did. OP, please find out from your neighborhood school if LAD is actually a program that exists (it apparently used to be great in most places in MCPS but got gutted a few years back), before you enroll your child in that situation, esp if private is a possibility for you.

I'm reading over some old threads in the archives about transitioning from PEP and Mo Co K special ed programs. My kid is in PEP and we need to think about what services we'll be able to get from MoCo versus looking into private. If you had a kid who made this transition, how's it going in K and what school? And did you try to request a special model (ie inclusion at Bethesda Elementary versus LAD). Were you successful in getting what you wanted?