I have a question if somebody can help, it is about MoCo schools. I am taking my DD to Dr. specialist to see if he thinks she has ADHD. She is 15 and so far we managed, she is extremely social, she is forgetful, she can't stop moving, does homework, forgets to submit 3 out of 5 times... etc. Knows material but messes her tests all the time. Never stops talking, over kids, often rude to adults, defensive...DS has a diagnosis too, but at this time I can't afford extensive testing, and psychiatrists prefers to have that done and insurance won't pay for it for educational purposes. DS is in a private school, so I don't know what services MoCo offers and pays for and what is my DD entitled and how to go about getting some help from them, so we don't end up with thousands of dollars in bills for evaluation. I appreciate any information even if you can just point me to a web site and how to navigate it.

dcgrl15 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the NEC and have gone through ES, MS and most of the way through HS. I am happy with the services and now that my son is almost ready to graduate I can see that what we did worked.

Glad to hear that. What is NEC? Sorry, Im blanking out on this for some reason.

Northeast Consortium.

PEP has a very good reputation in MCPS. You may have a tough time keeping the IEP for elementary if it's just for OT and speech but the PEP folks may be able to help you keep those services for K.
We were told MCPS does not provide OT for sensory issues. IME they only provide in very serious cases of kids with physical disabilities.
Unless he has really serious delays or issues speech is also very difficult to get.
It may be easier to get in the less wealthy part of the county but I would not count on it if you're looking at places like Potomac, Bethesda, Chevy Chase. The schools expect you to go private and if you fight them you'll end up spending thousands on advocates to get the services. The speech services they provide are often also in a group so it may not be exactly what your child needs although your child will have his or her individual goals. So you may as well go private because of this anyway.

dcgrl15 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all depends. Are you talking Infants and Tods, PEP or MCPS? Staffing changes every year. We live in Bethesda now and moved here from the eastern part of the county for other reasons but I routinely hear people say that there are better services in the western part of the county and that's why they moved or want to. I don't agree. I thought there were more services in the eastern part of the county in part because there are a lot more people needing them. In Bethesda I feel very weird as the parent of a kid with an educational disability. I don't think you can pick a school ahead of time. Reputation is not everything. People change jobs. Placements change and so do kids. Other than Bethesda ES, which I don't have any experience with but is highly reputed, I think you should make yourself happy with your house first.

I have to agree with this. I've struggled for years in MCPS to just get my kid basic services for ST and OT despite having gone through PEP, already having an IEP, and presenting the many independent evaluations we'd done.

Find a house, then find an advocate. I wish I had done this b/c it probably would have saved me and my kid a lot of time not to mention aggravation.

Thanks. Im starting to realize you are right. Ive been trying to coordinate finding a house with making sure its zoned for schools that would be a good fit, but I dont think its that easy to control all the moving parts!

Ain't that the truth. House hunting on top of navigating schools is quite a lot on your plate.

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the NEC and have gone through ES, MS and most of the way through HS. I am happy with the services and now that my son is almost ready to graduate I can see that what we did worked.

Glad to hear that. What is NEC? Sorry, Im blanking out on this for some reason.

Anonymous wrote:It all depends. Are you talking Infants and Tods, PEP or MCPS? Staffing changes every year. We live in Bethesda now and moved here from the eastern part of the county for other reasons but I routinely hear people say that there are better services in the western part of the county and that's why they moved or want to. I don't agree. I thought there were more services in the eastern part of the county in part because there are a lot more people needing them. In Bethesda I feel very weird as the parent of a kid with an educational disability. I don't think you can pick a school ahead of time. Reputation is not everything. People change jobs. Placements change and so do kids. Other than Bethesda ES, which I don't have any experience with but is highly reputed, I think you should make yourself happy with your house first.

Well, my son is in preschool so will definitely need PEP and Im assuming he will continue to need services moving up through elementary school. Thanks for your feedback.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all depends. Are you talking Infants and Tods, PEP or MCPS? Staffing changes every year. We live in Bethesda now and moved here from the eastern part of the county for other reasons but I routinely hear people say that there are better services in the western part of the county and that's why they moved or want to. I don't agree. I thought there were more services in the eastern part of the county in part because there are a lot more people needing them. In Bethesda I feel very weird as the parent of a kid with an educational disability. I don't think you can pick a school ahead of time. Reputation is not everything. People change jobs. Placements change and so do kids. Other than Bethesda ES, which I don't have any experience with but is highly reputed, I think you should make yourself happy with your house first.

I have to agree with this. I've struggled for years in MCPS to just get my kid basic services for ST and OT despite having gone through PEP, already having an IEP, and presenting the many independent evaluations we'd done.

Find a house, then find an advocate. I wish I had done this b/c it probably would have saved me and my kid a lot of time not to mention aggravation.

Thanks. Im starting to realize you are right. Ive been trying to coordinate finding a house with making sure its zoned for schools that would be a good fit, but I dont think its that easy to control all the moving parts!

Anonymous wrote:What services does your child need? It would help to know. If he is ED, there is an amazing ED program at various schools in the county that are excellent. There are programs at certain schools for kids with learning disabilities. There's a school for highly gifted but learning disabled students. Some schools have programs specifically geared toward kids on the spectrum. Schools without specialized programs are often times woefully unprepared for kids with special needs. They simply do not have the appropriate staff with training and experience to be able to handle certain situations.

Thanks for your reply. My son is a preschooler who has an IEP- receives speech and OT. A private eval identified his speech issue as "mixed receptive/expressive language disorder" and he has sensory processing issues. So he requires extra prompting in the classroom. Its so hard to pick a house not knowing if the schools will end up being good for him! Ahhh, so tough.

I'm in the NEC and have gone through ES, MS and most of the way through HS. I am happy with the services and now that my son is almost ready to graduate I can see that what we did worked.

Anonymous wrote:It all depends. Are you talking Infants and Tods, PEP or MCPS? Staffing changes every year. We live in Bethesda now and moved here from the eastern part of the county for other reasons but I routinely hear people say that there are better services in the western part of the county and that's why they moved or want to. I don't agree. I thought there were more services in the eastern part of the county in part because there are a lot more people needing them. In Bethesda I feel very weird as the parent of a kid with an educational disability. I don't think you can pick a school ahead of time. Reputation is not everything. People change jobs. Placements change and so do kids. Other than Bethesda ES, which I don't have any experience with but is highly reputed, I think you should make yourself happy with your house first.

I have to agree with this. I've struggled for years in MCPS to just get my kid basic services for ST and OT despite having gone through PEP, already having an IEP, and presenting the many independent evaluations we'd done.

Find a house, then find an advocate. I wish I had done this b/c it probably would have saved me and my kid a lot of time not to mention aggravation.

It all depends. Are you talking Infants and Tods, PEP or MCPS? Staffing changes every year. We live in Bethesda now and moved here from the eastern part of the county for other reasons but I routinely hear people say that there are better services in the western part of the county and that's why they moved or want to. I don't agree. I thought there were more services in the eastern part of the county in part because there are a lot more people needing them. In Bethesda I feel very weird as the parent of a kid with an educational disability. I don't think you can pick a school ahead of time. Reputation is not everything. People change jobs. Placements change and so do kids. Other than Bethesda ES, which I don't have any experience with but is highly reputed, I think you should make yourself happy with your house first.

What services does your child need? It would help to know. If he is ED, there is an amazing ED program at various schools in the county that are excellent. There are programs at certain schools for kids with learning disabilities. There's a school for highly gifted but learning disabled students. Some schools have programs specifically geared toward kids on the spectrum. Schools without specialized programs are often times woefully unprepared for kids with special needs. They simply do not have the appropriate staff with training and experience to be able to handle certain situations.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Sorry to hear that. Do you happen to know of any schools specifically that have better reputations in terms of services?

We had a terrible time at Seven Locks Elementary in Bethesda, to say the least. The IEP experience and treatment of my ASD/ADHD kid and myself was extremely disappointing. The "best" schools in MoCo are all about high achieving test scores...That being said, I've heard other schools in the county aren't as disappointing.

Are those of you who are in Montgomery County generally happy with the services your kids with IEPs receive or are you less than satisfied? Just trying to get an idea of how the county is in terms of services for special needs, as I consider a move. Thanks.