Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok I may be the outlier here, but I parent a neurodivergent kid who did fantastic at Deal. And another who is ASD & dyslexia at a private.

But I think Deal is great for kids who are on grade level. And I know a ton of families with IEPs there who also had great experiences. Deal is so big there are lots of kids who will have similar profiles to your son. So many clubs. So many activities. So many kids lacking any social skills.

If my private school 4th grader wasn’t so far behind academically I’d definitely send them to Deal. They would find their people.

My kids is graduating from deal this month. Sounds like your kid. It was awful. 6th grade is ok and you can see if he's made friends or had cafeteria trouble by the end of 6th. If the answer is no and yes, get him out of there. It will get worse. I advocated like crazy but the school did nothing and doesnt care. The teachers are good but that doesn't mean much socially.

Yikes! OP here. Thanks for the heads up. Can you share what high school is your child going to?

do you want to talk offline? chataboutkids@gmail.com (ok, so that fake email name sounds icky, but I'm not icky just bad at making email addresses . . .)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok I may be the outlier here, but I parent a neurodivergent kid who did fantastic at Deal. And another who is ASD & dyslexia at a private.

But I think Deal is great for kids who are on grade level. And I know a ton of families with IEPs there who also had great experiences. Deal is so big there are lots of kids who will have similar profiles to your son. So many clubs. So many activities. So many kids lacking any social skills.

If my private school 4th grader wasn’t so far behind academically I’d definitely send them to Deal. They would find their people.

My kids is graduating from deal this month. Sounds like your kid. It was awful. 6th grade is ok and you can see if he's made friends or had cafeteria trouble by the end of 6th. If the answer is no and yes, get him out of there. It will get worse. I advocated like crazy but the school did nothing and doesnt care. The teachers are good but that doesn't mean much socially.

Yikes! OP here. Thanks for the heads up. Can you share what high school is your child going to?

Anonymous wrote:Ok I may be the outlier here, but I parent a neurodivergent kid who did fantastic at Deal. And another who is ASD & dyslexia at a private.

But I think Deal is great for kids who are on grade level. And I know a ton of families with IEPs there who also had great experiences. Deal is so big there are lots of kids who will have similar profiles to your son. So many clubs. So many activities. So many kids lacking any social skills.

If my private school 4th grader wasn’t so far behind academically I’d definitely send them to Deal. They would find their people.

My kids is graduating from deal this month. Sounds like your kid. It was awful. 6th grade is ok and you can see if he's made friends or had cafeteria trouble by the end of 6th. If the answer is no and yes, get him out of there. It will get worse. I advocated like crazy but the school did nothing and doesnt care. The teachers are good but that doesn't mean much socially.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try the Lab school

Lab school doesn't take autistic kids.

You have to wonder who keeps suggesting Lab ….

Really. If you don't know anything about SN schools, it's ok to say nothing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try the Lab school

Lab school doesn't take autistic kids.

You have to wonder who keeps suggesting Lab ….

Anonymous wrote:Try the Lab school

Lab school doesn't take autistic kids.

Try the Lab school

Anonymous wrote:Looking for advice. Our DS is going to 6th grade next year (Middle School) from a school of 350 students to Deal with 1400 and we are worried about bullying.

DS is high functioning ASD with lightweight IEP. Does really well in class. Has limited number of friends. He is gifted in domains like math and at grade level in other classes. Doesn’t need academic supports but needs help navigating social situations.

We applied to three “progressive” independent schools in DC and MD but DS was waitlisted and later rejected from all three. One was McLean which is not welcoming of ASD students.

We are out of ideas and would like to hear how other families have navigated this. Should we give Deal a try? Move to MCPS to an in-boundary school with a 2e/Aspergers program? Any independent school recommendations that understand that ASD kids will have “quirky” behaviors from time to time?

Thanks in advance

New School of Northern Virginia in Fairfax

We have a VERY similar kid now at Nora doing really well (tiny ES -> huge public MS -> school refusal -> Fusion -> Nora). Definitely keep Nora in mind for high school.

Bullying wasn't a huge problem for us at the public MS - I think mostly it was just overwhelming - loud, crowded, chaotic. Classes were HUGE so it was easy to get overlooked. The social landscape was very different - kid went from being the sweet goofy kid liked by everyone to the weird kid avoided by most, very fast, and he did not understand it at all.

Good luck with Deal! If it doesn't work out, I agree that Parkmont would be a good option for middle school, and they do take mid-year transfers. Templeton is a maybe, I think it does well at supporting neurodivergence but its unique instructional style is amazing for some and awful for others. I would not recommend Fusion unless you have no other options - it was a godsend and lifesaver for us but also definitely a stopgap. I'm very glad it was there when we needed it but also very glad to be gone.