Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Gen Ed teacher, I don’t feel qualified to do that.
As a parent of a kid with a 504, I don’t want an unqualified person managing my child’s case.

Counselors aren’t qualified to case manage either. It’s an “other duty as assigned” that was thrown at counselors years ago when 504s were far less complex than they are now. The problem is that there’s no funding allocated for section 504, it’s a civil rights law that schools are expected to comply with. 504s should be case managed by special educators because they’re the ones with the real training in how to determine which specific accommodations are best for individual students, but that would require funding, and schools aren’t allocated funds to comply with section 504 as they are with IDEA.

This is a crisis of MCPS’s own creation. Over the years, students who have diagnosed disabilities face roadblocks when requesting special education services. In my child’s case, MCPS kept adding accommodations to a 504 plan instead of teaching him skills for independence. This creates learned helplessness for the child.

MCPS doesn’t have a long term plan to address shortages of general education teachers, para educators, special education teachers, counselors, and school psychologists. Their short term solution is to push more responsibilities on general education teachers. If the general education teacher who teaches the student and is the student’s case manager advocates for the student to be evaluated for an IEP because the 504 is not meeting the child’s needs, then perhaps the student’s needs could be met.

This isn't an MCPS issue. It's a nationwide issue. There are shortages everywhere. Congress either needs to massively increase the funding for the law they wrote creating all these entitlements so they can actually attract employees to fulfill them, or they need to rewrite the law to reduce the unlimited entitlements. No other country runs special education like this with all these unfunded mandates and promising that the school will meet every need and be everything to everyone, and it's all falling apart.

The NYT claimed there had been a 300% increase in reported cases over the last decade, especially in the wealthier schools. School districts just can't keep up with the demand.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Gen Ed teacher, I don’t feel qualified to do that.
As a parent of a kid with a 504, I don’t want an unqualified person managing my child’s case.

Counselors aren’t qualified to case manage either. It’s an “other duty as assigned” that was thrown at counselors years ago when 504s were far less complex than they are now. The problem is that there’s no funding allocated for section 504, it’s a civil rights law that schools are expected to comply with. 504s should be case managed by special educators because they’re the ones with the real training in how to determine which specific accommodations are best for individual students, but that would require funding, and schools aren’t allocated funds to comply with section 504 as they are with IDEA.

This is a crisis of MCPS’s own creation. Over the years, students who have diagnosed disabilities face roadblocks when requesting special education services. In my child’s case, MCPS kept adding accommodations to a 504 plan instead of teaching him skills for independence. This creates learned helplessness for the child.

MCPS doesn’t have a long term plan to address shortages of general education teachers, para educators, special education teachers, counselors, and school psychologists. Their short term solution is to push more responsibilities on general education teachers. If the general education teacher who teaches the student and is the student’s case manager advocates for the student to be evaluated for an IEP because the 504 is not meeting the child’s needs, then perhaps the student’s needs could be met.

This isn't an MCPS issue. It's a nationwide issue. There are shortages everywhere. Congress either needs to massively increase the funding for the law they wrote creating all these entitlements so they can actually attract employees to fulfill them, or they need to rewrite the law to reduce the unlimited entitlements. No other country runs special education like this with all these unfunded mandates and promising that the school will meet every need and be everything to everyone, and it's all falling apart.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps staff member- white kids are much more likely to have 504 plans and black and brown kids are much more likely to have ieps- we just received data about this.

For a district that is all about equity, accessing accommodations and services for kids with disabilities is the most inequitable system that mcps has. Wealthy parents can afford private tutoring, advocates, and lawyers to fill in the gaping holes of what mcps offers. Go over to the special needs page and see how much things cost-$5,000 for a neuropsych which often needs to be redone every few years, $150 an hour for an advocate or og tutor, $2,000 for a special edication attorney to begin working with you.

. Parents without means or lack the education to know- their kids will be passed from year to year or given limited service- until their learning issues become insurmountable or they eventually begin acting out. I can't tell you how many times I've seen seniors who are functionally illiterate.

At our W feeder I'd estimate about 60% of the kids have a 504 or IEP.

Which W feeder? We can look up the numbers on the MCPS dashboard.

I'd rather not say, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

Why so secretive?

I just checked the dashboard and the middle school with the highest IEP/504 services is Gaithersburg MS, at 28.5% (but there is an Autism program)
All of the W feeder middle schools are between 8-14%

Highest elementary school:

Burning Tree ES 20%
Dufief ES 36.7%

Sounds like many of these cases aren't being accurately reported, but as they say what happens at the W's stays at the W's.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps staff member- white kids are much more likely to have 504 plans and black and brown kids are much more likely to have ieps- we just received data about this.

For a district that is all about equity, accessing accommodations and services for kids with disabilities is the most inequitable system that mcps has. Wealthy parents can afford private tutoring, advocates, and lawyers to fill in the gaping holes of what mcps offers. Go over to the special needs page and see how much things cost-$5,000 for a neuropsych which often needs to be redone every few years, $150 an hour for an advocate or og tutor, $2,000 for a special edication attorney to begin working with you.

. Parents without means or lack the education to know- their kids will be passed from year to year or given limited service- until their learning issues become insurmountable or they eventually begin acting out. I can't tell you how many times I've seen seniors who are functionally illiterate.

At our W feeder I'd estimate about 60% of the kids have a 504 or IEP.

Nice try. There is no school--W feeder or not--with a SPED rate that high.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps staff member- white kids are much more likely to have 504 plans and black and brown kids are much more likely to have ieps- we just received data about this.

For a district that is all about equity, accessing accommodations and services for kids with disabilities is the most inequitable system that mcps has. Wealthy parents can afford private tutoring, advocates, and lawyers to fill in the gaping holes of what mcps offers. Go over to the special needs page and see how much things cost-$5,000 for a neuropsych which often needs to be redone every few years, $150 an hour for an advocate or og tutor, $2,000 for a special edication attorney to begin working with you.

. Parents without means or lack the education to know- their kids will be passed from year to year or given limited service- until their learning issues become insurmountable or they eventually begin acting out. I can't tell you how many times I've seen seniors who are functionally illiterate.

At our W feeder I'd estimate about 60% of the kids have a 504 or IEP.

You must be a troll or joking. The school would be flagged if the rate was that high and it wasn't a special program.

If you are serious then you are delusional. It's ridiculous that so many people on this board believe so many kids are receiving services/accommodations at school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps staff member- white kids are much more likely to have 504 plans and black and brown kids are much more likely to have ieps- we just received data about this.

For a district that is all about equity, accessing accommodations and services for kids with disabilities is the most inequitable system that mcps has. Wealthy parents can afford private tutoring, advocates, and lawyers to fill in the gaping holes of what mcps offers. Go over to the special needs page and see how much things cost-$5,000 for a neuropsych which often needs to be redone every few years, $150 an hour for an advocate or og tutor, $2,000 for a special edication attorney to begin working with you.

. Parents without means or lack the education to know- their kids will be passed from year to year or given limited service- until their learning issues become insurmountable or they eventually begin acting out. I can't tell you how many times I've seen seniors who are functionally illiterate.

At our W feeder I'd estimate about 60% of the kids have a 504 or IEP.

Which W feeder? We can look up the numbers on the MCPS dashboard.

I'd rather not say, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

Why so secretive?

I just checked the dashboard and the middle school with the highest IEP/504 services is Gaithersburg MS, at 28.5% (but there is an Autism program)
All of the W feeder middle schools are between 8-14%

Highest elementary school:

Burning Tree ES 20%
Dufief ES 36.7%

I think both have sped programs?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps staff member- white kids are much more likely to have 504 plans and black and brown kids are much more likely to have ieps- we just received data about this.

For a district that is all about equity, accessing accommodations and services for kids with disabilities is the most inequitable system that mcps has. Wealthy parents can afford private tutoring, advocates, and lawyers to fill in the gaping holes of what mcps offers. Go over to the special needs page and see how much things cost-$5,000 for a neuropsych which often needs to be redone every few years, $150 an hour for an advocate or og tutor, $2,000 for a special edication attorney to begin working with you.

. Parents without means or lack the education to know- their kids will be passed from year to year or given limited service- until their learning issues become insurmountable or they eventually begin acting out. I can't tell you how many times I've seen seniors who are functionally illiterate.

At our W feeder I'd estimate about 60% of the kids have a 504 or IEP.

Which W feeder? We can look up the numbers on the MCPS dashboard.

I'd rather not say, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

Why so secretive?

I just checked the dashboard and the middle school with the highest IEP/504 services is Gaithersburg MS, at 28.5% (but there is an Autism program)
All of the W feeder middle schools are between 8-14%

Highest elementary school:

Burning Tree ES 20%
Dufief ES 36.7%

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps staff member- white kids are much more likely to have 504 plans and black and brown kids are much more likely to have ieps- we just received data about this.

For a district that is all about equity, accessing accommodations and services for kids with disabilities is the most inequitable system that mcps has. Wealthy parents can afford private tutoring, advocates, and lawyers to fill in the gaping holes of what mcps offers. Go over to the special needs page and see how much things cost-$5,000 for a neuropsych which often needs to be redone every few years, $150 an hour for an advocate or og tutor, $2,000 for a special edication attorney to begin working with you.

. Parents without means or lack the education to know- their kids will be passed from year to year or given limited service- until their learning issues become insurmountable or they eventually begin acting out. I can't tell you how many times I've seen seniors who are functionally illiterate.

At our W feeder I'd estimate about 60% of the kids have a 504 or IEP.

Which W feeder? We can look up the numbers on the MCPS dashboard.

I'd rather not say, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps staff member- white kids are much more likely to have 504 plans and black and brown kids are much more likely to have ieps- we just received data about this.

For a district that is all about equity, accessing accommodations and services for kids with disabilities is the most inequitable system that mcps has. Wealthy parents can afford private tutoring, advocates, and lawyers to fill in the gaping holes of what mcps offers. Go over to the special needs page and see how much things cost-$5,000 for a neuropsych which often needs to be redone every few years, $150 an hour for an advocate or og tutor, $2,000 for a special edication attorney to begin working with you.

. Parents without means or lack the education to know- their kids will be passed from year to year or given limited service- until their learning issues become insurmountable or they eventually begin acting out. I can't tell you how many times I've seen seniors who are functionally illiterate.

At our W feeder I'd estimate about 60% of the kids have a 504 or IEP.

Which W feeder? We can look up the numbers on the MCPS dashboard.

Anonymous wrote:Mcps staff member- white kids are much more likely to have 504 plans and black and brown kids are much more likely to have ieps- we just received data about this.

For a district that is all about equity, accessing accommodations and services for kids with disabilities is the most inequitable system that mcps has. Wealthy parents can afford private tutoring, advocates, and lawyers to fill in the gaping holes of what mcps offers. Go over to the special needs page and see how much things cost-$5,000 for a neuropsych which often needs to be redone every few years, $150 an hour for an advocate or og tutor, $2,000 for a special edication attorney to begin working with you.

. Parents without means or lack the education to know- their kids will be passed from year to year or given limited service- until their learning issues become insurmountable or they eventually begin acting out. I can't tell you how many times I've seen seniors who are functionally illiterate.

At our W feeder I'd estimate about 60% of the kids have a 504 or IEP.

Mcps staff member- white kids are much more likely to have 504 plans and black and brown kids are much more likely to have ieps- we just received data about this.

For a district that is all about equity, accessing accommodations and services for kids with disabilities is the most inequitable system that mcps has. Wealthy parents can afford private tutoring, advocates, and lawyers to fill in the gaping holes of what mcps offers. Go over to the special needs page and see how much things cost-$5,000 for a neuropsych which often needs to be redone every few years, $150 an hour for an advocate or og tutor, $2,000 for a special edication attorney to begin working with you.

. Parents without means or lack the education to know- their kids will be passed from year to year or given limited service- until their learning issues become insurmountable or they eventually begin acting out. I can't tell you how many times I've seen seniors who are functionally illiterate.

Anonymous wrote:The current system puts way too much emphasis on student self-advocacy, because MCPS is so poor at administering the plans. Particularly when the disability relates to mental health, like anxiety, expecting tweens and teens to be able to go up to their teachers and proclaim their needs and mandated accommodations is ridiculous.

Part of the reason they're so bad at it is the huge increase in 504 plans over the past decade, especially in the wealthier areas where parents are more likely to ensure their children are diagnosed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard anything about the 504 process changing for next year?

I thought it might be that they would consider all children as having ADHD and make that the norm. Most kids these days have these accommodations, so it would be easier to just treat everyone the same.

Most kids do not really have ADHD.

-- Parent of kid with actual ADHD

10% of students in MCPS receive 504 /IEP services for a range of disabilities. So no everyone doesn’t have ADHD.

It's much higher than 10% at the wealthier schools where people can afford a private diagnosis.

This is an educational myth - in MCPS, 8.5% of kids in BCC are receiving special education, at Whitman it's 10%. Most MCPS schools are btwn 5-15% special ed and the less wealthy schools tend to be on the higher side of that, which is unsurprising when you consider the many ways environment contributes to need and the fact that, probably, wealthy parents are more likely to have the means to opt out.

Rockville HS (not wealthy) has the highest SPED rate at 18.7% but it has a K-12 Autism program and K-12 Deaf/HoH program so that probs skews their numbers.

As a parent of an ADHD kid, what I see is that wealthy parents who can pay for private diagnosis often get an accurate ADHD diagnosis, while poorer kids who depend on the public school system for evaluation are often mislabeled as behavior/emotional problems and their ADHD or learning disability is missed, so both the wealthy and poor kids get into the sped system, but the wealthy kids are more likely to get what they need.

The current system puts way too much emphasis on student self-advocacy, because MCPS is so poor at administering the plans. Particularly when the disability relates to mental health, like anxiety, expecting tweens and teens to be able to go up to their teachers and proclaim their needs and mandated accommodations is ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Gen Ed teacher, I don’t feel qualified to do that.
As a parent of a kid with a 504, I don’t want an unqualified person managing my child’s case.

Counselors aren’t qualified to case manage either. It’s an “other duty as assigned” that was thrown at counselors years ago when 504s were far less complex than they are now. The problem is that there’s no funding allocated for section 504, it’s a civil rights law that schools are expected to comply with. 504s should be case managed by special educators because they’re the ones with the real training in how to determine which specific accommodations are best for individual students, but that would require funding, and schools aren’t allocated funds to comply with section 504 as they are with IDEA.

This is a crisis of MCPS’s own creation. Over the years, students who have diagnosed disabilities face roadblocks when requesting special education services. In my child’s case, MCPS kept adding accommodations to a 504 plan instead of teaching him skills for independence. This creates learned helplessness for the child.

MCPS doesn’t have a long term plan to address shortages of general education teachers, para educators, special education teachers, counselors, and school psychologists. Their short term solution is to push more responsibilities on general education teachers. If the general education teacher who teaches the student and is the student’s case manager advocates for the student to be evaluated for an IEP because the 504 is not meeting the child’s needs, then perhaps the student’s needs could be met.

If only they could reduce the Central Office bloat to spend more on front line teaching.