Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP. is this from recent experience? My understanding is that even with teh school supporting and a good consultant, the central office is under a lot of pressure to reduce private placements and come up with alternatives in the system -- even if the local school is supporting a private placement.

And, it's about time.

Says the ignorant parent.

Says the dc taxpayer since 1990 who is tired of paying millions of dollars to send too many kids to private school.

It used to be almost automatic, back in the 90s-To-late-Tony-Williams era. DCPS accounted for almost all of Lab Schools operating budget back then.

Now it's very difficult, and much scrutiny is given to claims that there isn't one single placement that could work (before the checkbook comes out for $50,000 a year) This is great for the whole.

+1. Thank you for daring voice a probably quite unpopular opinion here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP. is this from recent experience? My understanding is that even with teh school supporting and a good consultant, the central office is under a lot of pressure to reduce private placements and come up with alternatives in the system -- even if the local school is supporting a private placement.

And, it's about time.

Says the ignorant parent.

Says the dc taxpayer since 1990 who is tired of paying millions of dollars to send too many kids to private school.

It used to be almost automatic, back in the 90s-To-late-Tony-Williams era. DCPS accounted for almost all of Lab Schools operating budget back then.

Now it's very difficult, and much scrutiny is given to claims that there isn't one single placement that could work (before the checkbook comes out for $50,000 a year) This is great for the whole.

NP here. Sympathetic to this position. DC paying for private placements wouldn't bother me so much if the funding hadn't gone disproportionately to higher income families who know how to work the system. This should be hard to get.

Let's be very clear about this. DC is paying for private placements because DC is failing to follow the law (IDEA). Your anger at parents who recognize this, and force DC to live up to its legal obligations is misdirected. Instead of resenting parents who are educated and resourceful enough to force the District to obey federal civil rights law, lobby your elected officials to commit to the civil rights of the most vulnerable citizens.

Or don't.

But then don't bitch about the disabled young children who want access to their civil rights. If you're opposed to that, let's be clear - you are a bad person. It really is that simple.

Anonymous wrote:Be very cautious with special ed attorneys and consultants.
They are often way to optimistic and don't present a realist view of what is happening in these cases. Since Gray entered office, there have been a tremendous cutback of private funding, even in solid cases.

If attorneys presented a realistic scenario, they'd scare aware
Clients.

If you don't have independent testing and advocates/therapists to testify about your child, you will never win. Bringing a case will easily cost 20K (attorney's fees, expert testimony, independent testing, etc).

Even if you prevail, no one wins funding for more than one year-you have to continue a lengthy, stressful and expensive case EVERY year.

In the end, even if you win against a system stacked against you, you may come ahead by $10-$15K each year once all fees have been paid. Most attorney's fees are well above what DC will reimburse if you win.

These cases are time consuming and stressful for families. DCPS drags things out as much as possible to cost you more legal fees, hoping you'll give up.

If it were a one time thing, maybe it would be worth it but having to repeat the inevitable insanity every year is not worth it!

Please shut up. That is not true. You are obviously ignorant of the law, your misinformation is misleading and possibly designed to discourage. Just shut up. Keep your ignorance to yourself before you infect somebody else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP. is this from recent experience? My understanding is that even with teh school supporting and a good consultant, the central office is under a lot of pressure to reduce private placements and come up with alternatives in the system -- even if the local school is supporting a private placement.

And, it's about time.

Says the ignorant parent.

Says the dc taxpayer since 1990 who is tired of paying millions of dollars to send too many kids to private school.

It used to be almost automatic, back in the 90s-To-late-Tony-Williams era. DCPS accounted for almost all of Lab Schools operating budget back then.

Now it's very difficult, and much scrutiny is given to claims that there isn't one single placement that could work (before the checkbook comes out for $50,000 a year) This is great for the whole.

NP here. Sympathetic to this position. DC paying for private placements wouldn't bother me so much if the funding hadn't gone disproportionately to higher income families who know how to work the system. This should be hard to get.

Be very cautious with special ed attorneys and consultants.
They are often way to optimistic and don't present a realist view of what is happening in these cases. Since Gray entered office, there have been a tremendous cutback of private funding, even in solid cases.

If attorneys presented a realistic scenario, they'd scare aware
Clients.

If you don't have independent testing and advocates/therapists to testify about your child, you will never win. Bringing a case will easily cost 20K (attorney's fees, expert testimony, independent testing, etc).

Even if you prevail, no one wins funding for more than one year-you have to continue a lengthy, stressful and expensive case EVERY year.

In the end, even if you win against a system stacked against you, you may come ahead by $10-$15K each year once all fees have been paid. Most attorney's fees are well above what DC will reimburse if you win.

These cases are time consuming and stressful for families. DCPS drags things out as much as possible to cost you more legal fees, hoping you'll give up.

If it were a one time thing, maybe it would be worth it but having to repeat the inevitable insanity every year is not worth it!

Even if you bring a due process case against DC and the
Hearing officer in charge agrees that your child has been denied FAPE, you probably will not receive funding from DCPS/OSSE for a private special ed school. Usually, the order will say that FAPE was denied, breaking federal law and that DCPS is required to FIND a DC public school that CAN
Accommodate your child's IEP.

PP who says its still not very difficult...I'm aware of several cases recently in which the private placement did not prevail, and they seemed like really, really solid to good cases. If you follow this, which it sounds like you do, I'm sure you are aware as well of this trend. How do you explain that? Is it that these were bad cases?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP. is this from recent experience? My understanding is that even with teh school supporting and a good consultant, the central office is under a lot of pressure to reduce private placements and come up with alternatives in the system -- even if the local school is supporting a private placement.

And, it's about time.

Says the ignorant parent.

Says the dc taxpayer since 1990 who is tired of paying millions of dollars to send too many kids to private school.

It used to be almost automatic, back in the 90s-To-late-Tony-Williams era. DCPS accounted for almost all of Lab Schools operating budget back then.

Now it's very difficult, and much scrutiny is given to claims that there isn't one single placement that could work (before the checkbook comes out for $50,000 a year) This is great for the whole.

There's a very simple solution for this. OSSE/DCPS can spend the taxpayers money to provide effective, evidence-based special education programs in the public schools. As long as they don't, they can expect to see savvy parents force them to pay for private.

It's still not very difficult, you need an effective education advocate or special education lawyer. As long as DC isn't following the law, people will continue to force them to pay the hard way.

And, that's a good thing. $50K is only the beginning, believe me! Personally, I'm happy to see taxpayers scream with impotent fury that they have to pay for expensive private schools. It means at least someone out there cares that the city is failing to follow the law. Cry louder, your tears are music to my ears.

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a private now (we pay and it's hard). It is cheaper to education him in private than in public and there was no appropriate public option, but DCPS sure wasn't going to fund him anywhere. I would estimate that he cost about $60K/year in public with an aide. His private is $38K. He's a tough kid to educate, but he's definitely better off in the private, despite the best efforts of DCPS, ha ha. It is hard to figure out a private that fits when the kid isn't just straight forward LD or autism with no behaviors so look very carefully at where you choose.

We and some other people we know had no success in our forays into trying to get funded, despite some officials stating that there was no appropriate placement for our child in DCPS. We didn't go all out fight, but it was very clear that if we had, it would not have been an easy win, if we had won at all. We opted to save the legal fees to at least eek out 1 year of private (they would be about the same).

Oh, and we have outside testing and lawyers and all the things that one should do to win.

May I ask, how old is your kid and what grade and what school?

I think $38K sounds doable for us (woah! I think we'd have to move to a 2/1 apartment) and your DC's issues sounds similar.

My kid is in a private now (we pay and it's hard). It is cheaper to education him in private than in public and there was no appropriate public option, but DCPS sure wasn't going to fund him anywhere. I would estimate that he cost about $60K/year in public with an aide. His private is $38K. He's a tough kid to educate, but he's definitely better off in the private, despite the best efforts of DCPS, ha ha. It is hard to figure out a private that fits when the kid isn't just straight forward LD or autism with no behaviors so look very carefully at where you choose.

We and some other people we know had no success in our forays into trying to get funded, despite some officials stating that there was no appropriate placement for our child in DCPS. We didn't go all out fight, but it was very clear that if we had, it would not have been an easy win, if we had won at all. We opted to save the legal fees to at least eek out 1 year of private (they would be about the same).

Oh, and we have outside testing and lawyers and all the things that one should do to win.

Anonymous wrote:No it's not. It's not great for the child who is spends years wasting away in a DCPS classroom not learning a damn thing. Our kids are not guinea pigs, you either have well trained professionals in classrooms or you don't, but don't ask me to "stick with you" while you spend the entire school year trying to train yet another goner of a teacher in ABA, etc. Until DC is actually able to provide a placement that truly fits the individual's needs rather than to try to cut corners and check of the compliance list, there will still be kids falling through the cracks.

I'm fairly certain that my kid costs DCPS as much as it would if he was in a private setting at this point. It works for now, and I am a very involved and informed parent who is all for change in the system, but if the day comes that my son can no longer receive FAPE through DCPS, I am going hold DCPS accountable.

As a parent, I would do whatever my kid needed, and if a private placement was what was needed, then I'd fight tooth and nail. As a parent, my first and pretty much only responsibility is to find what's best for my child and advocate for it.

I'm also a teacher, however, and as a special educator who has worked in all kinds of schools, including both non-public and public, I can tell you that a handful of private options is not a substitute for a robust, tiered special education system such as they have in other parts of the country. Students in DC deserve much more than a choice between a local public school where their IEP won't be implemented, and a private school that might or might not take them, where they'll have no exposure to typical kids or the grade level curriculum.

OP, if you're faced with the choice between staying and fighting for IEP implementation, sending your child to a segregated private school, or moving to the suburbs for a better inclusion experience, I would urge you to look at both options carefully. Before deciding that a private school is what you want, tour both kinds of settings, and talk to parents. There are some great private schools in DC for very specific kinds of kids, but there are also plenty of kids currently in private who would be better off someone where else. Similarly, there are kids in MCPS who are very well served, and others who would benefit from someplace like the Lab School or the Model Asperger's Program at Ivymount. Only you can determine which is right for your kid.

Agreed on the above. I was informed how much it was costing to educate our son in our public school, and it was less than a private school would cost (and he still didn't succeed, even with all the support)

No it's not. It's not great for the child who is spends years wasting away in a DCPS classroom not learning a damn thing. Our kids are not guinea pigs, you either have well trained professionals in classrooms or you don't, but don't ask me to "stick with you" while you spend the entire school year trying to train yet another goner of a teacher in ABA, etc. Until DC is actually able to provide a placement that truly fits the individual's needs rather than to try to cut corners and check of the compliance list, there will still be kids falling through the cracks.

I'm fairly certain that my kid costs DCPS as much as it would if he was in a private setting at this point. It works for now, and I am a very involved and informed parent who is all for change in the system, but if the day comes that my son can no longer receive FAPE through DCPS, I am going hold DCPS accountable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP. is this from recent experience? My understanding is that even with teh school supporting and a good consultant, the central office is under a lot of pressure to reduce private placements and come up with alternatives in the system -- even if the local school is supporting a private placement.

And, it's about time.

Says the ignorant parent.

Says the dc taxpayer since 1990 who is tired of paying millions of dollars to send too many kids to private school.

It used to be almost automatic, back in the 90s-To-late-Tony-Williams era. DCPS accounted for almost all of Lab Schools operating budget back then.

Now it's very difficult, and much scrutiny is given to claims that there isn't one single placement that could work (before the checkbook comes out for $50,000 a year) This is great for the whole.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP. is this from recent experience? My understanding is that even with teh school supporting and a good consultant, the central office is under a lot of pressure to reduce private placements and come up with alternatives in the system -- even if the local school is supporting a private placement.

And, it's about time.

Says the ignorant parent.