Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps is repugnant in its treatment of special needs students

I agree with this comment. It's particularly true for students who have special needs and enter the system as ESOL students. Their parents do not know their students' rights and these students' testing and potential placement are put on the back burner.

SpEd testing doesn’t usually happen until 3rd grade due to typical variance in student development.

Where on earth are you getting your logic from? I am an early childhood special educator and our department is growing exponentially every year. Below us, infants and toddlers is exploding. More and more children are being identified and evaluated for services earlier. Third grade is actually on the late side (and yes I have worked k-5 and seen that too)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps is repugnant in its treatment of special needs students

I agree with this comment. It's particularly true for students who have special needs and enter the system as ESOL students. Their parents do not know their students' rights and these students' testing and potential placement are put on the back burner.

SpEd testing doesn’t usually happen until 3rd grade due to typical variance in student development.

Anonymous wrote:Mcps is repugnant in its treatment of special needs students

I agree with this comment. It's particularly true for students who have special needs and enter the system as ESOL students. Their parents do not know their students' rights and these students' testing and potential placement are put on the back burner.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m very curious how many employees in central office are certified teachers. Why are they not being sent back in the classrooms? PGCPS did this post pandemic.

They may be certified in the wrong subjects or the wrong levels. Someone with an ES cert can’t teach grades 7-12 or vice versa. An English cert won’t help if the vacancies are in math, science, and SPED.

Doesn't really matter...because anyone can teach outside of their cert for one year, so they absolutely could be bringing back central office employees to fill positions-they just don't want to.

Maybe because you shouldn’t force people who purposely left the classroom for another position to return to the classroom. Do you really want someone teaching your kids if they don’t want to be a teacher?

Plus, they probably don’t want to risk Central Office staff quitting rather than returning to the classroom.

Lol you sound like you work at Central.....who cares if central office staff start quitting? The majority of them arent doing much of anything all day ANYWAY...putting them in a classroom would require them to put forth some effort, so yeah, no wonder they dont want to.

No, I’m a classroom teacher and a parent. I don’t want colleagues who would rather be somewhere else (because then I have to pick up their slack) and I certainly don’t want someone responsible for my kids’ education who would rather not be in a classroom. In 2016, Central Office cut positions and people reluctantly returned to the classroom. Two ended up at my school. It was a disaster. Neither had taught in 10+ years. One called out regularly to use up years of saved sick leave. The other showed up in body only, but his mind was clearly elsewhere. I am very grateful those two weren’t in my children’s schools.

As a parent and former teacher, I'd rather have former teachers than a long term sub who hasnt been in a classroom before and is doing the job to make ends meet. I think you'd know better a classroom teacher.

Anonymous wrote:Money isn’t the issue. The workload is unmanageable and SpEd teachers are often tasked with dealing with behavior issues even though it may be unrelated to the disability. Standard caseload is 20. It should be 15.

We easily have 50 more SpEd certified teachers in the system who teach mainstream now. They left because of the workload and constant required training.

+1000 (former school admin)

It is this way all around the country.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m very curious how many employees in central office are certified teachers. Why are they not being sent back in the classrooms? PGCPS did this post pandemic.

They may be certified in the wrong subjects or the wrong levels. Someone with an ES cert can’t teach grades 7-12 or vice versa. An English cert won’t help if the vacancies are in math, science, and SPED.

Doesn't really matter...because anyone can teach outside of their cert for one year, so they absolutely could be bringing back central office employees to fill positions-they just don't want to.

Maybe because you shouldn’t force people who purposely left the classroom for another position to return to the classroom. Do you really want someone teaching your kids if they don’t want to be a teacher?

Plus, they probably don’t want to risk Central Office staff quitting rather than returning to the classroom.

Lol you sound like you work at Central.....who cares if central office staff start quitting? The majority of them arent doing much of anything all day ANYWAY...putting them in a classroom would require them to put forth some effort, so yeah, no wonder they dont want to.

No, I’m a classroom teacher and a parent. I don’t want colleagues who would rather be somewhere else (because then I have to pick up their slack) and I certainly don’t want someone responsible for my kids’ education who would rather not be in a classroom. In 2016, Central Office cut positions and people reluctantly returned to the classroom. Two ended up at my school. It was a disaster. Neither had taught in 10+ years. One called out regularly to use up years of saved sick leave. The other showed up in body only, but his mind was clearly elsewhere. I am very grateful those two weren’t in my children’s schools.

The MCPS Department of Special Education is so far removed from anything that is actually happening in schools. They are not present in schools and provide little to no support. All of the decisions being made seem to come down to the lawyers in resolution and compliance and it’s about preventing being sued and not about servicing kids. There have been no (from my observations) deep looks at programming, class size (for SC) and caseloads for inclusion. They have kept the same models and staffing for the past 20 + years when the needs of our students have changed drastically. Central office pushes inclusion and servicing in home schools without actually providing the staffing and support to make sure it is effective. They want to throw it all on the general education teachers (who are overwhelmed) rather than actually looking at students and providing staffing based on student needs. I would never recommend anyone go into special education which is a shame since I do love the students and the families. Pretty sure this is my last year and I will use one of my other certifications for the rest of my teaching career.

I worked in an alternative school that had the above model. Most spEd teachers were in the classrooms doing what they do best, teaching. One or two other Sped teachers handled all the paperwork, communication, scheduling etc. It was actually the easiest way to stay in compliance make sure all the rules were followed. I don’t think this could work at the ES level where there aren’t that many SpEd teachers typically, but it could do wonders to prevent burnout at the MS and HS levels.

Other school districts have better systems in place for special education...there are people who do ONLY IEPs...they do they paperwork. The special education teachers ONLY teach. Yes, they are involved in meetings, but they don't have to deal w/the paperwork side of it. IEP specialists ONLY do the paperwork. It's like MCPS can't join the rest of the world and problem solve.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCEA does not represent special education teachers.


Well, maybe on paper…

+1
The union bargained for a special signing bonus for new special Ed teachers or for any general Ed teacher who switched over to special Ed. The HUGE mistake here was not giving retention bonuses to current special Ed teachers because they’re leaving in droves

MCPS made it clear that it didn’t want to set a precedent of retention bonuses. That was never going to be on the table. However, signing bonuses were.

I don’t know about that specific contract but I do know that governmental entities are generally hugely resistant to retention bonuses but seem to love hiring bonuses. I always argue it’s short sighted by their finance people don’t like future obligations. There is good precendent for special pay though — the police contracts have tons of different kids on special pay for people with special certifications or assignments. They got do something like a 10% special pay increment for special Ed and another 10% if student assignments are over a certain trigger.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can schools meet the needs of students with disabilities without filling these positions? Some schools do not have any Special Education
Teachers:

https://moco360.media/2023/09/21/nearly-half-of-all-current-mcps-full-time-teacher-voids-fall-within-special-education-data-shows/

It's just that these days, there are 300% more students requiring special education than even ten years ago. The problem is especially bad in the wealthy areas where people can get a private diagnosis where almost every kid has ADHD or something similar.

There are more special education teachers in MCPS today than at any time in the past, but with all the exponential growth in diagnosed cases, they just can't keep up with the demand.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m very curious how many employees in central office are certified teachers. Why are they not being sent back in the classrooms? PGCPS did this post pandemic.

They may be certified in the wrong subjects or the wrong levels. Someone with an ES cert can’t teach grades 7-12 or vice versa. An English cert won’t help if the vacancies are in math, science, and SPED.

Doesn't really matter...because anyone can teach outside of their cert for one year, so they absolutely could be bringing back central office employees to fill positions-they just don't want to.

Maybe because you shouldn’t force people who purposely left the classroom for another position to return to the classroom. Do you really want someone teaching your kids if they don’t want to be a teacher?

Plus, they probably don’t want to risk Central Office staff quitting rather than returning to the classroom.

Lol you sound like you work at Central.....who cares if central office staff start quitting? The majority of them arent doing much of anything all day ANYWAY...putting them in a classroom would require them to put forth some effort, so yeah, no wonder they dont want to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Special Ed teachers (and paras) need a 10 or 20% stipend on top of MCEA or SEIU rates.

It isn’t about money. It’s about the workload and the working conditions. I wouldn’t go back to Special Ed even if you gave me a 30-40% raise.

+1

+++++ Me either

Yes, I agree that it’s all about the workload and working conditions! That’s not about to change so I’m out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Special Ed teachers (and paras) need a 10 or 20% stipend on top of MCEA or SEIU rates.

It isn’t about money. It’s about the workload and the working conditions. I wouldn’t go back to Special Ed even if you gave me a 30-40% raise.

+1

+++++ Me either