Get an FBA and a BIP done, even if you have to pay a BCBA to do it. DS was having huge behavior problems and, while the BIP didn't fix everything, it improved his behavior immensely. It was never suggested for him to be in a self-contained, though we are in DC and there are far fewer of those options.

OP, how was your DC's behavior previously? Could it be the behaviors are a response to a teacher who is doing all the wrong things and escalating what could have been minor situations?

In our DC's case it turned out a big issue was the teacher and once we switched things were about a million times better.

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, this is the MO of some schools in a particular part of the county. They provide minimal supports or none and hope you leave, to private or a different placement. They do not like to add on more more supports. It means more work for them and more possible disruptions to their classrooms. I know at least three families whose children were "counseled out" of public school in this way in MCPS and ended up transferring to small privates instead of trying to fight the system. It worked out well for them but not everyone is able to afford this or wants this.

In terms of LRE, the MCPS Asperger's program and the ED program are the next level of placement after gen ed since they are supposed to do a combination of self-contained plus gen ed. There's another program called LAD or learning centers or something like that that tends to work in the same way so that might also be an option but I thought most of the children in those programs have more academic issues so this program may not be a great fit for OP's child.

OP, is the LD/GT program an option for next year? I don't know whether they will work with children with behaviors but it may be worth a call to them to see what they can recommend.

Anonymous wrote:You can't know if a child went to an ED class. He could have moved to another state.

Anyway... OP is now in homeschool with few supports from what it sounds like. There isn't even a behavior plan in place so a change of placement to ED sounds completely unlikely as a next step

This was definitely our experience with our home elementary school. We Similar to up-post, we know of two other families who finally voted with their feet for small privates.
We stuck around, it was miserable, and eventually received a placement.

PP--how did your child fare socially/friend-wise in elementary and did you also make your decision based on being in a gifted program? Would appreciate further insights.

In general, children should be mainstreamed in elementary as much as possible because once a child is pulled out, they rarely catch up. There is little "separate but equal" in special education center-based classrooms.

For middle school, we did send our child to separate special ed classes for reading and math. The GenEd classes are too big and too loud for him.

What school is this? That sounds like the type of program that would work.

We have an ED program at our school and DS has a good friend in it so my knowledge is second hand. DS's friend is mainstreamed the great majority of the day with an aide. He is in the self-contained classroom for social skills and maybe one other subject. The schedule is very strict as far as we can tell and DS's friend is always in the mainstream classroom at the same times every day. As far as DS is concerned he's just another member of the class except he sometimes gets pulled out to go elsewhere but lots of other kids get pulled out for speech and other things so it's not a big deal. The child is in the highest reading group and gets all the same academics as the rest of the very bright kids in the class.

The only reason I know he's in this program is because his mother has been very open about her son's experiences. I volunteer a lot and have never seen him have any issues. He came from a different school so I don't know what he was like before but he's doing great now.

The mother told me that our particular school does tend to move kids out of the program very quickly so it could be that some programs are better than others.

Anonymous wrote:I have a very bright child who has been in self contained classes for behavior.

Do whatever you can to say in the regular classes. The academics are NEVER as good in the self contained. Imagine your son in a class of 10 kids, all equally or more disruptive than he is. Ten kids at ten different academic levels, most of them significantly behind. You will be shocked at how poor the academic education can be in those classes. Also, we were told that many children spend a year or two in the self-contained classes and then move back into mainstream once they have learned better skills, but we have never observed a child move into a less restrictive class. Most children seem to stay in the program until middle school and some go further into more restrictive settings (SN only schools etc.)

The problem I think is that there is very little real evidence based skills-teaching. How to develop self-control, how to problem solve, etc. It feels like warehousing kids just to keep them from bothering the regular kids.

At your DC's age, behaviors can be changed pretty quickly with the right interventions and support. It gets tougher as they get older and behaviors get more ingrained and the longer he continues the way that he is the more he'll hate school and feel bad about himself.

A bright child like yours deserves to be having fun and loving learning at this age and if your home school isn't able or willing to give him what he needs I would strongly advise you to look elsewhere.

A wise therapist once told me that at this age a good more restrictive placement can be better than a horrible less restrictive placement.

To me, a key issue is friends. My child is keenly aware of the ways he is different and neuro typical kids are not always accommodating and kind. My kid is in SN private school for this reason.
He is always talking about his friends, which was not the case when he was mainstreamed (more like no friends)

Unfortunately, this is the MO of some schools in a particular part of the county. They provide minimal supports or none and hope you leave, to private or a different placement. They do not like to add on more more supports. It means more work for them and more possible disruptions to their classrooms. I know at least three families whose children were "counseled out" of public school in this way in MCPS and ended up transferring to small privates instead of trying to fight the system. It worked out well for them but not everyone is able to afford this or wants this.

In terms of LRE, the MCPS Asperger's program and the ED program are the next level of placement after gen ed since they are supposed to do a combination of self-contained plus gen ed. There's another program called LAD or learning centers or something like that that tends to work in the same way so that might also be an option but I thought most of the children in those programs have more academic issues so this program may not be a great fit for OP's child.

OP, is the LD/GT program an option for next year? I don't know whether they will work with children with behaviors but it may be worth a call to them to see what they can recommend.

Anonymous wrote:You can't know if a child went to an ED class. He could have moved to another state.

Anyway... OP is now in homeschool with few supports from what it sounds like. There isn't even a behavior plan in place so a change of placement to ED sounds completely unlikely as a next step

Anonymous wrote:You can't know if a child went to an ED class. He could have moved to another state.

Anyway... OP is now in homeschool with few supports from what it sounds like. There isn't even a behavior plan in place so a change of placement to ED sounds completely unlikely as a next step

Depends on how "bad" the behaviors.

Anonymous wrote:We are in DC and got a FBA and BIP, with extensive interviews and observations. But one one ever mentioned private placement. It took months for the behavior to get better. And I suspect we are at the same school as PP. just want you know that an FBA/ BIP may not be a magic answer. But it does sound worth doing even if you have to pay out of pocket. Do you also have other services in place like counseling etc?

Our Dev ped was the one who first mentioned private placement at our IEP meetings and the school took his lead. I fired him for speaking to a SN school prior to us visiting the school and without permission violating Hippa.