OP here. After doing some research and talking to his IEP team I am more convinced that he does have ADHD/ADD and some type of learning disability. I talked to the psychologist and the IEP coordinator about this. We have an IEP meeting next week, where they want to make his increase of his hours official and they want to lower his goals. I understand about having attainable goals but at the same time seems like we are going backwards. Overall I like his IEP team. We really have a couple of options now at this point.

1.)Stay where he is at in his Spanish class. I would have to hire some kind of tutor to meet with him once or probably twice a week. I get the impression that the school doesn’t support this idea.

2.)Moves to an English class, either in his current school or his home school. If we keep him in his current school I think we will have to pay someone (education advocate or some other type of person) to advocate for his stay in his current school. He does have friends and we have built up a relationship with this school.

3.)We go to a private school. I have been looking at Oakwood and it seems to be a great school, a good fit for my child. We have a tour scheduled next week to look at it. It’s expensive, but if its worth it…..


Many Thanks for everyone’s opinion! Its been a valuable resource in figuring this out.

We are in MCPS.

DS has significant ADHD which really impacts his learning, he receives 18 hours per week - and the idea of an alternative school has never ever been discussed. Nor would I go for it.

Perhaps if there were significant behavioral issues such as aggressive behavior, screaming at teacher etc., - they would have suggested it. This is just a guess on my part.

OP,

I posted before about my child with significant ADHD who receives 12 hours a week of support.

I forgot to mention that we are a multicultural, bilingual family. My son goes to a weekend school to learn how to write in his native language (involves a lot of grammar, which he hates and has difficulty with) - he already knows how to speak and read it. These things did not come easily to him. We were nearly refused services from Infants and Toddlers in MoCo because his delays were thought to stem from his bilingualism and not from developmental issues - later on they backtracked, but not before we had lost what I thought was valuable early intervention time. I am particularly aware that teachers and special educators here will constantly trot out the anti-bilingual argument, saying it's too much, blah blah blah. Rubbish. Your child will have to work harder, certainly, but research has shown that learning a second language develops young brains and makes children more adaptable. The goal is long-term brain flexibility, and even a child with ADHD can reach it.

Anonymous wrote:Consider yourself really lucky, OP. Often kids with ADHD are left with bare-bones and unenforced 504 plans as they are unable to get IEPs.

An aide at this age can be extremely helpful to stay on task. I know people who have paid $10,000 to hire an advocate and attorney to get less for their child with ADHD child than what you are getting.

Unless a school is really really great, which yours sounds like it may be, usually they only offer aides when either the child is about to fail a grade or already has or when there are behaviors that are distracting to other classmates. In our experience, they could care less about inattentive type ADHD if the behaviors don't bother other kids and are more internalized like daydreaming all day long and not doing a lick of work.

An aide through Moco schools gets 35 hours a week of training. They vary wildly in quality. They can redirect a kid but are not teaching them to redirect themselves, which is a skill kids need to learn. I imagine the aides in Fairfax are similar.

So yes, OP is lucky to get an IEP vs. a 504, but the school is not doing him or his kid any favors by just increasing the number of aide hours and nothing else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have severe ADHD (like, off the charts) and never ever had anything like this.

Well, there is no "chart," but thanks for trolling.

Are you saying there are no measurable, objective diagnostic criteria that can be....charted?

Or do you just not get idioms?

No troll. You get supports when you need them. I have a sibling with "off the charts" ADHD who went to Ivy League grad school and graduate schools. Your experience is irrelevant. You didn't get supports in school, Good for you, have a cookie.

That's unfortunate! I've both moved kids to different, more appropriate placements with fewer than 15 hours, and kept others with more than 15 students. It's tough because it should be a case by case basis, with no pre-determined hours for a student's placement!

You sound like a good teacher, PP.
We've been at meetings where the school team was trying desperately to get up to 15 hours so they could justify a change of placement.
Then when they realized they weren't going to hit 15 then walked back the hours dramatically. It's a weird game they play.

^also, those are meant as encouraging smileys. They look more obnoxious as the emoticons than I meant them to!

I just wanted to share my experiences as a teacher! While schools in general become more concerned when a student has 15+ hours on an IEP, we've never said a student goes to a new school when they hit that number. We might consider other options, but it's also an option to keep the student at their home school with those hours or with additional supports/staffing in place! As part of the IEP team, I've (thankfully) never experienced a meeting where the school staff automatically wanted to move a student to "get rid of them!"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have severe ADHD (like, off the charts) and never ever had anything like this.

Well, there is no "chart," but thanks for trolling.

Are you saying there are no measurable, objective diagnostic criteria that can be....charted?

Or do you just not get idioms?

I think Moco would argue that it's not a strict cut off but, yes, the district tends to want to move kids to a center program with 15 or more hours. It saves them money to consolidate the kids.

I do know families that have stayed at their neighborhood schools with more than 15 hours. Usually this seems to happen when there isn't a good match for the child in the center programs like when a child is academically advanced but needs a lot of PT/OT support or something like that.

I also know families that wanted their child placed in center programs with fewer hours and were successful at getting this done.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[google]

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering if the school is trying to build a case for moving this kid into a self-contained class or a program at another school. A full-time aide is a lot of special ed hours. But if the aide isn't well-trained, the aide won't make any difference. Then the school will say that he isn't learning in the general ed class despite having full-time "support".

OP, have they mentioned anything to you about other programs or classrooms?

Agreed, our IEP team in MOCO said anything pver 15 hrs a week meant a transfer to s more specialized school.

Really? That is very interesting. My son with moderate to severe ADHD, dysgraphia and dyscalculia is given 12 hours a week (in theory, less in practice) in the general classroom. I had no idea he was so close to such a cut-off...

It cannot possible be legal to have a one-size-fits-all cut-off for moving to a more restrictive environment.

Anonymous wrote:Hi Everyone

My child is in the 1st grade and we just had a meeting with his teacher and his IEP coordinator/Aid that is with him in the classroom. My son has had an IEP starting in late kindergarten, around May. He was approved for 10 hours a week for someone to be in the classroom with him. Well they want to increase it to 20 hours a week. He receives other services as well, some outside of the school and some inside. We had had him evaluated and he is on medication for ADD/ADHD. So basically he will have someone with him all the time in the classroom. Is this normal for a child that was diagnosis with just ADHD/ADD? He does go to OT every week and he is in a social skills group. The school evaluation came to the conclusion that he might be on the ASD scale and also his private evaluation thought so as well. However they both thought he was on the spectrum.

I am all new to this so any insights would be appreciated. We are in the process of having another evaluation at Kennedy. It just seems a lot of services for someone with just ADHD/ADD

Thanks

OP, is DC having problems in the classroom with the number of hours currently provided? What is the rationale they are providing for increasing it to 20 hours per week (doubling it)?

I have a kid who is also at a dual immersion school, a DC charter. Something to think about: I think non-NT kids can react differently to language immersion than other kids. It's just a theory I've been building up. With a lot of support, he may be more successful in the dual language program. My kid is still in the dual language charter and doing well. Maturity and increased familiarity with the language helps a lot. They've decreased his service hours because he needs much less support than he used to...some things to think about!

Anonymous wrote:[google]

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering if the school is trying to build a case for moving this kid into a self-contained class or a program at another school. A full-time aide is a lot of special ed hours. But if the aide isn't well-trained, the aide won't make any difference. Then the school will say that he isn't learning in the general ed class despite having full-time "support".

OP, have they mentioned anything to you about other programs or classrooms?

Agreed, our IEP team in MOCO said anything pver 15 hrs a week meant a transfer to s more specialized school.

Really? That is very interesting. My son with moderate to severe ADHD, dysgraphia and dyscalculia is given 12 hours a week (in theory, less in practice) in the general classroom. I had no idea he was so close to such a cut-off...

Consider yourself really lucky, OP. Often kids with ADHD are left with bare-bones and unenforced 504 plans as they are unable to get IEPs.

An aide at this age can be extremely helpful to stay on task. I know people who have paid $10,000 to hire an advocate and attorney to get less for their child with ADHD child than what you are getting.

Unless a school is really really great, which yours sounds like it may be, usually they only offer aides when either the child is about to fail a grade or already has or when there are behaviors that are distracting to other classmates. In our experience, they could care less about inattentive type ADHD if the behaviors don't bother other kids and are more internalized like daydreaming all day long and not doing a lick of work.