Anonymous wrote:I am screaming here in my mind at some of the backseat comments posted here. I am a parent here with DC that is diagnosed with learning disabilities and during virtual learing they got little to no support despite virtual learning be a disaster for them. There are still learning gaps in my DC 2nd grade classroom in non title I north APS classroom. I know because I request math materials being taught to be sent home a head of time, and the circulum is the end of first grade. So not only is my DC behind,but many are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if most students are still behind it is a high probability that those with a disability are even further behind. I agree the COVID-19 remediation support money was mismanaged, and it still digusts me.....sorry it is harder to let go when you had to pay thousands for tutoring support and math curriculum for home to basically catch your child up despite working 40 plus hours a week yourself.....so yes sorry it is easier said than done to just get over how APS is doing little to nothing to support our youngest learners that lost the most fundamental skills during virtual!!!!! For crying out loud my DC 1st grade teacher was given permission to ask parents to volunteer to come in and support her all of last year because the learning lost was so grave, and why because APS had no funds to support an aide as they have in K classrooms. I know several other school districts that did use the government funds for tutoring support etc. People are being prosecuted for Misuse or lying on their PP loans so why shouldn't a school district be held to a same standard 🤔 for misuse of government aide funds????? So please save your empty comments unless you have experienced what OP is referring to or can at least empathize with it as it is a real problem ongoing.

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Anonymous wrote:OP here. Virtual school was completely unhelpful for my DC. Have a strong aversion to online support services. Virtual school taught him how to manipulate Lexus and the iPad to work in his favor and make it look like he knew how to spell etc, while he just made the iPad work for him.

Really I was just hoping to get a baseline understand of what is being offered across the county and use that to shape my advocacy.

Our DC has a 504 for adhd though the pediatrician described it as quite mild. He bas always struggled with academics and we had him tested/evaluated and everything came back in the normal range with no learning disabilities.

He really just does best with focused small group or individual support. We do this at home but we also work full time and have another child. Also, it was APS decision to close for as long as they did during Covid—not mine—they can go ahead and use their funding and support kids with academic recovery like other districts are doing.

Op virtual school was 2 years ago. It sounds like your kid has disabilities which he would have had either way. It’s pointless to blame virtual learning for that. That isn’t how disabilities work.

DC is spending more money now for learning loss from 2 years ago. Fairfax just had a SB meeting on the topic. Only in lake wobegone Arlington is it no longer a problem.

Nevertheless. If a child has learning disabilities, as it sounds OP’s does, or ADHD to the extent that it has negative academic impact, which it also sounds he does, that would have been the case even without Covid. He is getting OT for sensory seeking behavior which is impacting his learning - that is not due to APS or virtual school and will likely be an issue even if he qualifies for summer school or tutoring. Such is the nature of a disability. OP will be better prepared to deal with how this will impact him in all of k-12 if she stops pretending it’s a thing virtual school caused.

Wait. I am not OP (I posted about OT, someone just asked what ADHD therapy looks like.)

Oh that’s confusing but op also mentions OT and ADHD so it probably applies to her too. Her son has disabilities, virtual school did not cause them, tutoring won’t get rid of them.

OP said school assessed two years ago and no LD. They should still ask for a school to reasses or pay for a private eval
to rule out but 1) loads of kids without LD missed out on foundation skills and most schools, not called Arlington, are still grappling with this and 2) kids with LD who received virtual therapy for 18 months were left even more worse off than students with no LD. Sorry PP that this inconveniences your preferred narrative. Since learning loss has apparently already been remedied, I guess it was never real.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Virtual school was completely unhelpful for my DC. Have a strong aversion to online support services. Virtual school taught him how to manipulate Lexus and the iPad to work in his favor and make it look like he knew how to spell etc, while he just made the iPad work for him.

Really I was just hoping to get a baseline understand of what is being offered across the county and use that to shape my advocacy.

Our DC has a 504 for adhd though the pediatrician described it as quite mild. He bas always struggled with academics and we had him tested/evaluated and everything came back in the normal range with no learning disabilities.

He really just does best with focused small group or individual support. We do this at home but we also work full time and have another child. Also, it was APS decision to close for as long as they did during Covid—not mine—they can go ahead and use their funding and support kids with academic recovery like other districts are doing.

Op virtual school was 2 years ago. It sounds like your kid has disabilities which he would have had either way. It’s pointless to blame virtual learning for that. That isn’t how disabilities work.

DC is spending more money now for learning loss from 2 years ago. Fairfax just had a SB meeting on the topic. Only in lake wobegone Arlington is it no longer a problem.

Nevertheless. If a child has learning disabilities, as it sounds OP’s does, or ADHD to the extent that it has negative academic impact, which it also sounds he does, that would have been the case even without Covid. He is getting OT for sensory seeking behavior which is impacting his learning - that is not due to APS or virtual school and will likely be an issue even if he qualifies for summer school or tutoring. Such is the nature of a disability. OP will be better prepared to deal with how this will impact him in all of k-12 if she stops pretending it’s a thing virtual school caused.

Wait. I am not OP (I posted about OT, someone just asked what ADHD therapy looks like.)

Oh that’s confusing but op also mentions OT and ADHD so it probably applies to her too. Her son has disabilities, virtual school did not cause them, tutoring won’t get rid of them.

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Anonymous wrote:Amazing that we all just except that private tutoring for fundamentals like reading and math are just one more part of the exorbitant cost of life in Arlington...

There are plenty of kids here who do not really need tutors but have highly competitive parents who think their child needs to be the “best”

There are a ton of kids who need intensive support or are below basic in reading and math. Not even half are proficient in math right now. Check out the APS dashboard. It's atrocious. The primary recommendation in this thread is "hire a tutor". Trust me when I say that even the most competitive parents would prefer to spend $1000 a month on something else to get their snowflake into Harvard. Families should not need to hire tutors to teach fundamental reading and math skills.

Schools are shifting away from teaching math fundamentals, instead emphasizing group projects, discussions, explorations. All nice if your kid already knows the fundamentals. Not so good if they don't know the fundamentals and need time to practice them. You don't have to get a tutor. Buy a pack of flashcards. The point is that you need to make sure they have these fundamentals. If not, they're going to struggle through the whole pathway and it becomes increasingly hard to remediate because their gaps are from prior years. It's not about getting ahead; it's ensuring they don't fall behind. There seems to a shift in thinking on reading instruction so that's encouraging.

So we’d back to APS isn’t teaching fundamentals and we’re all supposed to be ok with that. Cool, cool.

But that isn't true.

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Anonymous wrote:OP here. Virtual school was completely unhelpful for my DC. Have a strong aversion to online support services. Virtual school taught him how to manipulate Lexus and the iPad to work in his favor and make it look like he knew how to spell etc, while he just made the iPad work for him.

Really I was just hoping to get a baseline understand of what is being offered across the county and use that to shape my advocacy.

Our DC has a 504 for adhd though the pediatrician described it as quite mild. He bas always struggled with academics and we had him tested/evaluated and everything came back in the normal range with no learning disabilities.

He really just does best with focused small group or individual support. We do this at home but we also work full time and have another child. Also, it was APS decision to close for as long as they did during Covid—not mine—they can go ahead and use their funding and support kids with academic recovery like other districts are doing.

Op virtual school was 2 years ago. It sounds like your kid has disabilities which he would have had either way. It’s pointless to blame virtual learning for that. That isn’t how disabilities work.

DC is spending more money now for learning loss from 2 years ago. Fairfax just had a SB meeting on the topic. Only in lake wobegone Arlington is it no longer a problem.

Nevertheless. If a child has learning disabilities, as it sounds OP’s does, or ADHD to the extent that it has negative academic impact, which it also sounds he does, that would have been the case even without Covid. He is getting OT for sensory seeking behavior which is impacting his learning - that is not due to APS or virtual school and will likely be an issue even if he qualifies for summer school or tutoring. Such is the nature of a disability. OP will be better prepared to deal with how this will impact him in all of k-12 if she stops pretending it’s a thing virtual school caused.

Wait. I am not OP (I posted about OT, someone just asked what ADHD therapy looks like.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Virtual school was completely unhelpful for my DC. Have a strong aversion to online support services. Virtual school taught him how to manipulate Lexus and the iPad to work in his favor and make it look like he knew how to spell etc, while he just made the iPad work for him.

Really I was just hoping to get a baseline understand of what is being offered across the county and use that to shape my advocacy.

Our DC has a 504 for adhd though the pediatrician described it as quite mild. He bas always struggled with academics and we had him tested/evaluated and everything came back in the normal range with no learning disabilities.

He really just does best with focused small group or individual support. We do this at home but we also work full time and have another child. Also, it was APS decision to close for as long as they did during Covid—not mine—they can go ahead and use their funding and support kids with academic recovery like other districts are doing.

Op virtual school was 2 years ago. It sounds like your kid has disabilities which he would have had either way. It’s pointless to blame virtual learning for that. That isn’t how disabilities work.

DC is spending more money now for learning loss from 2 years ago. Fairfax just had a SB meeting on the topic. Only in lake wobegone Arlington is it no longer a problem.

Nevertheless. If a child has learning disabilities, as it sounds OP’s does, or ADHD to the extent that it has negative academic impact, which it also sounds he does, that would have been the case even without Covid. He is getting OT for sensory seeking behavior which is impacting his learning - that is not due to APS or virtual school and will likely be an issue even if he qualifies for summer school or tutoring. Such is the nature of a disability. OP will be better prepared to deal with how this will impact him in all of k-12 if she stops pretending it’s a thing virtual school caused.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Virtual school was completely unhelpful for my DC. Have a strong aversion to online support services. Virtual school taught him how to manipulate Lexus and the iPad to work in his favor and make it look like he knew how to spell etc, while he just made the iPad work for him.

Really I was just hoping to get a baseline understand of what is being offered across the county and use that to shape my advocacy.

Our DC has a 504 for adhd though the pediatrician described it as quite mild. He bas always struggled with academics and we had him tested/evaluated and everything came back in the normal range with no learning disabilities.

He really just does best with focused small group or individual support. We do this at home but we also work full time and have another child. Also, it was APS decision to close for as long as they did during Covid—not mine—they can go ahead and use their funding and support kids with academic recovery like other districts are doing.

Op virtual school was 2 years ago. It sounds like your kid has disabilities which he would have had either way. It’s pointless to blame virtual learning for that. That isn’t how disabilities work.

DC is spending more money now for learning loss from 2 years ago. Fairfax just had a SB meeting on the topic. Only in lake wobegone Arlington is it no longer a problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you say you son had ADHD. Is he in treatment for that? Not just medication but therapy to help him develop skills to manage ADHD. My son (2nd grade) started therapy this yr for ADHD and we have seen improvements in academic achievement.

What do you have in his 504? I think every kid works better in small groups but unfortunately public schools do not have the staff resources to do small group instruction only. It is just a reality closure or no closure. With ADHD you really need to focus in giving you kids this necessary support to achieve academically. Unfortunately this likely will mean support outside of school whether it is a tutoring, therapy, executive functioning coaching (probably not till he is older) and maybe medication or diet changes.

Not OP but can you give more info on therapy for ADHD? A therapist? Someone else? What’s involved?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Virtual school was completely unhelpful for my DC. Have a strong aversion to online support services. Virtual school taught him how to manipulate Lexus and the iPad to work in his favor and make it look like he knew how to spell etc, while he just made the iPad work for him.

Really I was just hoping to get a baseline understand of what is being offered across the county and use that to shape my advocacy.

Our DC has a 504 for adhd though the pediatrician described it as quite mild. He bas always struggled with academics and we had him tested/evaluated and everything came back in the normal range with no learning disabilities.

He really just does best with focused small group or individual support. We do this at home but we also work full time and have another child. Also, it was APS decision to close for as long as they did during Covid—not mine—they can go ahead and use their funding and support kids with academic recovery like other districts are doing.

Op virtual school was 2 years ago. It sounds like your kid has disabilities which he would have had either way. It’s pointless to blame virtual learning for that. That isn’t how disabilities work.

+1

Sounds like OP still needs to address the learning disabilities.