Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Start her on transition services, prepare for trade school.

Could we please stop lowballing disabled kids? There are plenty of dyslexic, dysgraphic, dyscalculic kids who are bright enough for college, and there are a zillion colleges, many of which you can go to without having earned a single A.

The repeated talk about trade school is really not appropriate, unless the kid is organically interested in something trade school teaches.

What an ignorant thing to say. What’s wrong with trade school?

Plus being on your feet more and not at a desk helps many types focus and stay engaged. Nursing, trades, teaching, walking about.

There is nothing wrong with trade school. What I object to is that kids who are not successful academically in HS (as OP described) are immediately directed to trade school without any consideration as to how to adjust the HS accommodations and instruction to improve their ability to perform academically.

I also object to the idea that kids with not great grades shouldn’t go to college. A college degree is still a pre-requisite to many jobs in this country, and there are many, many colleges which accept kids with bad grades. I have a sibling who nearly failed English and got bad grades in anything to do with reading and writing. My parents sent him to college anyway, where he continued to have good grades and bad grades, but he graduated and today he has a technical engineering job in the computer industry and probably pulls 200-250K - he earns more than any of us siblings. He never would have gotten his career start without a college degree.

I also said in my post “….unless the kid is organically interested in trade school”. By all means, kids who are interested in plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc. or other kinds of certificate or blue or pink collar jobs like police, fire, EMS and nursing, and computers, should go into those jobs if they are interested in them (and I have a kid in one of those careers who got there through a college route although college is unnecessary for it.)

But, immediately telling parents of academically struggling kids that their only options is trade school unnecessarily limits kids.

Anonymous wrote:NP and putting two cents in because my DC has also been at Siena 4th-8th grade, with a similar experience as OP in that DC has not made much academic progress at all. Siena definitely has a great marketing team, they sold us. And they also had a decent reputation, even here on DCUM. Which is why I feel compelled to share our bad experience, because it's important for others to know. Siena is expensive, and while it helped my DC's self esteem for awhile to be around others like them, I think that's about the only advantage. DC has not made much of any progress academically after 4 years, based on testing. And the MS environment is increasingly poor -- definitely worse than our local public MS. I really regret sending my DC to Siena, and now need to figure out how to reverse course.

Can you clarify “based on testing”? Are you getting repeated neuropsychological testing? What tests are you using to measure progress?

I have a kid with reading issues, so I wonder what measuring stick to use for progress.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Start her on transition services, prepare for trade school.

Could we please stop lowballing disabled kids? There are plenty of dyslexic, dysgraphic, dyscalculic kids who are bright enough for college, and there are a zillion colleges, many of which you can go to without having earned a single A.

The repeated talk about trade school is really not appropriate, unless the kid is organically interested in something trade school teaches.

What an ignorant thing to say. What’s wrong with trade school?

Plus being on your feet more and not at a desk helps many types focus and stay engaged. Nursing, trades, teaching, walking about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Start her on transition services, prepare for trade school.

Could we please stop lowballing disabled kids? There are plenty of dyslexic, dysgraphic, dyscalculic kids who are bright enough for college, and there are a zillion colleges, many of which you can go to without having earned a single A.

The repeated talk about trade school is really not appropriate, unless the kid is organically interested in something trade school teaches.

What an ignorant thing to say. What’s wrong with trade school?

NP here. There is plenty of ability for a parent to 1) respect people who choose trade school and also 2) point out that folks jump to suggesting trade school for dyslexia.

It is imperative that children with learning differences not be labeled as unable to attend college.

NP and putting two cents in because my DC has also been at Siena 4th-8th grade, with a similar experience as OP in that DC has not made much academic progress at all. Siena definitely has a great marketing team, they sold us. And they also had a decent reputation, even here on DCUM. Which is why I feel compelled to share our bad experience, because it's important for others to know. Siena is expensive, and while it helped my DC's self esteem for awhile to be around others like them, I think that's about the only advantage. DC has not made much of any progress academically after 4 years, based on testing. And the MS environment is increasingly poor -- definitely worse than our local public MS. I really regret sending my DC to Siena, and now need to figure out how to reverse course.

Anonymous wrote:Every reading assignment should be modified. That is specialized instruction.

If she is not getting modified content- they are not providing her FAPE.

Idk about your county but in my county they will not modify the general curriculum. Students that require that go on the Occupational track which still leads to a diploma but not college ready.

Do they modify curriculum in your county and students still get a diploma that will lead them to a university?

You're going to have to use supplemental videos at home. We use Crash Course for history, Khan Academy and Organic Chemistry tutor for math. We look over summaries of books and use text to speech.

My kid has ADHD and APD. She's always been in public and I'm a teacher. Scour the internet for the best video resources-TikTok has led me to some really helpful YouTube channels.

My 2 cents.

The first 4-6 weeks is review. Teachers are throwing softballs to get the students in the routine of going back to school, so basically..easy work. second half of first quarter..they start to do real work. 2nd q gets more difficult. 3rd q is the beast. 4th q starts slowing down.

There is no more memorization in high school. It is all application. That is why so many students struggle. They are used to memorizing something and regurgitating it back on a test. Now they have to read, analyze, then apply it to higher level thinking questions.

If your DD is struggling now, it will only get worse.

Not sure what level she is, but you may want to level down so that she gets more specialized instruction. This is NOT dumbing down. It is getting her what she needs.

Resource is a joke. Don't put your eggs in that basket.

I agree with the PP's to keep the sports. It will keep her engaged and find success and acceptance, where she otherwise may not.

The SJC Benilde program allows kids to take one less class during the year (they take history for 6 weeks in the summer). But other than that there isn't much support. The kids do all the same work, and have to ask each teacher for accommodations (which is extended time and use of typing).

Anonymous wrote:You can get support at MCPS. Don’t rule it out.

Look at some of the Catholics. Good Counsel has Ryken program, for instance

I know a kid with language processing issues who moved from Siena to Good Counsel in 9th grade. Mom was in the special ed field and kept very good track of kid's testing, and I remember her saying that it was really interesting that kid's assessment scores in language did objectively improve. Kid had a good experience at Good Counsel, and ultimately went to a small liberal arts college.

SJC also has the Benilde program, although I can't speak to that personally.

I currently have one kid at Siena and one kid at Fusion. Given what you are telling us, I could see switching your child to Fusion for the remainder of the Freshman year. Usually, freshman classes involve a lot of memorization and rote work, so I could see a lot of personal attention being a good idea in this case.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all.

She does have resource and a case manager, though she is very green and neither she nor I are big fans.

Her tutor is amazing and will probably continue the SIS program with her. Don’t believe she ever finished it bc she went to the SN school and frankly, I trusted them to remediate this. Oh, how they failed her. I don’t even understand how that can happen.

DD is an athlete so that is good and helps her tremendously. It’s been a godsend for her but she’s also terrified bc she knows if her grades don’t come up, she won’t be academically eligible to play and that would devastate her.

She needs a restart
You need. a team meeting at the school do not let them say no.
Six weeks in she should not be failing all subjects.

Why is she doing sports when she is not passing her classes? Yes she needs help that help should be before sports.

What is she going to do play her sport for money when she graduates no she is not.

Hence get your priorities in order.

She should be at least getting B's and C's not D's and F's.

Stop blaming the school she came from. You should have had her tutored over the summer in each subject. And she should not be taking one honors class given where her grades are at this point. She was not ready for HS academically.

I disagree that she shouldn’t be playing sports! She NEEDS to do the things that bring her joy and help her feel accomplishment and pride. She isn’t going to get that feeling from academics, and she needs a reason to keep showing up to school and doing her very best.

I hope she begins to find more success at school with your support and the schools support. Many, many kids have a rough adjustment to high school. Keep up the good fight.

Anonymous wrote:Start her on transition services, prepare for trade school.

Agreed. 14 is the perfect age for this!

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all.

She does have resource and a case manager, though she is very green and neither she nor I are big fans.

Her tutor is amazing and will probably continue the SIS program with her. Don’t believe she ever finished it bc she went to the SN school and frankly, I trusted them to remediate this. Oh, how they failed her. I don’t even understand how that can happen.

DD is an athlete so that is good and helps her tremendously. It’s been a godsend for her but she’s also terrified bc she knows if her grades don’t come up, she won’t be academically eligible to play and that would devastate her.

She needs a restart
You need. a team meeting at the school do not let them say no.
Six weeks in she should not be failing all subjects.

Why is she doing sports when she is not passing her classes? Yes she needs help that help should be before sports.

What is she going to do play her sport for money when she graduates no she is not.

Hence get your priorities in order.

She should be at least getting B's and C's not D's and F's.

Stop blaming the school she came from. You should have had her tutored over the summer in each subject. And she should not be taking one honors class given where her grades are at this point. She was not ready for HS academically.

Anonymous wrote:Start her on transition services, prepare for trade school.

I would like to unpack this comment.

The reason this is incredibly rude is it assumes the child is unable to continue on their current path. While trade school is an alternative option it is completely uninformed to suggest a child ‘prepare for trade school’ because they have struggled for a couple weeks in high school.

I think the poster of this comment is making false assumptions that people with dyslexia will not be able to function well in non-trade professions. I highly doubt this poster would make the same recommendation to ANY other student learning profile simply because the start of freshman year in a new school is really hard.

It was a glib comment without any thought but it must be addressed due to the biases it fosters.