My 14 year old son will soon be placed in a private day school to better support his educational and therapeutic needs. This placement will be funded by our local public school system. He has complex learning disabilities, ADHD, and borderline IQ. I’m compiling a list of questions to ask, and would like to hear from those who went thru the same experience. In particular:
1) What are the key questions I should ask?
2) What were your biggest lessons learned from this experience?
3) For those of you who live in Northern Virginia, are they any schools that you would recommend based on personal experience?
Thank you!
Re: Critical questions to ask when picking a private school
I would ask what their strategies are for students who are struggling - and for specific examples.
Also, how do they deal with behavior problems?
Re: Critical questions to ask when picking a private school
Is it a therapeutic or LD school? If so then their approach should be well documented . I would ask about class size, how they approach accomodations, homework policies, how they handle behavior issues. I would also want to know what their mission is. We looked at private LD schools a few years ago and while the remediation was similar, there were differences in objective. SOme provided K-12 schooling with lots of accomodations. Others were more about remediation and eventual mainstreaming. Given your son’s challenges I’d want to know about life skills that go beyond just academics. Just a few thoughts. Good luck!
I’m not sure exactly how to phrase this, but ask probing questions to find out what kind of “support” the school offers — is it support with the goal of letting go as soon as possible and teaching the student to be independent, or is it support that holds the student up now but leaves him with no skills of his own when he leaves? Ask where students go after this school, what they do, and how they succeed (and if possible talk to other parents of graduates.)