Good-by to public school - Frustrated in NC

We are two years into our freedom from public education. While it has been expensive and hard (we had to move, live in a small apartment) it has been worth every cent. While we could have continued to pressure for FAPE, it is good to have no strings attached. I now teach for a different district with programs I dreamed of for my son. Still, he needs the small, nurturing environment that the private ld school provides. I know we are fortunate to be able to do this for our son and we are so grateful that he is learning and growing and happy.

been singing this song three years now. My two are in a small private school. They love it,so do I. I wish you luck with your complaint.

I am in a GREAT school district for regular ed students that has a black hole for sped. A bunch of scary people in sped that never heard of interactive metronome, look at me sideways when I mention vision therapy (for a child THEY diagnosed with a visual motor deficit, meanwhile I have met 3 teachers including 2 sped teachers from other districts all bringing their children to my son’s optometrist).
I actually became friendly with one teacher who is bringing her son in for interactive metronome so maybe word will trickle in that you can actually help these children.

My son is in regular ed because of all the remediation we have done on the outside. He hated sped so much that staying out of the two teacher class is the motivation that spurs him on to do the therapy every day. Anything to not go back to that class.

So maybe they have helped in a very strange backhanded way. They are so bad that it motivates my son to work hard. Sigh.

Hi, RA,

I know I have talked to you before as I am also in NC. I agree with your decision. Not worth the fight as you may still win inadequate services in the end. Few special ed. teachers are properly trained. I have spent thousands of our own money to get myself trained and I don’t feel that it is valued at all by my employer.

Just curious, what is the name of the school? You are lucky, we just don’t have one here so I don’t have that option for my child. If the charter school doesn’t work, then we’ll be looking at homeschooling.

Janis

Boy, can I relate. The special ed teacher at our son’s school, although a very nice young woman, seems completely clueless. She’s never heard of LMB, FastForward, IAM, Phonographix - nothing - and we’ve met several others just like her! It’s frightening. I’m wondering what the universities teach to prepare these people to teach sped.

If it weren’t for the peripheral, private therapies we provide for our son, I really don’t know where’d he be academically.

jao

We hit a gem when we moved here last summer, but she retired this last spring

The other special ed teachers we have had were clueless! Kind, caring folks but they had no knowledge of any of the programs we here speak about.

Essentially, they did the exact same things the classroom teachers did but in smaller groups. It didnt help and I regret what my son missed in the classroom during these times

In our old district it was common for education major students to obtain the special ed certification in order to be more hirable in the desirable districts. Then, once an opening in a regular class came up, they would apply and win it as they now had seniority acc/to union rules.

This led to tremendous turnover and, of course, these gals were not commited enough to special ed to go out of their way to learn on their own

The end result was pretty poor quality special ed

I am homeschooling next year in lieu of middle school but I admit I am scared to death. I dont want to flaunt it for fear I will be back on the schools doorstep by October :)

But I know I cant do any worse-I just hope to be organized and have enough patience!!!!

We too are taking the plunge into private education after an unsatisfactory experience with the public school and special school district. While our son (going into 3rd grade) was receiving services thru special school district, he made virtually NO progress this year. His resource room teacher continued to say, “If he could just focus…” Well, whatever she was doing did virtually nothing. Mind you -very smart kid, high iq, and they made minimal progress. And what progress that was made I credit to his private tutor. SSD claimed there was progress but it was just a game in our opinion. “Feel good” talk and one serious talk about how maybe our expectations were too high. The intensive summer program revealed that our inclinations were right -he was much farther behind than the SSD was claiming. We had gotten this load about what great year he’d had, what a great kid, and how much progress. Total bs. And yes, the resource room teacher seemed to us to be way in over her head at all levels and very unmotivated. It was just fine that this very bright kid couldn’t read and was falling further and further behind. I just wish I knew a year ago what we know now - we wouldn’t have believed their soft words and we would have bailed out earlier.

My son did the summer program at the private school for ld kids and absolutely loved it. Making progress, happy and loving school. Can’t wait to start back in fall. If you have any doubts, read Sally Shaywitz’s OVERCOMING DYSLEXIA. We’d made our decision before reading the bk, but it erases any buyer’s remorse you may have in paying the considerable $$ Can’t say enuf about this wonderful book!! Read this book!

I am quite angry that the system failed my kid. But the clock is ticking and we don’t have time for them to figure it out. Nice to see some districts are getting it right out there.

I’m right there with y’all. My entering 3rd grade son has been in the summer program at the LD school and will start there in the Fall - thank God.

He learned nothing last year in his “exemplary” public school with an hour a day pull out with a very nice resource teacher who had way too many students and a weak method - balanced literacy. The attidude seems to be, “Just close your eyes and hope the kid catches up somehow.” Another LD boy from my son’s public school class has also moved to the LD school.

The LD school is so expensive it keeps me up at night, but there’s no other choice. Do you watch your kid sink in public school or let him shine in a private LD school.

And the gravy? No state testing!

The name of the school is The Piedmont School in High Point NC. It is very expensive but we are willing to make sacrifices. Thanks for hearing me vent. I feel better now.

NJ and Texan we have the exact same stories! It’s scary and sad to think of all the children who fail and are so bright. Yes, I read the book Overcoming Dyslexia,powerful, powerful book. It helped us make the decision as well. Thanks again. RA

Hi,
I too , just this year, enrolled my learning disabled middle school daughter in a private school. For years I struggled with the public school trying to get help for her. It varied widely from year to year. You never knew if you were going to get a good special education teacher or not. I am so grateful that I have qualified for financial aid to send my daughter to a private school. But that’s only part of the tuition. I’m trying to get a loan and have even put my house on the market. The public school in my opinion clearly failed her, even putting her in dangerous classes where she was sexually harrassed while the teacher looked the other way. I have consulted ADD organizations here in Georgia about getting the public school to help with private school funding since they were unable to give her an adequate education but was told it would take years and I would probably lose. I refuse to accept that! Does anyone know of any foundations that I can apply to for private school education for learning disabled child? Any information you can give me would be greatly appreciated. MEH

We are long past the days of fighting for a FAPE. Biggest lesson learned was to save money, time, energy, family, heartache etc… and simply find a non-public environment where your child will learn and grow. If the system is working for you, then no need, but if not, taking them to task is a tough time. Congratulations on making the decision and best of luck for all your kids.

Andy

We, too, went the private LD route versus taking the time and money to fight the school. Our experience wasn’t as wonderful as Socks’ — for the first year, we couldn’t have asked for more. Then the school system pulled all placement kids (OR — no school money), which accounted for 2/3 of the student body. Obviously, from that point on there wasn’t money for staff/facilities/programs and the school has all but closed. While our daughter (11) didn’t make the educational growth we would have liked (you can’t teach if you don’t have teachers, books, or programs to use), she did make significant gains in self-esteem and her ability to self-advocate, and you can’t put a price on that! Fortunately, we found a local parochial school that places emphasis on the individual child, and even has OG trained tutors on staff. They have a significant dyslexic population, and speak with knowledge — all the parents speak highly of all the staff, and they’ve been around for 60 years. In addition, we found a new, local tutor who is wonderful with writing and math. We worked with the tutors over the summer, and are almost at grade level. We’ve got our fingers crossed, and are praying for a wonderful year.