Best Long Island School Districts for Special Education (Babylon, Smithtown: prices, move to)
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Just want to add that services up to Kindergarten are awesome in any district because it is funded differently. Once your child is in the K-12 then they are (supposedly) at the mercy of the Public School Districts funding which normally leaves alot to be desired for Special Ed. That is why transition from Pre-K to Kindergarten is an enormously stressful situation as all the rules change. Since it depends on your child (diagnosis, high functioning, low functioning) you need to decide what is important to you and your child. I was all for inclusion for my son with Down Syndrome in the South Country School District when he was 5. Unfortunately, just because they have it doesnt mean they do it well. After much soul searching we looked at 3 different BOCES programs (and you have the right to go look at the programs) we decided on the Premm Learning Center where he has been for the last 4 years. Would I like him to be in District with his sisters some day? of course!! Will he? Time will tell.
I highly recommend all parents go to some seminars and learn your rights. Parent to Parent of Long Island is an excellent resource as well as Long Island Advocacy group. Google them, they have plenty of free help. My son is non-verbal, uses a machine to speak (funded by the District! and dont let them tell you otherwise) still needs to be potty trained but overall he is still a 9 year old boy who deserves dignity and respect and an education. Life skills in not an academic program, but again it all depends on what is important to you.
The best advice I ever got (and sometime have to make a choice between one more therapy is this) you have to have time to just be a regular family and time for your child to just be a regular kid. Sometimes i take a therapy away so I can make sure that happens.
One more thing...I see alot of people talking about their kids being "pulled out" for therapy. Insist!! on a "push in" at least for 1/2 your therapy sessions a week. This is when the therapist has to go to the classroom and help your child with whatever is applicable in the clas and what they are working on (i.e. OT would help in class with cutting or glueing, PT would help in gym class during gym etc). This is very important so that your child is getting therapy that applies to their day to day life!
Sorry so long but I have been there and back and still amazes me what i still need to learn and how you still need to fight for what you need. But this is also the case for my "typical" kids in school too!
Nothing much here about school districts with excellent inclusion programs. Can someone please help us with northshore/peconic schools that do this well? Our child has significant disabilities but has always been included in regular schools with an aide.
Does anyone know anything about William Floyd school districts special education services? Is this district a good district for special ed? My son is not in need of remedial services but more behavioral intervention type of services. Any input?
I would love to hear any feedback on Miller Place-do they have inclusion kindergarten? How are their services?
I know this is late, but hopefully it will help someone else. RUN do not walk away from Miller Place. The chairperson is miserable and known by all agencies and providers, as well as DDI and other schools, as being yet another evil and miserable 'person' engaging in illegal practice! (Sachem, Melissa B. at Middle Country and Michele P. at Miller Place are THE WORST excuses for human beings and border illegal and DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR KIDS!) It is also known, I saw many asking, that Garden City in Nassau County is horrible too. As someone who provides advocacy support and continues trainings, I am shocked by the things these people do to hurt children. Once day they will have to answer for the bad things they do to children in need, but until then, it is not worth the fight- save your energy for your kids and go to a district that will provide the appropriate services your child has the right to. Right now, South Huntington is pretty good from what other parents are saying and so is Roslyn. The problem is, if you buy a home in an area where they provide services, what are you going to do when that chairperson moves on and another takes their place who is less than generous with services? Renting might be an option to consider. I am fortunate to be in a great district now, but I had to do my fair share of fighting with people who should not be chairing cpse and cses- people who should not be determining a child's fate. I have to say, it's nice to not have to focus on fighting against such insanity and people who are just unhappy and taking it out on our families. It's nice to focus on my beautiful son and daughters and help them with their needs and not stress over the nonsense. YOU are your child's voice... do not let anyone stand in your way of providing your child with what they are entitled to.
oh sorry- i just asked another mom. they have a half day kindergarten only and it is huge and your child will be sitting and doing dittos the whole time. no inclusion- self contained or regular ed.
I am new to the forum. We live in Valley Stream South. My son is dyslexic and I have been pushing the school for a diagnosis since 2nd grade. Through all the testing they did, they continually told me that he was fine. Now my son can barely read and is barely passing, but they refused him services. Finally i got him into an inclusion class which didn't help him at all, because he was granted special ed under the guise of ADD. So I had finally had enough and paid for private testing myself. (The school district refused to reimburse me.) I found out that through all the testing, they were either misinterpreting the results or outright lying to me about the results. When I took his testing files to the neuropsychologist, he could clearly see that he was dyslexic. Either way, it was pretty bad coming from these supposed educators. My son is now in VS North in a self contained class for 4 periods out of the day and he is much happier. I forgot to mention that most of the teachers through the years were terrible to him and would yell at him because of his disabilities. I am still looking for another district on LI. Any thoughts on which school districts are good for a dyslexic high schooler?
So Valley Stream South = 0, no services for special ed
Valley stream North= 7 (high school only, no experience in the elementary levels)
Hello , I had my daugther at the Boces CRC and the Rosemary Kennedy ? Which one do you mean?
I pulled her out of the Rosemary kennedy center. It might work for some, but to me it was and looked more like a correctional facility rather than a school.
Totally agree that Miller Place is horrible for special needs children. My daughter is 6 and they lied about her and said my wife refused all meetings,etc... They approved a teacher to come to our home and then tried to take it away. Fortunately we save all of their letters and our lawyer will be having a field day with their accusations. Got to love when a bad district tries to say what is best for a child they never met, when the nice teacher who comes to our home is always bragging about our daughters progress.
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do not bother...
