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Old 04-25-2009, 02:11 AM
 
9 posts, read 20,944 times
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Hello, I'm trying to gather information on the quality of special needs services in the City Schools of Decatur, and also at Fernbank Elementary. We are considering relocating from out of state to the Emory area and we are looking for a supportive school for our elementary age child with mild Aspergers/NLD. He is also gifted. There is a chance he won't be diagnosable as ASD but he definitely still needs support, especially with social skills. I have spoken with the special needs administrators and was pleased with the resources, but I wonder how this plays out in reality.

If anyone can offer any insight as to what I can expect in services from these schools I'd be most grateful.

Thank you!
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Old 04-25-2009, 07:10 AM
 
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First, are you in a place where you think your child is receiving awesome services and is thriving? Can you tell me a little bit about the setting your child is in now?

GA, along with 30 something other states in the US, has adopted this dad gone system called Response to Intervention. It means that for nearly a third of the school year the school/teachers are required to try interventions to see if these interventions help your child before actually progressing to an IEP. Most special ed advocates, nationally, think it is a failure.

DeKalb has improved... as recently as 15 years ago or so, a child couldn't be doubly exceptional (that is gifted and have an IEP), now that isn't a problem.
What is a problem, is that outside of perhaps a speech therapist, all the others are itinerant, that is the OT, etc, travel from school to school. The same will be true in COD but of course there are only a handful of schools.

I have had children receiving speech services from DeKalb schools for well, forever. The quality of therapists has varied greatly. We have almost never relied solely on the government to provide services for our children with IEPs. Instead, we consider the speech services at the school supplemental and the afterschool private speech the primary service.

Here is why -- there is a shortage of speech therapists in Atlanta and in GA. Private therapists can, with a much lighter, case load make fantastic money in the private sector. Even though we have had some good school based therapists -- we have had some GREAT private therapists. Plus, private therapy always happens when it is suppose to, there are no interruptions (ie field trips, cultural arts programs, etc).

How old is your child and how close to middle school are you?
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Old 04-25-2009, 09:18 AM
 
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Thank you so much for your reply lastminutemom. My son is in first grade right now. We live in a different country where there are essentially no speech services at all, no itinerant OT, and poor support for kids with special needs and teachers. So almost anything would be better, unless support would mean non-inclusion. I heard they do co-teaching in COD schools. Do they do it in Dekalb as well? Is this a good model? Does it mean all the special needs kids are lumped into the cotaught classrooms along with some typical kids? It's interesting what you say about the response to intervention being no so great. We have been asking our school here to try new strategies and take data to see if they are working and they refuse, so by comparison RTI sounded great to me. At my son's present school, it seems the overarching priority is to justify what they cannot do, rather than creatively solve problems. But it sounds like you think RTI interferes with supplying needed services--is that right? Do you have a sense of how knowledgeable and current these school systems are on ASD, Asperger's, Nonverbal Learning Disability, and other special needs? Any other insights you can share I would greately appreciate!!
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Old 04-25-2009, 12:18 PM
 
Location: Dunwoody,GA
2,239 posts, read 5,819,042 times
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So far, as far as I can tell, the Response to Intervention thing just seems like yet another way to delay getting the IEP process going for kids who need it. It seems pretty "loosey-goosey" and I can't even really determine what the STATED purpose is. It seems to me that parents must make a complete nuisance of themselves in order to keep the process moving. If you don't push for it (whatever it is you want), you're probably not going to get it. The process seems designed to screen students OUT of special surfaces instead of servicing those who need it. Very frustrating.
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