Anyone with kids at Gywnn Educational Center in Charles County?

[Bann]

Can you show me in any of my posts in this thread where I said " The OP's Child "
I asked some questions that certainly others would ask.

You posted in THIS thread asking those questions. We were talking about the OP's kid. Sorry to extrapolate. Others may certainly ask those questions, but they may have nothing to do with this student.

And please explain why the county would build and staff a school for Special Needs Childred and that's not what what would be best for the Special Needs Student and the other kids trying to get a education without being constantly held up.

It seems to me that you're being deliberately provocative, because you have an agenda you would like to push.

I have never said the FB Gwynn Center or other centers like it for special needs students was or wasn't a good idea or not.

You should read up on "Least Restrictive Environment" as it applies to the special education student.

 

[black dog]

You posted in THIS thread asking those questions. We were talking about the OP's kid. Sorry to extrapolate. Others may certainly ask those questions, but they may have nothing to do with this student.


It seems to me that you're being deliberately provocative, because you have an agenda you would like to push.

I have never said the FB Gwynn Center or other centers like it for special needs students was or wasn't a good idea or not.

You should read up on "Least Restrictive Environment" as it applies to the special education student.

I said way back I had no dog in this fight, I just asked a few simple questions, that I would hope any other parent would ask, Nothing more.
I'm gonna step away, you really wouldn't like my opinions on " Least Restrictive Environment "

 

[acommondisaster]

I didn't know Gwynn had full time classrooms anymore.

I don't have an iron in this fire anymore, either, though the day they closed Gwynn as a fulltime fully staffed SpEd school was a sad day for us. Our daughter went from being a little girl in a nurturing environment to a ...what was it School Board President Richmond called the students needing special education help? Oh yes, I remember "ENCUMBRANCES"...do you know the definition? "something that encumbers; something burdensome, useless, or superfluous; burden; hindrance". Maryland's move to "least restrictive" meant my daughter went from a school where she had full access and the ability to move about the school independently to being closed up classrooms where some years, she was too much of an encumbrance to even eat in the lunchroom. Least restrictive environment was by far the most restrictive and depressing. Every IEP was a struggle to keep services - I always figured it was because of the logistics of having the behavioral/speech/physical therapists come to her that they tried to cut out services, saying her teachers (who couldnt be bothered to take her to the lunchroom for lunch) could handle her needs. Granted, she had some good teachers, but resources were surely spread thinner by having my daughter "included" in neighborhood school.

Sorry, had to vent. It sounds like the OP is a good advocate for their child; the best I can offer is sometimes finding a like minded parent or two as a sounding board and to compare recent experiences can be of help. (more recent than mine)

 

[Bann]

I didn't know Gwynn had full time classrooms anymore.

I don't have an iron in this fire anymore, either, though the day they closed Gwynn as a fulltime fully staffed SpEd school was a sad day for us. Our daughter went from being a little girl in a nurturing environment to a ...what was it School Board President Richmond called the students needing special education help? Oh yes, I remember "ENCUMBRANCES"...do you know the definition? "something that encumbers; something burdensome, useless, or superfluous; burden; hindrance". Maryland's move to "least restrictive" meant my daughter went from a school where she had full access and the ability to move about the school independently to being closed up classrooms where some years, she was too much of an encumbrance to even eat in the lunchroom. Least restrictive environment was by far the most restrictive and depressing. Every IEP was a struggle to keep services - I always figured it was because of the logistics of having the behavioral/speech/physical therapists come to her that they tried to cut out services, saying her teachers (who couldnt be bothered to take her to the lunchroom for lunch) could handle her needs. Granted, she had some good teachers, but resources were surely spread thinner by having my daughter "included" in neighborhood school.

Sorry, had to vent. It sounds like the OP is a good advocate for their child; the best I can offer is sometimes finding a like minded parent or two as a sounding board and to compare recent experiences can be of help. (more recent than mine)

I'm sorry about your experiences.

I don't think the Least Restrictive Environment was intended to cut students off from services at all. That's not the way it was intended in the Federal IDEA Law. The way the states AND the local counties implement that law is another story. I completely understand how closing the FB Gwynn Center might have changed your daughter's experiences - the same will happen in Calvert when they close the Calvert Country School. There will have to be an entirely different way to educate and accommodate those students, and I'm sure it will be much different than many of them are used to, especially if they have attended that school for a long time. I think that is the county's fault, though. Not the IDEA Law and LRE.

I have a different point of view of Calvert Country School when I first moved to Calvert back in 2005. I'd lived in 3 other states (Started off in St. Mary's Co, then to Va. Beach and then to Clay Co., FL) and none of the other states had "separate schools/centers" for the Special Education students - even for those students in that population who were the most severely affected by their disability. The students who required a lot of medical supports, as well as more accommodations, etc. were in a "self-contained" classroom, which in Clay county meant there was 1 classroom of that type for elementary school in the county - and it happened to be in the school down the street from us. So, my son went there. For MS, it was in a school about 20 minutes away and he went there when he went to 7th grade.

When I moved here and saw the Calvert Country School, I thought of it as segregating special education students from the regular education population, and I did not want my son to attend that school. He would never have gone to CCC, though, because he did not require intensive supports and accommodations. He DID attend school here in the county in a self-contained classroom, which may not have been the best for him socially, but it was imperative for him to to be able to be educated and, therefore, I considered that to be HIS LRE. It was, in hindsight, the correct thing to do for my son. He would have never learned in a larger classroom - he needed to have a very small ratio of students and extra teaching support.

I am of a differing opinion, and I feel that Calvert County can accommodate and educate our students from the CCC population in various ways which don't segregate and shelter them from the rest of the students in their respective grades. I honestly do view that as segregating those students, and it does limit their abilities to interact in the world outside of that school when they "age out" of the school and have to seek various support services as an adult from one of the agencies in the the 3 counties. (but that is an entirely different subject not related to the education topic!)

 

[vince77]

Hi, thanks for this novel idea. It doesn't quite work that way, for any school, not just the Gwynn Center. I had a friend ask about observing the school her children are being redistricted to in 2018, and she was told "nope, we don't allow that during the school year." So, its not as easy as it sounds.

My wife taught at the Gwynn Center for more than 10 years. Your friend is wrong, call the administrator and ask to schedule a visit. It's done all the time.

 

[acommondisaster]

I'm sorry about your experiences.

I don't think the Least Restrictive Environment was intended to cut students off from services at all. That's not the way it was intended in the Federal IDEA Law. The way the states AND the local counties implement that law is another story. I completely understand how closing the FB Gwynn Center might have changed your daughter's experiences - the same will happen in Calvert when they close the Calvert Country School. There will have to be an entirely different way to educate and accommodate those students, and I'm sure it will be much different than many of them are used to, especially if they have attended that school for a long time. I think that is the county's fault, though. Not the IDEA Law and LRE.

I have a different point of view of Calvert Country School when I first moved to Calvert back in 2005. I'd lived in 3 other states (Started off in St. Mary's Co, then to Va. Beach and then to Clay Co., FL) and none of the other states had "separate schools/centers" for the Special Education students - even for those students in that population who were the most severely affected by their disability. The students who required a lot of medical supports, as well as more accommodations, etc. were in a "self-contained" classroom, which in Clay county meant there was 1 classroom of that type for elementary school in the county - and it happened to be in the school down the street from us. So, my son went there. For MS, it was in a school about 20 minutes away and he went there when he went to 7th grade.

When I moved here and saw the Calvert Country School, I thought of it as segregating special education students from the regular education population, and I did not want my son to attend that school. He would never have gone to CCC, though, because he did not require intensive supports and accommodations. He DID attend school here in the county in a self-contained classroom, which may not have been the best for him socially, but it was imperative for him to to be able to be educated and, therefore, I considered that to be HIS LRE. It was, in hindsight, the correct thing to do for my son. He would have never learned in a larger classroom - he needed to have a very small ratio of students and extra teaching support.

I am of a differing opinion, and I feel that Calvert County can accommodate and educate our students from the CCC population in various ways which don't segregate and shelter them from the rest of the students in their respective grades. I honestly do view that as segregating those students, and it does limit their abilities to interact in the world outside of that school when they "age out" of the school and have to seek various support services as an adult from one of the agencies in the the 3 counties. (but that is an entirely different subject not related to the education topic!)

I realize LRE wasn't intended to cut services off, but from the time my daughter was placed outside of Gwynn, it seemed like they were always trying to cut services. She went from a little girl who could find and walk to the gym, the office on her own, knew where to wait in line for her bus, to a student spent day after day sitting in a self contained classroom - even for lunch - with excuses like she caused too much disruption in the lunch room (she'd jump up and down and laugh with glee), she shuffled too slowly through the line, etc.
When my daughter attended Gwynn, it was a nurturing atmosphere. Everyone ate together in the "lunchroom", they had PROM, a parent/teacher group, and a real sense of community. Although I'm looking at it through the prism of nostalgia glasses, it felt like a big family - from the bus drivers, custodians, teachers, principal, office workers. Class sizes were small. My daughter is severely delayed, so I can't speak to how things were for the higher functioning students at Gwynn. LRE was a nightmare for us that I could spend many paragraphs describing, including the time she was assaulted in her classroom, while her teacher left her with a "higher functioning" student while he took the rest of the class to lunch. More than 20 DEEP bites on her face, arms and back that lasted on her for months, when she came home from school and no one would put me in touch with the teacher/principal/Richmond to find out what happened to her. LRE completely isolated her from the rest of the school; the best thing that happened for her was spending her senior year at what is now her day program. The change in her was immediate.

I should add that along the way, she did have some good teachers in the LRE environment, but the negatives definitely outweighed the positives.

I'm sorry; I've gone way off the original subject - I guess I still have a few issues to work through when it comes to my daughter's school experiences. She's in a group home now, happy as a clam, living with friends from her day program. Our hearts and minds are at peace that no matter what happens to us, she is well situated.

 

[DCWriterGirl]

I'm the OP.
I want to thank the posters who had stories and say I'm sorry for some of the situations.

 

[DCWriterGirl]

I said way back I had no dog in this fight, I just asked a few simple questions, that I would hope any other parent would ask, Nothing more.
I'm gonna step away, you really wouldn't like my opinions on " Least Restrictive Environment "

I'm the OP. I can't even take you seriously, because every time I look at your post I see that awful gif of The Hoff on a pair of underwear...

 

[acommondisaster]

I'm the OP.
I want to thank the posters who had stories and say I'm sorry for some of the situations.

Sorry I wandered off - like I said, I still must have issues about what we/our daughter endured with LRE. Gwynn is full of people who have devoted their lives to helping the disabled/challenged children - I am sure that they'll be more than accomodating answering your questions, giving you resources and pointing you in the right direction. The best advice given here came early on - call Gwynn and go see them. Best of luck to you.

 

[black dog]

I'm the OP. I can't even take you seriously, because every time I look at your post I see that awful gif of The Hoff on a pair of underwear...

That's sad and small, and here I took a person serious that had six posts and most likely doesn't know how to post a picture in a profile..
Good Luck with your Child.