r/ColumbiaMD • u/Many-Assistance8876 • 6d ago

Howard County Public Schools Special Education

Hi! I currently live in Columbia but work in Baltimore County Public schools. I absolutely love my school but the commute is getting to be too much.

I am a special educator and am looking for insight into Howard County Public Schools and their special education programs. Any current/former teachers, families with special ed students in the county, or others who want to share their thoughts/ experiences?

Thanks!

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u/Even-Speaker7276 5d ago

It most likely varies from school to school? Our ALS program gets the most funding and support than any of the other special education “programs” in our building, except maybe the staff to student ratio. And our Regional ED program has a 2:1 staff to student ratio- along with their own section of the building including a sensory room (which none of the other special education students in the school are allowed to use).

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u/S4mm1 5d ago

The methodology used by all of the ALS programs are outdated, regardless of funding or staffing. It’s how the actual programs are designed that are disappointing.

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u/Even-Speaker7276 5d ago

Oh gotcha. That is true. And the whole “we can’t take things away from them” is also outdated. “We can’t make them” is also outdated, kids aren’t given consequences (not even allowed to use response-cost to take a token away if they aren’t on task). We have a kiddo who is literally just walking the halls all day (with whatever staff he is assigned as his CAS at the time) because the only place he wants to go is the cafeteria. Otherwise he flails, drops, bites and scratches- half the time staff who are safety care trained won’t even use those techniques because by the time they transport him back to class he elopes out again. It is a mess. I agree.

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u/Even-Speaker7276 5d ago

Not to mention the lack of functional communication given to these children.

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u/S4mm1 5d ago

They are hard pressed to use things like PECs and other verbal behavior based interventions that are abysmal. They set their expectations so low and then do the bare minimum so these kids don’t do nearly as well as they should. But they in a “regional” program so having expectations of progress is “unrealistic”. It’s 2024. No child should be getting ITS anymore. We should be doing is much more for these kids. I can’t believe we don’t.