Title 1 schools--helpful or not for kids with learning disabilities

[JustMe]

So, dd goes to middle school next year and I am starting to examine our options. I mentioned this to her reg ed teacher, who is very supportive and helpful, and she said she thinks it would be good if dd continued to be in a Title 1 school as there is extra support available. Now, dd has been in 2 schools and they were both Title 1. I actually am wondering if the opposite is true. What I have noticed so far is that
--they really try hard to deny special ed (at least for a good while) and put in Title 1 instead, which doesnt work as well for children with learning disabilities (or at least for dd).
--there are more struggling students and they are less concerned (and therefore helpful) about dd's difficulties than they might be at a school with less struggling students. It just starts to feel normal to them.
--I have noticed that in the schools with higher income students, they have less struggling students and seem to take issues more seriously.

Nothing against low income families, we fall into that category ourselves and I always assumed a Title 1 school would be a good place for us too--but I really have my doubts yet. These are all public schools, btw. Thanks!

[crl]

I was planning to transfer ds into a title one school where we used to live. The school atmosphere seemed much more accepting of a range of abilities and more tolerant of normal kid development than the high pressure school we were zoned for. And they had more staff so they could pull kids out for extra reading help, etc. We moved and the school choice situation was very different so we did not end up at a title one school.

The non-title one school we ended up at was pretty high achieving (though far from the high pressure school we were zoned for at our old place) and they did lack resources, IMO. When ds was "nearly a year behind" in reading, I had to fight to get him into the after school tutoring and they refused to do any extra pull out help during the day because he was not far enough behind. That may have been a function of the district though as we were told the district standard was to provide extra help when a child was a full TWO years behind. They also refused to evaluate him for special education even though he was behind and he had previously received special education services. (We chose not to fight that and spent our money and time getting him outside evaluations and help.) So I'm not sure a non-title one school will be any more proactive. I think it depends on the culture and requirements of the district as well as the school itself.

Catherine

[JustMe]

Woo-hoo, a response! Thanks for sharing your experience, Catherine. Sorry to hear it was not more positive.

I wish I could get data on what kind of interventions are being done by school in my district. I really get a sense the higher income schools give more individualized interventions.

[crl]

Woo-hoo, a response! Thanks for sharing your experience, Catherine. Sorry to hear it was not more positive.

I wish I could get data on what kind of interventions are being done by school in my district. I really get a sense the higher income schools give more individualized interventions.

It was a really frustrating year. The good news is that ds has managed to stay middle of the class ever since--well, I haven't heard yet this year--he's in fourth.

I wonder if you call the district if they can give you numbers on kids receiving different kinds of services at different schools. I would think they track that for financial reasons and I would think that kind of aggregated data should be subject to some kind of public disclosure laws. I would also be asking every parent I knew and every parent I ran into. My impression is that the principal makes a big difference in these situations--of course, principals change so it might be hard to see trends and make choices.

Catherine

[JustMe]

Thanks, interesting. I wonder if they track what I am looking for. I am not looking for the number of kids receiving special ed services in general, but more things like how many kids are receiving one-on-one pull out services versus something less individualized. Either the head of special ed or the person right under her now come to dd's IEP meetings, but I don't know that they would want me to have that info!

[Gena]

DS goes to a Title 1 school. About half the schools in our district are Title 1. The neighborhood school DS would have attended if he were typically developing is not Title 1. But that school does not have the special education services DS needs. Talking with teachers and a lot of other parents in our district (family members, neighbors, friends, parents of other special needs kids), it seems that the Title 1 schools offer more special education services. Interestingly, they also have better gifted education programs. There is more academic diversity within these schools. When we experimented with mainstreaming DS, we were concerned that he would be singled out by getting pull-out services. However, we discovered that so many kids get pull-outs for therapies, resource room, Title 1, or gifted services that it's a very common thing and all the students just accept the fact that some kids leave the regular classroom at times for special instruction. This is very different from what parents at the non-Title 1 schools tell us. In our district all of the special ed classrooms (like the autism classrooms, the communication impaired classroom, the multi-handicapped classroom, etc) are all at Title 1 schools. This means that these schools also have more speech therapists, OTs, PTs, and school psychologists than the non-Title 1 schools. That's how it is in our district. Other districts may be different.

[egoldber]

I've been thinking about how to answer your question. Our experience does mirror a bit what you said.

there are more struggling students and they are less concerned (and therefore helpful) about dd's difficulties than they might be at a school with less struggling students. It just starts to feel normal to them.
--I have noticed that in the schools with higher income students, they have less struggling students and seem to take issues more seriously.

Older DD's first school was not Title 1, but there was a relatively large percentage of low income and ELL students. There was also an autism classroom and a center for children with physical disabilities. At this school, her social-emotional needs were really just not on their radar. In 4th grade she moved to a school with a much higher income level, so very few low income and almost no ELL. It was a deaf and hard of hearing center and also a gifted center. It was also twice as big. This school was much more able to meet her needs. I also found all the admin staff and the school counselors to be exceptionally responsive and proactive. I don't know how much of this was the different school's programs and how much was the leadership. The principal at the second school encouraged staff to use many behavioral techniques that I would consider to be better suited to DD's needs.

Now, older DD's needs were social-emotional and not academic. But I have heard from many parents with children who had learning disabilities that the larger, higher income school was able to meet their needs in a way that smaller schools had not.

I am not looking for the number of kids receiving special ed services in general, but more things like how many kids are receiving one-on-one pull out services versus something less individualized.

By law, schools that receive public finds must report the number of students who are identified as ELL and special education. These statistics are reported annually. There may be places that collect about the types of interventions done by school, but I don't know of any publicly available source for this info. It may only be reported at a district level due to privacy concerns.

[o_mom]

I'm also not sure that there are any generalities to be found here. Our experience in a high SES system was that the Title I school we are at now was way better able to meet needs than the non-Title I school. It was almost like the non-Title I school (< 1% F/R lunch) expected that parents would be willing and able to pay for services outside of school, so they didn't feel the need to provide them in school.

I don't know for LD specifically, but in general, the Title I school had a way bigger toolbox to work with. For example, they had a full-time psychologist for one, the non-Title I schools share one for every 3 schools. The school with the shared psych was also 50% larger, so even fewer hours per student. They had additional aides for reading instruction and many of them have credentials as good or better than some of the teachers, some have LD specific training. They also seemed to be more proactive in identifying and solving problems. Our neighbor who also moved at the same time had his son identified by the new school as being at risk for reading issues and they offered extra services without even being asked. This was a student who the previous school never even looked at let alone offered up help.

The specifics of a school - it's size, breakdown, administration, etc. all make a difference. I think you are going to have to look more at the individual schools and how the administration will help.

[annex]

With Title 1 funding also comes more aides, so if for some reason your student isn't getting adult support in their IEP services (and you think they need aide assistance), that would be a better school for them to be in. On the other hand, our neighborhood school is Title 1, but the principal was pretty hostile when I toured the school trying to decide if I wanted my autistic son to attend there. They had very little special ed services - the OT, SLP, social worker etc all only came to the school 1 day/week, and did all pullout services. They would have had their worlds turned upside down by my high needs son. I would look more to the principal and providers when looking at a school vs the Title 1 classification, personally.

[Pepper]

I would look more to the principal and providers when looking at a school vs the Title 1 classification, personally.

I agree, especially after reading all of the responses. It seems like ti totally depends on the school and how they run things.

FWIW, I think all 5 of our city's elementary schools (K through 8) are Title 1. We are constantly getting phone calls about Title 1-sponsored programs (mostly parent eduacation sessions, that sort of thing) that are open to everyone in the system. The school that DS1 attends (he's in 2nd grade) has a lot of sped classrooms, though I think the autism spectrum classrooms are at a different school. The gifted program is at his school, too. There's been a shift in his program and some others as well, somehow they found money to hire another adjustment counselor and a behaviorist at his school, which just blows my mind.

In our area (outside of Boston), I've noticed that parents in higher income areas seem to have to fight more for sped services than in our town. My son's OT mentioned it to me once; I suppose that since our town has a much higher percentage of low income families and especially immigrants, we get additional funding. So it may not all be due to Title 1 in our case.