Choosing a School for LD: Understanding Your Range of Options

Once you’ve decided to look for a new school for your child with learning disabilities (LD) and/or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), it’s time to find out what your choices are. Maybe, as suggested in the first part of this article (“Choosing a School: An Overview of What Parents Need to Consider”), you’ve made a prioritized list of what’s important to you in a school. Now use that list as you discover your school options.

What Kinds of Schools Are Out There?

The amount of choice you have as a parent depends on where you live. School districts and states vary in their flexibility. Popular schools usually have long waiting lists. So the sooner you narrow your choice, the easier it will be to enroll your child in the right school.

Public Schools

The advantage of public schools is that they are bound by federal law to offer special education services to eligible students. For guidance on the specifics of federal law and how you can advocate for your child, see NCLD’s IDEA Parent Guide (IDEA is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, last updated in 2004).

Traditional public schools — those that educate a wide range of students — vary in the quality of their staff, academic offerings, and facilities. Talk to other parents about popular schools in your vicinity. See if another school has more of the features you consider important for your child with LD.

Magnet Schools

Magnet schools are public schools with a particular focus, such as art or technology, or a different structure or organization, such as year-round school or mixed-grade classrooms. Like charter schools (see the following section), magnet schools draw students from throughout a district — even from other districts. Popular magnet schools have waiting lists. You’ll need to evaluate how likely it is that your child will get into a magnet school in the necessary time frame.

Charter Schools

Most states (but not all) offer charter schools as an alternative public school choice. Charter schools are usually formed to offer more flexible scheduling, staffing, and instruction. States allow charters to skip some of the rules and regulations that apply to other public schools. Charters are, however, accountable for student achievement. A state’s department of education can close a charter school if, for example, the school is graduating students who fail to meet the state’s graduation standards. The rules, structure, and funding of charter schools vary from state to state. Some states offer online charter schools.

A charter is a kind of contract. A school’s charter spells out the school’s mission, program, goals, students served, assessment methods, and ways success is measured. Depending on the state, charter schools may be run by for-profit companies, parents, teachers, community groups, and nonprofit organizations. A school’s management can change over time. If you look into a charter school for your child, find out who started the school, who currently runs it, and what its financial status is. See if the school has a permanent building or if it has changed locations. Enrolling your child in a stable school is critical, so if you’re looking at a particular charter school, make sure you’re considering the entire “package” — not only its mission statement.

Charter schools may have special curriculums or instructional approaches that make them attractive to parents of children with LD. Most charter schools are small and offer smaller class sizes than regular public schools. Their small size allows them to offer more personalized instruction, which may be important to you and your child. As public schools, charters are subject to all federal laws related to students with learning disabilities. The problem is that most states don’t have systems in place to help charter schools meet their special education requirements. If you’re interested in a charter school, be sure to investigate the school’s programs for students like your child.

Does the charter school you’re looking at welcome students with learning disabilities? If so, what services and accommodations are offered? The more you know about your child’s specific needs, the more focused your questions can be. What percentage of the school’s students has learning disabilities? Are these students given the “least restrictive environment” required by federal law?

There may be a charter school in your area with the specific mission of educating children with learning disabilities. If there is, consider the pluses and minuses of such a learning environment. Your child’s classmates will all have LD or AD/HD. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t arrange for your child to have a more diverse group of friends outside school.

Private Schools

The key factor in considering a private school is financial. Private schools — day schools and boarding schools — are expensive. Many, however, have large endowments that allow them to offer scholarships. You’ll want to check the tuition options before you delve too deeply in what a private school offers. Then, if a school interests you, see how open they are to admitting students with learning disabilities and how well they meet such students’ needs. Private schools are not required to accept students with LD, nor does the state require them to provide all the services found in public schools. To find out what your child’s rights are to special education services in private schools, see NCLD’s IDEA Parent Guide, Chapter 9.

Some private schools have well-established support systems for students with LD who pass admissions testing. One well-regarded, academic private school in Minnesota developed its support program with the help of the state’s LD association, clinicians, and college staff knowledgeable about accommodating students with learning disabilities. Staff members conduct careful interviews with families and often with past teachers and other professionals who know the prospective student to determine how extensive the child’s needs are and whether the school can support those needs. The school offers resource teachers, counselors, in-school tutoring, adaptive technology, and a staff well-versed in the educational needs of students with LD and attention disorders. Still, the percentage of students with special needs is small, and the school features a rigorous college-prep curriculum.

Other academically focused private schools may not have so extensive a support system. You’ll probably find that schools you’re interested in will encourage you and your child to visit, observe classes, and talk with staff members and other parents. Reputable schools will not accept your child if they don’t think they can meet his or her needs.

The mission of some private schools is to educate children with learning disabilities. By definition, these schools admit only students with LD, so their population is less diverse than a public school’s typically is. Acceptance to such a private school depends on whether the school and family agree that the school offers an education that will meet the child’s needs. Some experts caution against this LD-only approach (in private schools and in charter schools), arguing that it undermines the “least restrictive environment” educational principle by segregating students with LD from their typical peers. You’ll need to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach.

One parent who chose this kind of private school for her son praised the “quiet, calm classrooms of 8 to 10 students.” She was delighted with the safe, creative, adaptable environment offered by this school, even though her son’s experiences in public school from kindergarten to grade 5 were generally positive. Her son’s public elementary school had an excellent special-education staff. Her son had an IEP for sixth grade that sounded ideal. However, when she went to his classroom to volunteer, she found a teacher charged with managing over 30 students with a wide-ranging list of needs: students below or above grade level in various subjects, students with limited English, autism, behavioral disabilities, physical disabilities, giftedness — and her son, who looked lost in the shuffle. Because she didn’t want his needs overlooked in this crowded classroom situation, she chose to transfer him to an LD-focused private school.

She does acknowledge certain limitations to her son’s private school experience. He didn’t have a wide friendship circle and the school lacked a high-quality athletic program. But the private school, despite the sacrifices her family made to pay for it, jump-started her son’s academic performance with personalized assignments, encouragement, and support. From her perspective, giving students with LD an even chance to succeed trumps the argument about segregating kids. “Involved parents will figure out ways” for children to interact with other kids. She also heard parents say again and again how delighted they were to find “other parents who ‘got’ how it feels to have constant school issues, unique social problems,” and so on.

If you have such a school in your area, you might want to check it out and see if it’s right for your child and your family.

Homeschooling

Perhaps you’re wondering about the advantages and disadvantages of homeschooling your child with LD. You may feel you can do a better job of tailoring the curriculum to your child’s particular needs. You may want to protect your child from teasing or labeling. Homeschooling is permitted in all states. You can homeschool for one year or less, or from kindergarten through high school graduation. The important thing to remember when considering homeschooling is that you are accepting total responsibility for your child’s education.

That doesn’t mean you can’t find help. Local and national organizations assist parents who homeschool their children. Local groups often provide opportunities for homeschooled children and their families to meet. Homeschooling parents can buy instructional units and materials from specialized companies. It’s crucial for you to understand your legal rights and responsibilities as a homeschooling parent: these vary from state to state. It’s also important to seek out a community networking group, preferably one with members who understand the needs of children with LD.

In order to provide the kind of targeted instruction your child with LD needs, you may have to do considerable research and get specialized training. You’ll need to consider many issues: your teaching ability, your strengths in organization and focus, your talent at providing structure and discipline for your child, your flexibility and creativity, your willingness to find social experiences for your child, and the needs of your family (especially of your other children who may or may not be homeschooled). Most important, ask yourself whether your child would flourish going to school at home.

Online Learning

Especially if your child is in middle school or high school, he or she can take online classes or even enroll in an online school. High-quality online learning offers individualized instruction, flexible teaching methods, and immediate feedback. Today’s online schools offer “real-time” classroom discussion, phone and email contact with the teacher, videoconferencing, community-focused assignments, and the chance to do group projects.

Does your child like working on computer? Will your child thrive in the flexible, personalized, but also solitary online classroom? As with any potential school for your child, you’ll need to look into staff qualifications, parent-teacher communication, curriculum, teaching approaches, and the school’s experience meeting special learning needs.

Online schools vary greatly in quality and in how states oversee, regulate, and fund them. You can research online schools on the Internet, through online parent discussion boards, and by reading school reviews on sites like GreatSchool.net. Do you know other parents whose children with LD attend online school or have taken online classes? There’s nothing better than talking with parents who’ve “been there.” Listen carefully for the positives and negatives of other students’ experiences.

You Know Your Child

The more choices your state offers, the more challenging your search will be. Keep in mind that you know your child’s learning needs as well as or better than any teacher or learning coach (though such professionals can be valuable sources of advice). Think through the deficient or discouraging parts of your child’s current education. Narrow your options to schools that seem to offer a genuine change for the better. Then look at your calendar. It’s very important for you and your child to visit a prospective school. For a worksheet of questions to ask and things to look for during a school visit, download “Visiting a School Worksheet: What to Ask, What to Look For.”

Bonnie Z. Goldsmith has worked in the field of education throughout her professional life. She has wide experience as a writer, editor, and teacher.