Back in April, 2023, the local NBC4 / Washington DC affiliate published an I-Team exclusive on the state of special education in area county schools. Overall, what the I-Team discovered was that the state of special education in and around Washington, DC was not in a good place for parents, students, or over-worked school staff (see screen cap below):
In Montgomery County specifically (2023), Tracee Wilkins and the rest of the I-Team noted that:
For example, the I-team found more than a quarter of all special education teachers in Montgomery County — 570 of them — aren’t certified to teach in that field. MCPS has not yet responded to questions about whether those instructors are in the process of seeking certification in the special education field.
Experts said few schools can meet certification requirements given the ongoing shortage of special educators.
Now, as we fast-forward to the fall of 2024, parents at Longview Elementary School in Germantown, MD are sounding the alarm about staffing shortages, again. And many are asking what MCPS central office can or will do to address a glaring lack of professional, in-person instruction for 59 children, nearly all of which are non-verbal and with complex disabilities.
“They [MCPS] are trying once again to give our special-needs children, who have profound disabilities, a Zoom (remote) based speech and language pathology teacher. I feel like the public needs to know about this.” said Holly Sorrell, a parent of a child at Longview Elementary.
In a meeting between Longview school leaders, MCPS central office staff and Longview Elementary parents on Thursday, October 10th, MCPS officials tried to explain what they are facing as far as staffing shortages, and what they are hoping to have fixed in the near-future.
“Central office does not control all the speech pathologist positions… we want principals to have some ability and autonomy to fit people into their community. The allocation is 1.4 FTEs (full time employees), which is what Principle Starr received in the spring.”
“These vacancies are thus filled by the school. But, if the vacancy cannot be filled at the school level, then the central office will step in to fill in the vacancy with contractual services. Virtual help / staff was not chosen over in-person. MCPS Central office is committed to getting help in any way that we can, so that students can progress through their curriculum.”
Per Diana Wyles (Associate Superintendent, MCPS Office of Special Education), the current full-time staffer in this position is in-person but that only the “part-time (contractual) person in speech and language pathology is remote-based, and the district is actively recruiting for an in-person employee or even an in-person contractor” to come for the part-time aspect of this role/opening.
MCPS further claims there is only a 0.1 FTE vacancy, currently, at Longview. A “0.1 vacancy” equates to one-half day a week, in the district’s eyes.
It should be noted that in June, 2024, the MoCo Board of Education adopted a $3.32 billion dollar operating budget for the coming fiscal year (2025). One of the “investment highlights” was noted as:
Additional funding for special education. This budget proposes an additional $13.5 million to support our special education requirements.
