Northern Virginia Good Schools for Dyslexia / Learning Difficulties?

Hi, My wife and I are moving with our children to northern Virginia. We have two elementary-age boys who apparently have dyslexia and/or ADD. We probably want them to attend public schools. We are very familiar with the area. As I will work in DC, we would prefer not to live outside the beltway (although Fairfax City would be fine). Does anyone have recommendations? Falls Church City Public Schools are a good bet? What about Arlington? Or McLean? Is anyone familiar with Daniels Run School in Fairfax City on this point?

Parent Answers to "Northern Virginia Good Schools for Dyslexia / Learning Difficulties?"

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I was referring to the Lab School. The other problem I had with it was that my son is a math and science kid and does not like the arts very much and that is what they are all about. It was not a good fit. They usually have only one or two openings for each grade each year and receive hundreds of applications. There is very little endowment and the true cost would have been in the low $40k range. I haven't found any other school that accepts kids in the severe range in this area. There are many that cater to the mild to moderate.

I have heard that going to a Title one school is one way to make sure there are teachers with reading remediation expertise, but at least in Fairfax County, I have found that they generally do not teach Orton Gillingham type programs. But neither does Falls Church or Arlington. There are very few reading instructors with Wilson training and certification (none that I know of in Arlington, a few in Fairfax County). If your children are in the mild to moderate range, they may be well served by the program that seems to be most favored but is not a reviewed (except anecdotally) or rated program (Cognitive Reading Strategies). It was developed by a local teacher and is not intended for the moderate to severe range children.

There are Title One schools that feed into Middle and High schools that do not have gang/drug problems (although every HS seems to have a few kids with drug problems). For example, one of the elementary school that feeds into the McLean Pyramid is a Title I, one of the elementary schools that feeds into the Madison pyramid is treated as a Title I for its non-GT center students. They tend to have about 4x the number of reading specialists assigned to the school than a non Title I school. In my opinion, there isn't any High school in the area that isn't highly competitive. Some are more so than others, though.

Sorry, Spectrum refers to kids on the Autism spectrum and RFBD is the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic where you can get free recorded audio books- including textbooks.

Aunt Charlotte,

Thanks very much!

Spectrum?

RFBD?

Is the private school you refer to either Oakmont or Lab School? My wife was interested in those, but they ARE expensive, and I'm not sure that our boys have severe enough problems to justify that.

My wife has also suggested purposely seeking out a Title One school, figuring it would have more help with reading. Do you have an opinion on that strategy? I a little bit worry about the phenonmenon of uninvolved parents, single-parents, apathy, and then being fed into middle and high schools that might have drug or gang problems. On the other hand, maybe it would be a more mellow, less competitive environment where our boys could thrive. (They were crushed at their former, very-competitive school, by children calling them "Stupid" and "slow poke", etc.)

I have a sense that Falls Church City schools might be very good for this kind of thing, but also have a worry that it could be some hyper-competitive school where they might feel stressed out and crunched down. Any thoughts on that?

Unfortunately the area is not very good with dealing with reading/writing issues like dyslexia - unless they are in the mild to moderate range - and in a few specific schools. It is much better handling kids on the Spectrum and with ADD or ADHD.

There are several private school in the area that are dedicated to serviing the mild to moderate LD population. There is only one that accepts childrenin the moderate to sever range at it is extremely limited in the number of children that they accept (they only have twelve students in each grade and they are already there, plus they try to maintain a diverse population in regards to sex, disability, degree of disability, and ethnic background. It is also extremely expensive)

Depending on where you are coming from, you maybe shocked that such nationally ranked school systems are so far behind in the LD areas.

I have a 4th grader with severe reading/writing dyslexia in one of the areas you mentioned and I have had to be an extremely active participant in his IEP meetings as well as being the one who found out about things like RFBD.

Unfortunately, Greatschools is a nationwide forum, and the chance of finding a family from a specific area, who have children with similar needs, is slim. I'd advise you to try and contact a local support organization (see if www.chadd.org has a chapter nearby) and network through those parents to find out about the best schools and other local resources.

I'm not from VA, but my son has ADHD and dyslexia, and I've found Chadd parents to be very helpful. For online support, I'd also like to invite you to join the Learning and Attention Difficulties Group at community.greatschools.net/groups/11554

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