As parents of children with autism (ASD) attending Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), we are not strangers to advocating for our students’ needs. We attend countless Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, we research local ASD resources for help and accommodations, we attempt to comprehend the federal and Maryland education and disability laws, and we champion the voices for our neurodiverse children. But once considered at the forefront of special education, MCPS has taken one step forward and two steps back when it comes to taking accountability and creating the best-possible learning environments for our children on the spectrum.
In March, the dissolution of the autism program within the Darnestown Elementary Learning Center (ELC) was announced during the school’s PTA meeting and was later confirmed by MCPS central staff at the Board of Education meeting. Presently, Darnestown ELC is the only learning center in MCPS focused specifically on implementing autism-specific strategies to students and it delivers instruction and services uniquely tailored to those students’ learning profiles.
Many Darnestown ELC families were taken aback by the unexpected announcement. A close-knit community, the families and teachers immediately jumped into action, questioning why the dissolution of the autism program is in the best interest of its students. They organized and attended the March 19 MCPS Board of Education meeting to raise their concerns and make their voices heard. Sadly, they were met with vague and unsubstantiated representations from Associate Superintendent for the Office of Special Education for MCPS Diana Wyles that there would be little to no impact from the change. Still, Darnestown ELC families want to know where is the accountability and transparency for the parents, students, and taxpayers served by MCPS?
The dissolution of the Darnestown ELC’s autism program comes with a significant reduction in staff and a marked increase in the scope of the learning center’s responsibilities. Leadership within the Darnestown ELC informed parents that the learning center would lose more than six full-time equivalent paraeducator positions, yet the students enrolled in the autism program would remain at Darnestown and the learning center’s mission would expand with the admission of a broader array of special-needs students. It’s a textbook example of “do more with less” that will end poorly for prospective Darnestown students, MCPS, taxpayers, and the general welfare of our community.
A unique program, Darnestown ELC is an elementary-level, autistic-focused program offering children support not available in their home schools. Many parents, like myself, are familiar with the student’s profile: the autistic child needs greater support to help them regulate and attend to instruction, but cognitively the student can perform at a diploma-bound, academic level consistent with the county’s standards.
Naturally, parents of Darnestown ELC students zealously advocated to get their child placed within the autism program because it was the best-suited learning environment for their child. Therefore, it is nonsensical to cut the program when demand for the services of Darnestown ELC is, in fact, rising. Darnestown ELC is currently bursting at the seams with larger class sizes and, if anything, should be given additional staff to operate at an optimal level.
MCPS believes that prospective students foreclosed from enrolling at Darnestown ELC’s autism program will be sufficiently served at other specialized programs within the county. Parents, however, correctly reject the premise that Darnestown ELC and other programs are functionally equivalent. Accordingly, many Darnestown ELC students have IEPs that rely upon the availability of higher paraeducator ratios, specialized staff and autism-specific supports.
We hope that MCPS will reconsider its plans for the Darnestown ELC, while concurrently adopting a more transparent and inclusive budget. Any savings associated with the dissolution of the autism program at Darnestown ELC will be significantly undermined by the cascading effects of decreased services for some of the most vulnerable students within MCPS. The school system will incur more financial strain as students who would have benefited from Darnestown ELC either move to more costly special-needs programs or seek to litigate better placement options within the school system.
As a voice for the community of families with autistic students attending MCPS schools, we hope that the Board of Education will intervene and reverse MCPS’ decision to dissolve the Darnestown ELC program. For those autistic children within MCPS who would have benefited from Darnestown ELC’s specialized approach to instruction, removing this program will foreclose one of their best options for academic success.
Jacqueline Renfrow lives in Rockville and is the parent of three Montgomery County Public Schools students.