[blindkid] Anyone out there living in Northern VA?

[Rene Harrell]

Hey Beki,

We lived in Loudoun County for 4 years (my husband is military and I'm
suspecting you are too). Specifically, we lived in South Riding. My husband
worked in Chantilly and it took him about 10 minutes with traffic to get to
work every day.

I cannot say enough good things about the VI Department for Loudoun County
schools. My daughter worked with two separate TVIs while we were there and
they were absolutely fantastic. My daughter was in the preschool program
there but the TVIs split their caseloads and work with kids of all ages.
Clare's TVI routinely spent above and beyond the time specified in her IEP
working with her and with her classroom teacher to make sure things were
appropriately set for her. I'd say easily double the time. When it came time
to write an IEP for her kindergarten IEP, even though we understood that
Clare had significant developmental delays and would not be doing most work
on par with her peers, her TVI agreed with me that Clare deserved every
chance to learn her alphabet and to learn to read on par with her peers and
her IEP was written for 2 hours of direct TVI time per school day, with
additional indirect consult time written in for working with her classroom
teacher per day (I can't remember now if it was an hour per day).

We had some significant issues with the special education department when we
got started (my daughter was nonverbal and they didn't bother to invite a
speech therapist to her IEP meeting nor make any speech related goals for
her IEP, they only listed her disability as VI when she has multiple other
needs, didn't provide adequate notice for the meetings among other things),
but when I was assertive we did get their noncompliance issues sorted out
and when it came down to the brass tacks of the people who were actually
*working* with her, honestly I could not have cherry picked a better group
of people. In fact, two and a half years later I still regularly talk to
both Clare's classroom teacher and her TVI. We're homeschooling now and
we're half a country away, but they still like to hear how she is doing and
what kind of progress she is making.

The VI department in Loudoun County is pretty big. When we lived there,
twice a year they would have an open parent meeting where they'd invite all
the parents of VI children and they would not only give an overview of the
VI department but they would invite the Virginia Department of the Blind and
Voc. Rehab and some other people to give overviews of other services
available and to get people to prepare for life outside of school. It was a
nice networking opportunity as well. The times I went there were at least 25
families in attendance. Because Loudoun County was one of the fastest
growing counties at the time, they were in the process of hiring several
more TVIs because their population was rapidly growing.

I can't speak to Fairfax Public Schools. We lived *right* on the border
between Fairfax and Loudoun (Chantilly is actually in the Fairfax Public
School District). I do know that Fairfax is much, much, MUCH bigger school
district than Loudoun, and Loudoun had 50,000 students! I know they
centralize things differently than Loudoun does, but that's all I know about
them.

If you'd like any more information about Loudoun County, feel free me to
email me directly. I'd be happy to share the names of Clare's TVIs off list,
as well as the VI department and specific middle schools and any other
resources that you'd like.

Rene in Colorado Springs....formerly of South Riding, VA




On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 9:10 PM, Chad & Beki Melone
<cbmelone at sbcglobal.net>wrote:

>
> Hi,
> Does anyone have any experience or information regarding the Fairfax
> County,
> Loudoun county, or Prince William county schools? I know those are very
> large school districts, but any information would be appreciated. We have
> three boys, 1 who is VI and will be in the middle of 8th grade when we move
> out there in December. We will most likely be living in Chantilly, but
> haven't ruled out the surrounding areas. I have heard that Fairfax county
> has the best services and resources, but not from other VI families.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Beki
>
>
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