Rock Creek Forest ES

Basic Info

Rock Creek Forest ES is located at 8330 Grubb Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815. The principal is Ms. Jennifer Lowndes.

Rating

Please rate your experience at this school with respect to the following aspects on a scale from 0 to 10.
  • Inclusiveness: Does the school have a culture of inclusion and inclusive practices in place (e.g., co-teaching)? Are these practices effectively and systematically implemented?
  • Staffing and resources: Does the school have staff and resources to accommodate a wide range of special needs?
  • Cooperation: Does the school staff exhibit a cooperative approach by accepting/requesting the parents' input, listening to concerns, and attempting to resolve disagreements?
  • Communication: Does the school implement progress monitoring plans? Does the staff regularly communicate with parents with respect to their child's progress and challenges? Is the staff responsive when contacted?
  • Academic expectations: Does the staff systematically set high expectations for students with special needs? Does the staff systematically raise expectations when IEP goals are met ahead of time?

Rock Creek Forest ES

Rock Creek Forest ES
0.92

Inclusiveness

1/10

    Staffing and resources

    1/10

      Cooperation

      1/10

        Communication

        1/10

          Academic expectations

          1/10

            2 comments

            1. Inclusiveness

              1

              Staffing and resources

              2

              Cooperation

              1

              Communication

              1

              Academic expectations

              1

              These comments are specific to the elementary autism program located at RCF and are based on direct observation and frequent reports from a neurotypical student. Unfortunately, this is an autism program in name only. Staff and administration are woefully untrained in the scientific principles and practice of applied behavior analysis, from which the autism program borrows most of its terminology. There is no BCBA anywhere near this program…or in MCPS for that matter. When challenging behaviors arise, well-meaning staff are ineffective in determining the function(s) of the behavior(s) and are therefore incapable of creating an effective BIP. They lack knowledge in teaching autistic students how to communicate (no formal approach to FCT-functional communication training) and therefore cannot teach appropriate alternatives to “problem behaviors.” The students in the program are segregated and merely occupy the same cafeteria and playground as their neurotypical peers during lunch and recess. There is a “buddy program,” but the neurotypical 5th graders who interact with the autistic students are not taught an ABA approach or coached appropriately, therefore the program is not actually fostering social development of the students with autism in any measurable way. Sometimes my child found their presence aversive and resorted to “problem behavior” to show it, because he/she had not been taught to ask for “space” when he/she needed it. Dangerous behaviors associated with autism (elopement, bolting, climbing on non-play structures) are not clearly defined, are therefore not recognized by staff, and go unreported to parents. There is no systematic approach to home-school communication, which is casual at best, unless it’s specifically written into the student’s IEP. Classroom observation and review of school-collected data are not encouraged and can be difficult to schedule. With regard to instruction, though the term “best practices” is thrown around, I observed only DTT (discrete trial training), and a small amount of tacting, which were questionable in practice, since their effectiveness depends on providing reinforcement for the student. Sadly, there is no systematic approach to stimulus preference assessments, so how can one know what the student finds reinforcing on any given day? There is no formal approach to the highly effective “best practice” of NET (natural environment training). In-house academic and psychological assessments are highly questionable. Staff numbers look good, but throughout the day, it looks more like there’s a revolving door. At unstructured times like lunch and recess, when autistic students need MORE support, they get LESS ,as staff numbers fluctuate. If your autistic child does not exhibit “problem behaviors,” consider a program like MCPS Learning Center, which teaches toward inclusion, even when students are in a “self -contained” (read: segregated) classroom. And if he/she does exhibit “problem behaviors,” please consider whether or not he/she is really receiving a FAPE-he/she might need an ABA program in order to make meaningful progress toward his/her educational goals. THIS PROGRAM NEEDS A COMPLETE OVERHAUL IN THE FORM OF DIRECT BCBA SUPPORT AND PARENT TRAINING!

            2. Staffing and resources

              0.1

              This comment is specific to the PEP Collaboration program at Rock Creek Forest ES, based upon my child’s experience in the program in the 2017-18 school year. Our child had been in PEP Classic at a different school for a couple years before Collaboration, and the Classic experience was superior, largely due to the quality of the staff (teachers, paras, SLP, etc.). Three major issues with Collaboration at this school: 1) My child started exhibiting behavioral programs that they had never shown before and haven’t after, and I believe it was because the teachers (with the exception of one of the paras, who was great with my child) were not properly trained/didn’t have the appropriate skills to support my child’s special needs; 2) I had zero interaction with the general ed teacher — she never so much as showed up to our P-T conferences or communicated with me, despite the fact that my child spent half of their time in her classroom (by Collaboration’s design) and the fact that my child’s behavioral issues were most prominent in her class; and 3) the parent educator did not follow-through on her promises (to, for example, help with setting up tours at MCPS schools with Learning Centers, etc. as we considered the best placement for my child for Kindergarten), and she was downright condescending toward me and the special education teacher at my child’s annual IEP meeting (e.g., told us that most of the recommended supplementary aides that we requested/the teacher recommended were “coddling” my child). But for the fact that my child was in another program to help with her specific needs during the school year, my child’s preK year would have been a complete failure due to their experience in Collaboration at Rock Creek Forest ES.

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