Invisible Boy: DC Public Schools' Systemic Failures and the Decline of Our Son

To send an immediate email message of support for Max to DCPS please go to www.EducateMaxNowEmail.com and you can email 4 of the relevant DCPS officials. This video clearly shows our son, before entering DC Public Schools (DCPS), making progress on his speech and language skills, albeit clearly delayed. Then then after over 2 years in DCPS, his speech and language (amongst other things) regressed to the point where he can barely speak. This video is NOT easy for any parent to watch. My wife cannot even watch it. It is just too painful. Max has regressed in almost every category including speech, toileting, interaction with others etc etc. Individualized Education Plan (IEP) goals are what schools use to track progress and teach kids skills etc. Max's IEP goals have remained pretty much unchanged and he really hasn't mastered any of them. Now, over 2 years and 3 different public schools later they're still unable to not only educate our son Max, they can't even keep him safe. They have now physically LOST him 3 times. On one of those occasions, had I not come an hour early to pick him up, who knows what would have happened to him since I found him wandering around ALONE in a field where he'd obviously been for 15+ minutes (judging by his distance he traveled away from the school). They have also allowed him to eat garbage on multiple occasions as witnessed by an outside service provider. In his latest school placement (his 3rd) they put him in a class with a teacher who not only had no special education experience, she had no special education certification to even teach special ed. (btw.. she also missed 25% of the school year). Sadly, these are just some of the more egregious of offenses. Trust us there are plenty more. It is mind boggling that they even claim they can educate him and steadfastly insist he is making progress. I think you can see in this video that this claim is ridiculous. We'd love your support to tell DCPS that Max and special needs children like him, deserve better. Please go to: www.EducateMaxNowEmail.com Complete the 4 question form and then hit submit and it will generate emails to the 4 relevant DCPS people telling them to give Max the chance to be educated by funding a private placement to a school where they can teach Max. Max is entitled to a Free and Appropriate Public Education by law. Please help us to insure that he gets it. You can find more info at: www.EducateMaxNow.com Thank you in advance for your support!