North Carolina Parents | ADHD Information

I'm in Greensboro (Guilford County) and most kids are mainstreamed.  My son was in a boy scout troop with a kid who's brother is profoundly handicapped.  He goes to a special school the county pays for that not only has teachers, but nurses and other healthcare professionals as well.  I think the best school district in the state would be Chatham county, the home of UNC-chapel hill.  It's smaller than Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte and has lots of professors kids, so they make sure they do stuff right.  I would think they would have an advanced special ed program.  Let me rummage around and see what other info I can come up with.

A tip:  You really don't want to move to Charlotte, the traffic is horrible and the way their streets and boulevards are set up is really confusing. 

Tell me about how your schools are set up to handle your ADHD children.  I was considering relocating and particularly around the charlotte area but it seems they immerse their special needs children in a regular classroom.  This may work well for some students but its a horrible experience for my son.  He currently attends a special school through the public school system in our state.  Kind of a school within a regular school. The classroom sizes are small (no more than ten students), with one teacher and two aides.  He also gets therapy twice a week on top of what we do outside of the school.  Its a wonderful program and i'd love to find one just like it but i can't.  Does anything exsist like this down there?

I've tried looking at the county school website (for char-meck schools) and have googled for key words but i'm not finding anything helpful and i'm getting frustrated.  (sent an email to the county as well but they never responded.)

it doesn't have to be the charlotte area,  anywhere in NC is what i'm interested in.  Not boarding schools though, that is not an option and he's only six. thanks for the help guys!

I'm not sure about Charlotte -- we are in Forsyth County -- here they integrate in the classroom.  However, we do have some magnet schools (that are public but you have to apply to get in) that have smaller class sizes and in one school you keep the same teacher for 2 years in a row.  It's not a "special" school with students with disorders though.....  Hope that helps and that someone can help you who is more familiar with the Charlotte area schools.

thanks guys.  i sent another email to the county to a specific dept this time explaining what it is i'm looking for. Hopefully they'll get back to me although i'm not putting much hope that they have what i'm looking for.  I've posted for help here as well as a charlotte parenting forum and it's not looking too hopeful that they offer what he needs. 

i didn't think it would be this hard. I know my son can't be the only one who requires this type of program.  I mean obviously he's one of many students in the classroom with varying degree's of adhd/odd/behavioral/emotional problems.  A typical classroom setting did not work for these children and that's why this program was created.

So how does it work for children with his needs down there?  if they can't function in a regular classroom what's the other option? a school/psychiatric hospital?  He's no where near needing that level of care.

sorry. i'm venting.  and i'm not done.

i automatically assumed that any county would have a similar program in place and i appear to be wrong.  (heck, my county is one of two in my state that do it, who knew?! i found that out at his IEP meeting last night.) I know what works for my son and unfortunatley that's going to decide wether or not we move.

And frankly, that sucks because the need to get out of this state grows stronger each day. I love my city but given the high housing prices and the awful neighborhood i'm living in, amongst other things, i really don't want to raise my son here anymore.  I've heard wonderful things about north carolina though and i stood with my mouth agape when i saw what i can purchase a house for down there. i just have to find a program that meets his needs.  blagh.

alright, venting over. sorry about that. thank you for the help guys and whatever else you can give me, i'd really appreciate it.  i'm going to go look at the other counties now and see if i can find anything.

Thanks for the advice about charlotte, i've noted that. :)  Any other place i might want to avoid?

also, a normal commute in maryland is 1 1/2 hours if you work near the metro area but live in the north.  what's a normal commute for a north carolinian? round about, just  curious.

Raleigh traffic is no picnic either.....   though RTP (that area) is great for jobs!  It's kind of a catch 22 -- Raleigh and Charlotte are probably best job opportunity wise depending on the field you are looking in........

[QUOTE=MegMaguire]Raleigh traffic is no picnic either.....   though RTP (that area) is great for jobs!  It's kind of a catch 22 -- Raleigh and Charlotte are probably best job opportunity wise depending on the field you are looking in........ [/QUOTE]

Insurance Industry?  Personal lines? I know Montgomery Ins has/had thier headquaters down there but a good portion of it just moved to ohio.  I currently work in a small agency but i wouldn't be opposed to working at one of the large insurance companies. I looked at the want ads in the charlotte observer and my chances looked decent enough, i don't know about other counties though, i'm just now starting to look.  I speak fluent spanish too, i'm hoping that would help my chances. :)

Hubby works shipping/warehouse so finding a job for him would be easy enough.

haha!  yes! maybe all i needed was a little break, i found a website that may help me.

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ec/behavioral/links/

 

 

The Durham County School system has problems.  They merged the city and county schools after the white flight movement and are still fighting a lot of the same battles they were fighting in the 80's. 

Here in Guilford County, there are good schools and schools you want to avoid.  If you live in the northwestern part of Guilford County, the schools are mostly new and the teaching staff is pretty good.  My son is ADD and has dysgraphia and by and large, his teachers have been pretty good and the resource teachers (special ed) are good.  I don't know anything about the mechanics of the sped programs for anyone but mainstreamed kids.  I do know that when my son's handwriting showed no improvement they told me about the alphasmart and got one for my son.  It's about a 0 assistive tech device.  The only problem we've had has been with non-sped teachers and only a few of those, most of ds's teachers have been great.

There is also a private school here, Guilford Day School, that specializes in teaching ADD/ADHD/LD kids.  It's at least k a year, but it's a terrific school.