ADHD Kid in OUSD, Should we consider moving?

Slightly similar boat - our oldest is entering Kindergarten next year and is diagnosed with mild ASD w/ ADHD.  We're in the middle of going through the IEP process with OUSD, but we ended up getting a placement at Emerson in Temescal (we live in West Oakland) under the understanding that they're the best OUSD school for supporting ASD/ADHD kids.  TBD how well that support materializes, but in terms of public schools we've heard from a few different sources that it's the "best" one.  

My only other advice is to see if you can hold him back a year?  Our son is turning 6 this summer and while I wasn't excited to pay for an extra year of private pre-school, the extra year absolutely made a huge difference in his ability to handle more a more structured environment.  

I have two kids in OUSD with ADHD (and anxiety). It's been a mixed bag. Not horrendous but not stellar. Some really great things and some not so great. We are also not in a high demand school, though we are at one of the Spanish-immersion ones.

With oldest kid, who is now in 3rd grade, he was diagnosed almost two years ago after a hellish year of zoom kindergarten and a better year of first grade. The ADHD diagnosis surprised us as we had originally gone in just for anxiety but it makes sense the more we learn about ADHD and our family history of it. We started out on a 504 plan for him and that was easy to do. We then moved to a IEP after his diagnosis so that he could access OT at school. It was a very long process, one which I think put OUSD out of compliance with the law. But ultimately is was very, very thorough and complete. They came away with a very good understanding of my kid, good accommodations and services and we got what we wanted out of it. He is not taking medication. Beyond specific accommodations, he gets pulled out for reading support for 2 30 sessions each week, pulled out for OT one time a week and has two sessions of a 1:1 aide with him for 2 30 minute sessions each week. The communication from his support staff and teachers has been good. I do wish the school would have moved forward with having him evaluated earlier. I feel like they should have known he was struggling earlier and considered him needing services without us asking, but maybe that is unrealistic, especially considering how much zoom kindergarten did to mess up everyone's education his age.

My second kid is in K this year. His ADHD presents a lot differently. We have been talking to people about him having it since he was 3 though he was just diagnosed this fall. He achieves well at school but it is exhausting for him and the he has a lot of negative self talk. We have just started him on medication and are working on getting that right. That process has been difficult with the school as the school nurse is only there a few hours each week and she needs to train the office staff and teachers to make sure he gets it. He started on an IEP for speech at 4 while in private preschool. He's continued on that and we are just now entering into his triennial reevaluation. We have to make a decision about if we want him evaluated for other services or accommodations or just continue with speech. Right now the school is telling us that they don't think he need further evaluation beyond speech as he's at grade level in almost everything. They would rather wait till first grade to do additional testing. As parents, it's hard to tell what the right way forward is here and I don't know which way we'll go.

The school has been very helpful in helping us find our kids counselors for outside support for their ADHD and anxiety. They've made recommendations of providers and also connected us with a non-profit service that helps families find providers.

So, I think my kids are doing fine in academics and socially. They are welcomed and supported at school. They are getting the services they need but it often feels like I as a parent am stumbling around in the dark trying to figure out the best way forward for them and the school sometimes is helpful in figuring that out and sometimes less so. I think whether your kid will do okay in OUSD a lot depends on the school and teachers and how their ADHD is.

I have a kid with ADHD in BUSD and I wouldn’t recommend it. Support is very minimal and there are numerous problems at the school that impact all kids but are extra challenging for a kid with additional struggles. There’s been a lot of principal and teacher turnover, too many beginning teachers, part-time teachers, subs for more than 6 months of the school year, outdated reading curriculum, not enough support staff, etc.  Some BUSD schools are better than others but since you won’t actually be able to choose your school I wouldn’t recommend moving to Berkeley expecting great support.  It might still be better than your current zoned school but if you are looking to move for the schools I’d look  elsewhere. 

My kid has ADHD (along with other learning disabilities) and overall has been really well supported in OUSD. Getting a good IEP with appropriate accommodations is crucial; my experience is that teachers have been mindful of the accommodations specified in the IEP. My son also gets additional support from the resource staff which has been really great. He is medicated—ymmv but medication has been crucial for my kid to be able to focus. (He was diagnosed and started meds in 1st grade, is now in 6th, and doing really well in an OUSD middle school.)

One caveat: if you do decide to start meds, wait until your kid has been assessed by OUSD and has an IEP in place before starting. Otherwise they may appear too high functioning to qualify for the IEP! (Meds are great for things like focus, but don’t address other aspects of ADHD like executive functioning challenges—which an IEP can support with.)

My advice is to reach out to the resource team at each school you’re considering to get more information on what kind of support they can provide. My kid didn’t have a diagnosis before elementary, but when we started looking at middle schools, I reached out to the resource staff at the schools we were considering, and that was really helpful, since staffing levels and how they structure services can vary from site to site.

I would recommend joining the Special Needs Parenting /IEP support FB group as you will see many people ask this question about their respective district. Search through old posts and you will find that there is no perfect district, and often a lot depends on the particular needs of the child and the current special education team at the school. Good luck! 

OUSD will not support your child. The only school that did was Burbank Preschool Center which has the most teachers with credentials to teach kids with special needs. My son who has HF ASD and SPD went there from age 3-5 and it was a great experience since everyone working there was knowledgeable and had experience working with neurodiverse kids. 

I visited every elementary school that had an inclusive program in OUSD prior to applying for my top 3 choices. I wanted to meet the teachers, the inclusion specialist, and the paras. One thing I learned is that its not the school that matters, but the teacher/aides that will be supporting your child. My son was at one of the “top” schools in OUSD funding wise, and still didn’t get the support he needed. 

The only district I’ve heard that’s better with neurodiverse kids is Lafayette. My son recently took an extracurricular class at Happy Valley Elementary in Lafayette and its a beautiful school- everything you would expect from a school in Lafayette. The minimal interaction I’ve  had with the staff was positive, however, I have no idea what being enrolled there is actually like.

A quarter into second grade at a top OUSD school, I pulled my son out and started homeschooling him. It took a few months for us to adjust, but after receiving support from a local charter school that supports homeschoolers its the best thing I could have done for my son’s education and well being.

He’s always been academically advanced, but I thought enrolling him in OUSD would give him the chance to develop social skills from the neurotypical kids. I also wanted to take advantage of the speech therapy and social skills group provided at OUSD. Bottom line is OUSD like many public and private schools in general are not capable of giving children with special needs the attention they need to succeed. They teach to the average so if your kid is behind or advanced its up to the parents to supplement their child which is what we did anyway knowing that they don’t have the resources. 

It was ultimately the bullying and crazy amount of indoctrination that I would no longer tolerate for my son that led me to pull him out of OUSD. While it is more difficult for me than my son, it’s totally worth his happiness, ability to advance educationally, and my peace of mind that he’s in a safe and supportive environment that I know this was the best decision we ever made for him. 

Homeschooling is not what people generally think it is which is being at home all the time. I put him in a few in-person extracurricular and academic classes so he’s around kids often. He’s in social skills and OT through my insurance and speech therapy through the charter school. He does a few hours of school work a day and goes to classes throughout the week. He goes to a homeschool PE class and does martial arts twice a week so he gets plenty of physical activity. We can travel and take his work with us whenever we want. 

The local homeschooling community is filled with kind, empathetic, and capable teachers, parents, and children many of who are neurodiverse. We’re not meant to fit in a box and as a parent of a neurodiverse kid I can’t help, but feel for my child who absolutely does not fit that box. If you can make homeschooling work for your family I would 1000% do it over traditional school public or private. Look into local public charter schools (Visions, Connecting Waters, etc) which help with structure, support, and funding. Each child gets around $2900 a year to spend on classes, supplies, field trips, etc. If any part of you is considering homeschooling your child, DO IT! :)

I have two ADHD kids with IEPs that have been through several of the schools in West Contra Costa school district and I have been very unhappy with the support provided. I ended up homeschooling my son and putting him in a 3 day a week microschool, Seeds of Love Collective. There are other neurodiverse kids in the program also from Oakland and Berkeley.   The connection to nature is exactly what his central nervous system needs. The Montessori School on Cutting and Arlington in El Cerrito is supposed to be good with neurodivergent kids as well as The Berkeley School and Walden. Best of luck!