When you have children with intellectual, developmental, physical, or multiple disabilities, how do you get them the help and resources that they need to prosper? Whether you’re looking for day care, choosing a school, or finding other activities available to them, the Baltimore area has a ton of resources for children with disabilities and their families. Here’s a look at some of them.

ometimes when a child is born, a disability presents itself immediately. In fact, some disabilities, like spina bifida, may be discovered during the mother’s sonograms. Others, though, may not become obvious until the baby begins to miss important milestones in their development.

When that happens, where do you go for help?

If you’re not sure if your child has actually missed a milestone or not, the first place you can check is with the Maryland Infants and Toddlers Program, which includes infant milestones on its website. This program operates throughout every county in Maryland and provides free services for children from birth through three years old who have developmental disabilities, delays, or other special health needs.

“From the time kids are born, they can be referred for a variety of different reasons to obtain services . . .”

For example, if parents of a child with disabilities live in Baltimore County, they can contact the Baltimore County Infants and Toddlers Program (BCITP), which will help them develop an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), a precursor to the Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

“From the time kids are born, they can be referred for a variety of different reasons to obtain services,” says Allison Myers, executive director of the Department of Special Education for Baltimore County Public Schools. If the child is premature, they can also be referred for screening and for the parents to access support.

Families can go directly through the school system or have a health care provider refer them. “You know your child best. If there’s a concern, then you want to reach out for a consultation and screening,” says Myers. “We have a variety of providers who work to support children in their home setting to provide services to support the child and the family during that time.”

Before a child is eligible for school, providers such as physical and speech therapists come to the child’s home to give services. When a child is three years old, staff determine whether or not they are able to transition to an IEP, which means that they’re eligible for special education. “Or the family can decide to do an extended IFSP, which is where they could stay on, and then transition at their fourth birthday,” explains Myers.

Early intervention is key, says Myers. “It’s really important for us to be collaborative with our families, making sure that supports are provided and students are able to make progress,” she says.

As the students get older, the family and the IEP group make decisions as to whether the child will be mainstreamed at their local elementary, middle, and high schools, take special education classes, or need to attend nonpublic or private separate day schools.

Children with disabilities are allowed to stay in the public school system until they are 21. Once they turn 17 or 18 (whatever age they would be seniors in school), their experiences vary. Myers says that they may continue in high school for a longer period of time if they need more in order to complete their courses. They also, though, may move into community-based programs that will help them with work or job skills. Or they may have a mix of both—spend part of a day in school and then the other part in a community program or job site.

A CLEARINGHOUSE FOR INFORMATION
For parents who need more information or services for children with intellectual or developmental disabilities, there’s Resource Find, a project of the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities, which is located at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

“It’s really important for us to be collaborative with our families, making sure that supports are provided and students are able to make progress.”

“I get calls all the time when parents say, ‘I think my child may have autism. What should I do? What kind of resources are available?’” says Kristine Nellenbach, program manager for Resource Finder. If they haven’t contacted their local school system, Nellenbach refers them there.

Often, she will ask the callers what issues they are seeing with the child and what else they would like to address. Nellenbach then gives them referrals to whatever providers can best help the child or other organizations that can serve them as well.

When parents call and say that they no longer want their children in public schools, she refers them to the Maryland Association of Nonpublic Special Education Facilities (MANSEF). “They represent over 90 nonpublic, special education schools throughout the state of Maryland, and all of these schools serve students with a wide range of disabilities that are intellectual, developmental, or physical,” says Nellenbach.

“A parent is an equal member of the team. So they can always request and indicate what they feel is best for their child. Ultimately, it is an IEP team decision as far as where the services and supports are provided,” says Myers.

No matter where your child with disabilities is educated, what’s crucial, Myers says, is working together. “I think it’s important for families to know that this is a partnership where we encourage them to reach out for support.”

Citing lowering coronavirus positivity rates in the state, Gov. Larry Hogan implored local school boards to immediately take action toward reopening schools for in-person classes at a press conference in Annapolis Thursday afternoon.

All 24 school districts in Maryland will begin the 2020-2021 academic year with online instruction only. Hogan repeatedly pointed out that 16 districts currently have plans to bring some students back this fall in hybrid models, but other school districts have decided to wait until the start of the second semester to physically reopen—a cautionary timeline he does not support.

Baltimore City—which welcomed back teachers and staff this week—and Baltimore County,  as well as Anne Arundel, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Calvert counties issued statements that they have no intention of foregoing their virtual opening. During a virtual meeting Thursday, Baltimore County Public Schools community superintendent Christina Byers said that while the county school system acknowledges the governor’s recommendations, it is not in a position to immediately address in-person instruction.

Byers said that local superintendents and boards did not receive any advanced notice about the details of Thursday’s announcement.

Hogan, taking a strident tone at times, alleged those boards, as well as administrators, teachers unions, and associations, have failed to do the “hard work [that] lies in developing the safe reopening plans.” “This is simply not acceptable,” the governor said.

“As a result of our improved health metrics, every single county school system in the state of Maryland is now fully authorized to begin safely reopening,” Hogan continued. “Nearly everyone agrees that there is no substitute for in-person instruction. It is essential that we all work together on flexible hybrid plans to safely get some of our kids back into classrooms and into healthy and supportive learning environments.”

By law, the governor of the state does not have the power to mandate when schools open, which is a decision left to local school boards.

In his remarks, Hogan noted encouraging reports that the statewide positivity rate has dropped to 3.3 percent from a peak of 26.9 percent in mid-April.

The benchmark for generally safe reopening of public buildings, according to the CDC, is a 5 percent positivity rate. Maryland’s overall rate has been below 4 percent since August 8, according to state health department methodology. Hogan also stressed that the positivity rate among Marylanders under the age of 35 has now fallen below to 3.79 percent.

That said, Towson University, like other colleges around the country, has already been forced to cancel in-person learning and close residence halls after a concerning number of students tested positive for the coronavirus just before classes resumed this week. In Baltimore City, the Department of Public Works announced Thursday it was suspending curbside recycling pickup because of staff shortages due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Maryland Senate Majority Leader Bill Ferguson, a former teacher, said he appreciated the Hogan Administration’s publishing of new health metrics for school reopening statewide, but also stated that the new information comes late in the process with schools so close to reopening. 

“These metrics are critical for Maryland schools to have the framework for in-person reopening,” Ferguson tweeted. He added, however, that “expecting districts, administrators, educators, and families to flip the switch in 10 days is simply unreasonable.”

Cheryl Bost, the president of the Maryland State Education Association, expressed frustration with the governor’s rhetoric in a statement late Thursday.

“At a time when educators are focused on working hard to make the best of this year for students, the governor and [state Superintendent of Schools Karen Salmon, who joined Hogan] are focused on throwing school communities under the bus,” Bost said. “We need collaboration and problem-solving, not political theater.”

Bost stated that Gov. Hogan and the superintendent had previously “abdicated responsibility for creating reopening standards and told districts to come up with their own plans, indicating appropriate confidence that local school systems would do what is best for students.”

“In the continued absence of adequate state and federal funds to help schools open safely—to include measures such as rapid testing, certified ventilation systems and needed PPE—this is a recipe for chaos, confusion, distrust, and deepening the inequities that too many of our students face,” Bost said.

Salmon announced the state is making $10 million in grant funding available to help systems that are able to move toward in-person instruction.

“While adherence to these metrics for re-entry into classrooms are not considered requirements, I am strongly encouraging local school systems to utilize our improving numbers and the provided metrics as the driving force for the decision to return to school buildings,” Salmon said. “Health and safety precautions must remain in place once we begin to bring more students back into schools, and school systems should continue to work in conjunction with local health officials to monitor trends in the metrics and any outbreaks at area schools.”

The issues around school reopening are complicated. Educators are concerned about student safety, as well as their own health and that of their families, while also scrambling to address the digital divide. Economists are also worried about the impact on economic recovery if schools don’t reopen. Without schools reopening, many parents will have trouble returning to work.

Hogan dismissed partisan concerns around his push to reopen schools, noting that the Democratic governors of New York and New Jersey, Andrew Cuomo and Phil Murphy, have issued similar statements about reopening classrooms.

Dr. Jinlene Chan, acting deputy secretary for public health services at the Maryland Department of Health, who also spoke at the press conference, sounded a more measured approach than the governor. She said that the new metrics and the guidance being offered at this time by the state is designed to aid in decision-making rather than serve as prescriptive policy.

“There is flexibility that schools have to make decisions about how to best meet the educational needs of their students while taking into account the level of community spread and their capacity to implement the guidelines,” Chan said.

For Maryland school teachers, simulating an environment comparable to a normal classroom in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic has presented a need for ingenuity. Virtual learning instruction and curriculum packets are being administered, food distribution stations for students who rely on school lunches have been established, and instructors have begun teaching remotely via video software.

“Virtual learning can never take the place of in-person learning in education,” says Cheryl Bost, a Baltimore County teacher currently on leave to serve as the president of the Maryland State Education Association. “Teachers by trade like to [think] ahead and figure out what we can accomplish. With the issues coronavirus presents, they feel like they’re keeping the kids learning, but they’re not going to be able to go too far ahead.”

The pandemic has been a disruptor in all walks of life, from the business and economic sectors to the food industry and in healthcare systems. But the problems it presents for the education system are comprehensive.

“We want to make sure our students are not impacted in their learning,” says Katie Poist, a eighth grade math teacher at Lakeland Elementary/Middle School in southwest Baltimore. “We take into account what they have available to them at home as far as technology, Internet access, and parental support.”

But what might be an easily addressable conflict for one school district could be a widespread problem in another. These equity issues—already present before coronavirus—have become even more prevalent throughout the last month.

“Our kids didn’t need access to technology outside of school [before coronavirus],” Poist says. “We didn’t use a ton of tech at school, so kids were able to be successful and we could help them learn. Now, it’s a huge shift.”

Coincidentally, major education reform aiming to address these inequalities and bridge gaps in education from one region to another passed in the General Assembly last month. The issues coronavirus has wrought are what advocates for the bill dubbed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future —which currently sits on Governor Larry Hogan’s desk awaiting signing—have been stressing. The first three years of funding for the bill took effect last year, but proponents are hoping for a long term agreement.

“There are access issues in poor urban districts compared to public districts with much greater resources,” says Kristen McQuillan, a former Baltimore City School System employee and current academic director at The New Teacher Project (TNTP), where she advises school superintendents and academic offices. “This has put that issue into the forefront and the spotlight in a way that people can’t ignore.”

McQuillan says that being able to observe where these access problems are most prevalent helps explain why it costs more to educate children in certain districts compared to others. It’s why many advocates, including Poist, feel that the Blueprint’s objectives—such as increasing teachers’ salaries and providing access to Pre-K for all 3 and 4-year olds in low-income families—are vital.

“Schools are more than just education for children—they are social development,” Poist says. “The big inhibitor being a Baltimore City teacher is striving to be equitable.”

During the pandemic, Poist has helped her students access videos that Lakeland’s school district has provided. She also pre-records 15-minute video instruction to capture the day’s big picture. In the midst of this, there is also synchronous learning, where Poist is able to check in with individual students and assist them with any questions they may have.

“It’s really constant communication,” she says. “As a school, we have to figure out how to function as a team while meeting all of our kids’ needs at home.”

Over at Pine Grove Middle School in Loch Raven, Vernon Fains is adapting to teaching art remotely, as the usual materials his students would have in the classroom aren’t at their disposal. Since art is such a visual medium, Fains says that being disconnected from his students and their usual environment has its challenges.

“It’s a little tougher for the arts, because we can’t use certain materials and we can’t get our hands dirty like we normally would,” Fains says. “I think of the arts as a way for students to come in and express themselves in ways they can’t in other content areas. I miss that interaction.”

Fains says that these limitations have forced him to reevaluate how he teaches. He had his first virtual class meeting earlier this week, where he encouraged students to go out in nature and think viscerally about what they were seeing.

Both Fains and Poist have also made a point to check in on their classes’ well being. They’ve noticed their students’ moods perk up at the opportunity to see familiar faces that remind them of their routine at school.

“I think they’re excited to see and hear from us, and we’re excited to see and hear from them,” Fains says. “That moment of talking with us and getting a little bit sense of normalcy has been missing.”

As it stands, it’s unclear as to when, or if, Maryland schools will reopen this school year. Closures are in place until at least April 24, and while this isn’t ideal, it does give educators and students the opportunity to further adapt to their surroundings as they wait for the time when it will once again be safe for everyone to be together and learn.

“We miss being in the classroom,” Fains says. “We miss our students. We just want them to know that we want them to stay well and we are here for them.”

Jake Turner was in his U.S. History class at Hereford High School when his teacher announced that a nearby high school, Loch Raven High School, was on lockdown because a student brought a gun into the school. Turner and his classmates were in the middle of a discussion about the previous day’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 people, when it clicked for him that it could happen anywhere and at any school.

Turner, who is the student council president of Baltimore County Public Schools, is one of the thousands of students across the country who are calling upon government officials and school administrators to reform gun laws and revaluate school safety measures.

“I don’t feel safe knowing that somebody could come into my school with an assault rifle at any moment,” says Turner. “Anyone could end my life, one of my peer’s lives, and I don’t like knowing that over the next few months or years there’s going to be more shootings if we don’t do something.”

In order to put those concerns into action, Turner will take part in The National Student Walkout on March 14, exactly one month after the shooting in Parkland. It’s scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in every time zone and last 17 minutes to honor each of the victims who died in one of the deadliest school shootings in American history. The goal of the walkout is to put pressure on Congress to pass gun reform and make schools safer.

Also being dubbed the #Enough walkout, the demonstration is being organized by the Women’s March youth branch EMPOWER, started as a Facebook event and has grown to include schools across the country—including ones in Baltimore County.

Baltimore County Public Schools released a statement to Baltimore from Interim Superintendent Verletta White that details how the school system will handle the upcoming walkout.

“In order to maintain a safe environment for students who wish to exercise their civic rights during the school day, we provided guidance to our school principals and their staffs to plan for potential or spontaneous peaceful demonstrations or protests,” the statement read. “We view these moments as learning opportunities while providing structure and protecting the instructional focus of our schools.”

One day after the shooting in Florida, a 14-year-old Loch Raven High School student was arrested by Baltimore County Police for bringing a pellet gun to school. This is the second of these incidents in just under a month, as 18-year-old Darren Bennett was arrested for bringing a pellet gun to Perry Hall High School on January 19. Just this week in Howard County, Clarksburg High School student Alwin Chen was arrested after bringing a loaded handgun to school, and authorities found a variety of weapons inside his home.

“This is not a partisan issue. This is a, ‘I am scared to go to a place that I thought was safe’ issue,” said Pikesville High School student Josie Shaffer, who serves on the Baltimore County Board of Education and spoke on the issue of gun violence and school safety during Tuesday night’s board meeting.

In a passionate speech, Shaffer called on the board to support the March for Our Lives protest in Washington D.C. on March 24 that holds the same mission as the #Enough walkout. “Show that you are listening to the students in our system and all over the country that are now using their voice to say enough is enough,” she said.

The Baltimore Teachers Union voiced their support for the National Student Walkout, saying that the protest signifies that it’s time for community members to take action.

“As we mourn the lives lost in Florida, we must also mourn those young people whose lives ended too soon due to gun violence in our own backyard,” says Marietta English, president of the Baltimore Teachers Union. “It is my hope that our collective voices demanding change will get the attention of our congressmen and congresswomen, letting them know that now is the time to do what is right, which is to enact stricter gun laws.”

Though this certainly isn’t the first conversation about gun violence in the U.S., it is unique that high schoolers like Turner are leading the charge. He also urged the board to take action by encouraging open conversations, strengthening student mental health services, and enforcing updated safety measures and protocols.  

“Even though we’re students and we’re under 18, our viewpoints still matter,” says Turner. “We go through this every single day and we know what it’s like inside of a school. There’s no one better to tell people about the issues we’re going through.”

Updated November 8- 

Tuesday night, the Baltimore County Public School board voted 9-3 to approve the academic calendar that will keep schools closed next school year for two Jewish High Holy Days. After heated debates about whether schools should remain open for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the board chose the academic calendar that will shorten spring break by one day and still complies with Gov. Larry Hogan’s requirements to end the school year on June 15.

After more than two decades, Baltimore County Public School (BCPS) students could be attending school for two Jewish holidays next September. Since the mid-1990s, BCPS has been closed for staff and students on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur each year, but with new requirements mandated by Governor Larry Hogan, those days may be rescinded.

Forced to comply with the new requirements—schools must begin after Labor Day and end by June 15—the BCPS school board is finding it difficult to accommodate spring break along with two Jewish holidays in the 2018-2019 calendar.

“We were starting school in late in August, so we have a new set of rules,” said BCPS chairman Ed Gilliss. “We’re going to play by those rules, and we’re going to make it happen, but it has put constraints on us we didn’t use to have to juggle.”

Effective the 2017-2018 school year, all Maryland public school students must attend at least 180 school days with a minimum of 1,080 instructional hours for elementary and middle school students and 1,170 hours for high school. Due to the shorter school days, Baltimore County students must stay in school for a minimum of 186 days in order to meet the required number of instructional hours.

After factoring in the mandated state holidays for public schools—including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Election Day—the board drafted two possible school calendars. One scenario is to continue with the tradition of closing for the two Jewish holidays. The other option would allow schools to remain open for those days. The only difference in the two options is the length of spring break—students would have a four-day weekend for spring break, instead of a five-day weekend should schools remain open.

“Opening for the Jewish holidays would create some major operational and logistical issues,” said Howard Libit, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council. “So you’re looking at the loss of learning for those students who stay home, plus the loss of learning for the kids who are in the schools who don’t have either teachers or subs.”

During a hearing on Tuesday night to discuss the options, the BCPS board got an earful from community leaders and parents.

“It is your duty to find the solution,” said PTA council president Jayne Lee. “It is not up to us to find the solution.”

Most people at the hearing were preaching a message of tolerance and stressed that the Jewish population is an important backbone of the school system.

“We want to be inclusive,” said Baltimore County resident Bash Pharoan. “We’re not really looking to deprive our Jewish brothers and sisters of their holidays.”

In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that public schools could close for religious holidays if it affects staff shortage or poor student attendance. A recent survey found that there are nearly 2,000 teachers and 12,000 students in Baltimore County Public Schools that are Jewish. The BCPS board estimates that staying open during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur would cost the school system more than $1 million.

On Wednesday, Governor Hogan released a statement condemning Baltimore County officials for threatening Jewish holidays.

“Most jurisdictions have managed to adopt a common sense calendar that prioritizes what students and families want, and Baltimore County could easily do the same,” he said. “For school administrators to pretend that starting school after Labor Day puts religious holidays in jeopardy is simply dishonest.”

A vote will take place on October 24 on which of the calendar options will be instituted for next year. Of the two options up for consideration, the calendar committee—which includes staff, community members, and parents—has recommended the option that will keep schools open.

“I don’t think that’s particularly a big difference, I mean we aren’t going back to a week off for spring break—that’s history,” Libit said. “Our position is for operational and fiscal reasons, given the Jewish population among staff and students, is to keep the schools closed in Baltimore County.”

Back-to-school season usually begins in July with children pouting and parents dancing down the aisles of Target as they load up carts with supplies to send the children back to school at the end of August.

But this year, in Maryland, the shopping has commenced a little later and children are in camp a little longer because of an executive order issued in October 2016 by Governor Larry Hogan stating that the 24 public school districts in Maryland cannot begin before Labor Day.

“The Labor Day holiday weekend is an exclusively American institution that has served, both symbolically and practically, as our nation’s traditional end of summer,” he wrote in the executive order. “The policy of constructing the public school (kindergarten through 12th grade) calendars so that classes begin prior to the Labor Day holiday has imperiled this venerable tradition.”

Some local residents are having mixed feelings about the switch, like Jen Hauser, mother of two students at Rodgers Forge Elementary School. She said she loves the idea that her kids can “just be kids” a little while longer, but also understands the inconvenience it causes other parents.

“The constant running from one place to another will consume their lives when they are adults. For now, I love to see the creativity that comes from unscheduled routine,” she said. “But I do realize that for working parents, it’s another week to obtain daycare. I wish this was an equally affordable option for everyone.”

Governor Hogan believes that the post-Labor Day start will be good for businesses and families, but this order counters the trend in other parts of the country that start school earlier in an effort to bridge the socioeconomic gap and limit the amount of time working families have to pay for child care.

Prior to the executive order, a task force including teachers, administrators, and business leaders, was created by the Maryland General Assembly to examine the administrative and economic implications of a later start. Results identified only economic benefits—an additional $74.3 million in direct activity—and found no academic consequences, so the group voted to approve the new date.

Denise Mitchell, administrative secretary at Highlandtown Elementary/Middle School, believes that August is the best time to go back to school because children lose so much information over the summer. 

“Starting school after Labor Day is only for financial gain,” she said. “Society is complaining about not having enough vacation time or making enough money because of the early start date. Educating our children during their formative years should be the first priority for every adult. Our children need to be able to function in this ever-changing world.” 

For some, the start date isn’t the problem. Under Hogan’s new order, schools must complete the required 180 days of instruction by June 15. President of the Baltimore Teachers Union, Marietta English, said the hard end date complicates things.

“We already have two snow days built into the curriculum, but we can’t predict the weather,” she says. “Winter break and spring break are contractually set, so our professional development days will be impacted in order to end school on time.”

In an effort to resolve any calendar conflicts that may arise, Hogan has included an option for school districts to apply for an annual waiver that would permit a school to begin before Labor Day or end later than June 15. In order to obtain the waiver, the local board of education must apply to the state board citing “compelling justifications” for the exemption.

Such reasons could include charter schools with innovative schedules, low-performing or at-risk schools, and districts with 10 emergency or weather-related closings twice in the past five years. The school board must then hold at least one public meeting to consider the waiver and have it approved.

However, no school in the state has been granted the waiver this year and all Maryland public schools will be back in session on September 5.

“I am optimistic,” English said. “I think this will be a good school year, no matter when we start and stop.”

On Tuesday, June 13, the Baltimore County Public School (BCPS) board voted on a plan to redistrict eight elementary schools in an effort to better integrate and relieve overcrowding on the east side of the county. 

The schools in question—Glenmar, Hawthorne, Martin Boulevard, Middlesex, Orems, Shady Spring, Victory Villa, and Vincent Farm elementary schools—vary in minority population as well as student enrollment with some falling over and under capacity. 

“You don’t really think about segregation in schools in 2017,” said Marisol Johnson, vice chair of the Board of Education for BCPS. “But need to make an effort to integrate them and make them more diverse.”

Based on 2016 student enrollment, four of the eight schools exceeded 115-percent capacity with Shady Spring severely overcrowded at 130-percent capacity.

After four months of planning, seven meetings, and 14 possible scenarios, the community study board for Victory Villa ultimately presented “plan D1” to the board of education for consideration. In this plan, a handful of students from Orems, a school with a low minority population, would be sent to Middlesex, and 25 students from Shady Spring would go to Orems. But after hearing the details of the proposed plan, BCPS board of education member Stephen Virch proposed an amendment to consider before voting.

“This is a very serious matter,” he said. “This spans two districts, and we really have to consider all parts.”

Virch explained that principal Kenneth Dunaway of Shady Spring—a school with high minority population—expressed some concern about the Latino students in his school possibly being split up and transferred to different schools if the district boundary lines are redrawn through the community.

“The principal suggests that whatever the committee does, keep the planning blocks with the Latino students together,” Virch relayed.

School principals couldn’t be reached for comment because they are not speaking with the media, according to BCPS.

The school system’s chief accountability officer Dr. Russell Brown suggests that an objective solution is possible if residents in the districts are willing to compromise. A number of parents of Orems believed that the students from other schools would negatively influence their children, decrease property values, and disrupt the close-knit community for the sake of diversity. Parents at surrounding schools believe the opposition stems from possible minority influx.

Under the new redistricting boundaries, Orems minority population would increase significantly from 28 percent to 40 percent.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to balance enrollment in the region,” Brown said. “It requires people to change, it requires that people go to different schools.”

In the end, the board voted to keep all current students at Orems Elementary but will move 94 students from Shady Spring to Orems, effective at the start of the 2018-2019 school year. The newly reconstructed and enlarged Victory Villa Elementary set to open in 2018 and will add 409 seats.

According to Johnson, the Perry Hall area is next up for a similar redistricting plan. Perry Hall Middle School will undergo reconstruction next year and the board will be challenged with creating new boundary lines between the newly constructed middle school and Golden Ring Middle.

“I’m interested to see how this one plays out,” Johnson said. “I’m happy with making our schools more diverse—we need to spread the children around.”

When S. Dallas Dance was hired as the Baltimore County schools
chief, the conversation among parents, educators, and staff revolved
around his age and his experience—or more accurately, his lack thereof.
In fact, he was one year shy of the three years of teaching experience
that Maryland requires of its superintendents and the Baltimore County
Public Schools’ school board needed a waiver from the state to bring him
on board. Now, in the middle of his first year, the initial
reaction—“He’s just so young”—has morphed into “When does this guy ever
sleep?” The truth is, the energetic and ambitious Dance, just 30 when
hired as superintendent, doesn’t sleep much at all. About four hours a
night is all he says he needs. He’s up by 4:30 a.m. to go running or
work out at his home in Pikesville, and by 7 or 7:30 a.m., he’s usually
in a meeting or at a school. He’s also among the first crop of
superintendents to have grown up in the digital age, so e-mail, social
media, smartphones, and the constant flow of communication are as
natural to him as the old multi-line push-button desk phone was to his
predecessors.

He tweets. He uses the FaceTime app on his iPad to talk with his own
preschool-aged son. He’s also comfortable on camera where anyone can see
him in action on the BCPS YouTube channel. At a recent student town
hall—the school system’s first-ever and streamed live online—he was at
ease fielding student’s questions and did so quickly, too, aware many
more were on the way.

“First of all, age is on his side,” says Nancy Grasmick, the former
state superintendent of schools for Maryland, dismissing early criticism
of the Baltimore County school board in hiring Dance to replace Joe
Hairston, who retired after a successful 12-year run. Like everyone
else, she notes that Dance appears to be tireless, regularly e-mailing
those around him from very early in the morning until very late at
night. He goes to schools constantly, she adds, and he’s engaged with
students to the point that he knows what’s going on in the classrooms,
not just the meeting rooms.

“It’s the way I feel I wanted to do the job, so I’m glad he’s doing
it that way,” Grasmick says. “This is the county where I live, so I’m
thrilled.”

Dance will even teach a series of English classes in several high
schools in the county. “Honestly, in every position I’ve been in, I’ve
taken the opportunity to go back in the classroom to see what’s going
on,” he says.

Arriving from Texas, where he served as chief middle-schools officer
of the Houston Independent School District, the rookie superintendent
did not have the luxury of an adjustment period in his new gig. Instead,
he faced two big tests just as his career here began. On July 1,
literally his first official day as superintendent, he had to deal with a
hot potato that would soon be playing out in the media: Two top
cabinet-level administrators had been given what seemed like
water-tight, multi-year contracts by the outgoing superintendent right
before he retired. In response, Dance helped negotiate a deal—after
reassigning the employees—and later, the school board approved buyout
agreements. “We’ve made some tough decisions, but there’s a way in
which you make decisions that’s respectful of people, that’s
appropriate, so people understand where you’re coming from,” Dance says.
“What I’ve learned is it’s never the ‘what.’ It’s always the ‘how.’”

Then, on the morning of the first day of school, a Woodlawn High
School student was hit by an automobile and a Perry Hall High School
student shot a fellow student. Dance rose to the occasion, by all
accounts, earning praise for his communication strategies—and for having
already met prior to the crises with Baltimore County Chief of Police
Jim Johnson to discuss emergency plans. “He was calm and reassuring
after the shooting,” says County Councilman David Marks, who graduated
from Perry Hall and represents the district. “One of the signs of good
leadership is knowing when to step to the forefront and when to defer to
those around you, which is precisely what he did. He deferred to the
police department and let them do their jobs, and he deferred to the
principal, who has been there for years, allowing her to be the link to
the community. I’ve been impressed with him.”

Yet, just 10 years ago, leading a school system was the last thing
Dance, who grew up in and around Richmond, VA, expected to do. His
mother, an occupational therapist, and his grandmother, a radiology
technician who also helped raise Dance and his older sister, both wanted
him to become a doctor. As he watched his mother work two jobs during
the week and clean houses on the weekend, he got the message that the
expectation in the household was that he would also work hard. “No one
took excuses from me and everyone pushed me,” he says, smiling.

In college, he majored in English—his own goal was law school, not
medical school—with minors in education and political science. His plan
was to teach English for two years, which he did, and then pursue a law
degree. However, when he handed in his resignation, his principal
refused to accept it, instead offering him a job as an assistant
principal, telling him he could make a greater impact as a leader.

“[Once] they made me an assistant principal, I never looked back,”
Dance says. “As a teacher, I worked with 150 kids. As an assistant
principal, I worked with about 600 kids. As a principal, I worked with
1,200 kids. It was always about making a bigger impact on young people.”
As each opportunity led to another, he accelerated on a fast track, and
to his mother and grandmother’s wishes, he did become a “doctor” along
the way, earning a Ph.D. in education from Virginia Commonwealth
University.

Even with his relative youth, Grasmick believes Dance has the
gravitas and the vision to lead the 26th largest school district in the
country, with 107,000 students, a $1.5 billion budget, 17,000 employees,
and 174 schools and programs. She says his drive and commitment are
unquestioned. “Of course, I did not know him prior to his selection, so I
did a little investigation and talked to people in Houston and
Virginia,” she says. “Everyone was impressed with his work and his
dedication.”

As far as his agenda, Dance maintains he has a short list of
priorities. His top objective is the adoption of Common Core Standards, a
set of national guidelines for what students should know and be able to
do at each level of K-12 education. He wants Baltimore County schools
to implement the standards and define how to teach them, so that the
system can base student assessment and teacher evaluation on something
solid.

Until that can be done, Dance advocates a three-year moratorium on
standardized testing of students, joining his counterpart in Montgomery
County, also calling for such a moratorium. “This is a dramatic shift in
education,” he says. “Folks don’t understand how much of a shift this
is. What we were learning in sixth-grade math, kids are now learning in
third-grade math. This means a shift in how teachers are going to teach.
So until the standards are defined, nothing can happen.”

He also wants a technology audit and appropriate action to ensure
every county school building has at least an adequate level of computer
infrastructure. “I’ve been taken to some schools that have the gamut of
technology [throughout the building], and I’ve been taken to some
schools that have a mobile cart,” he says.

And then there is his bold foreign-language proposition—something
parents and students traditionally want but where American schools trail
other developed countries. “What if we were the first school system in
the country to say that when our kids graduate, they’ll be bilingual?
What would it take to do that?” he asks. “One, are we that bold? And
two, [how do we] really make that happen? It has to start early. I’m
putting that out at leadership meetings.”

Beyond standards and testing reforms, Dance says the important things
are crystal clear to him: “We need to get good teachers who believe in
the power of relationships with kids, principals who understand the
power of leadership and who support the teachers, and a quality
curriculum that clearly defines [what] kids should know and be able to
do.”

Baltimore County School Board member Mike Bowler says he’s been
impressed with Dance’s openness, highlighting his Friday electronic
newsletters to the system leadership and board, his attendance at
countless forums, and his Twitter feed. Plus, he’s already called in
board members in small groups to involve them in the budget process for
the 2014 school year. “I don’t want to denigrate his predecessor, but we
needed to have better communication [from a superintendent],” Bowler
says, noting he felt left out of the budget process in the past.

When Grasmick, serving as a Towson University Presidential Scholar
for Innovation in Teacher and Leader Education, invited Dance to speak
to College of Education faculty and other selected deans at the school,
he got down to brass tacks and told them that they needed to be up for a
challenge and change. If they weren’t prepared to take education in new
directions, he wouldn’t be hiring them.

“It was sobering,” Grasmick says. It wasn’t what the faculty
expected, but it was what they needed to hear, and they received it
well.

“He has the complement of skills that are not usually found
together,” Grasmick says. “People can be good administrators, and it
doesn’t mean they’re going to be good at engaging with students. He is
constantly in schools. His commitment is amazing. He is determined to
know everything about this school system.”