Opinions needed on special ed. at Southlake and Collyville High Schools. (Grapevine: live, legally)

[northeastgirl1]

I am curious about the qualitly of the Special Ed. departments at the Southlake and Colleyville High Schools. My daughter has mild-moderate Dyslexia. At her present high school, all she requires is a special study hall for 44min. daily where she meets with her sped teacher to review homework and help study for tests. She is also able to go there to take her tests and quizzes, where they can be read to her, as needed. This study hall can have up to 15 students. I do want to add that our daughter is a very good, hard working student who maintains a mid to high B average. Would appreciate any opinions on this topic

[loves2read]

what you describe is similar to what I knew in HEB schools as Content-Mastery assistance--except that students could go there after regular instruction in an individual classroom and/or for testing
vs going as a class period assigned slot---

and there were many students with variety of learning disabilities that were ARDed into Content Mastery assistance...
that is technically the least invasive form of special needs diagnosis

have no clue how Southlake or Grapevine Colleyville run their programs
did you check their web sites for info
or run a search on this board for either of the two districts and special needs

friends of mine who are still teaching in HEB tell me that inclusive programs for special needs students have been redesigned to have a special ed teacher come into the individual student's classroom to work with that student and provide enhancement to what the normal instruction is
because of the NCLB act which requires special needs students to be mainstreamed--
so I don't know about Content Mastery assistance and how that was effected...

[5stones]

It depends on the school and the ARD requirement.
I know in Keller we have Content Mastery and that is done how you describe it is in your current school. The kids come to the classroom for tests (if needed) or help witrh assignemnts (if needed) etc...There are also some kids who come for Reading with CM instead of Reg teacher and Math as well. Usually aprox 6-8 kids per CM class and a teacher and an Aide is soem cases.

Resource is also used and less structed than CM. Kids tend to come an go as needed (esp in the older grades)

I have in up to the 8th grade level been a CM aide where we do go into the classroom to help the student 1 on 1. per the ARD. Some of this is for LD and soem is behavior. It usually is for REading and Math classes.

I would call and talk to the CM and REsouce teachers at the various schools and see what they have to say.

[EmsDad]

I don't know what your experience been has or how schools work where you live now, but in Texas the ARD where you and the district negotiate on the education plan for your child is all that matters.
I love Texas, but there seems to be a mentality here across the board where people charged with helping our kids guard funds that are supposed to be used to help folks with special needs like it is their money and your child is stealing it. (a real "anti-welfare" no freeloaders state of mind that creates a backlash for anyone with needs)...
Both of those districts are pretty well funded, so they should have the resources to provide what your child is entitled to - though technically and legally budget is not supposed to matter it usually factors in pretty heavily.
You have to know your rights and what you are entitled to - in almost all cases, they will "low ball" you and unless you know better you'll be swindled.
I have many friends who have walked out of an ARD feeling like they were treated very well, only to realize later that they had the right to get so much more based on their child's needs.

[FarNorthDallas]

ARD is a uniquely Texas term. It stands for Admission, Review and Dismissal and it's the meeting you have to discuss the IEP. We tend to use ARD and IEP interchangeably, but ARD is the meeting and IEP is the document.

[loves2read]

I have many friends who have walked out of an ARD feeling like they were treated very well, only to realize later that they had the right to get so much more based on their child's needs

A statement like that worries me--because it does not explain what the "much more" they were qualified to receive might be and if the child suffered because the "much more" was not provided

because it DOES make it seem that the parents are only concerned with the money spent on a child--and not the benefit of that money...and I am not saying that was the case because the poster is not the person s/he is referring to and giving second-hand feedback from...

an ARD from my experience as a teacher--and my child had an IEP for short time when he was going through cancer therapy--is supposed to determine what is the MOST necessary, MOST beneficial/effective, and LEAST invasive set of strategies to assist a student with gaining the most in school setting...and hopefully to plan a strategy to prepare the student to wean away from special needs services at some point in the future if that seems likely goal...
for some students it IS--and what they want is to leave the designation "special needs"...

But qualifying for special needs does not mean that a student should be given every possible measure of special needs assistance that a school is capable of providing--which would be overkill--
NOR does it mean that a student should be short-changed and deprived of means that would have made a difference in his/her learning situation...

a district has a FINITE budget--it does not have an infinite amount of money from the local. state, federal funding it received to just spend $XXXX on each special needs child just because that child is a special needs situation--

some students by the nature of their disabilities REQUIRE 300% MORE assistance than students who have more moderate disabilities...

when you have that type of imbalance within a group of students,
some DO get less--and they should--as long as the IEP for that student provides what that student needs to succeed then that student has received fair value...
there is no way that all students within a special needs program in a district should or can be accorded the same amount of "value"

it may be difficult for some parents/people to understand that--but a parent with more than one child knows that there are times when decisions are made based on need/budget where one child is not treated the same...yet that does not mean either child is loved less/more than the others...

and my experience has been that districts that are often "well-funded" have exactly the opposite approach to special needs--
they are more used to dealing with the high-achievers and have trouble handling special needs students and putting funding into areas that serve a small minority of students in their district--often times it is difficult for parents whose children have borderline learning disabilities to have them diagnosed/handled timely/effectively...
so I would not assume that based on funding of the district that one is more likely than another to serve special needs students better...

[FarNorthDallas]

Also, dyslexia is sometimes managed without an IEP since Texas has the Dyslexia Law.

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/curriculum/elar/2007EnglishHandbook.pdf (broken link)