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Btw, my grandson will be getting *less* resource room as he is doing so well that the teachers want to schedule him to stay in the regular classroom more.
If you have too many special needs children in any single class that can be a problem. It is also true that the least restrictive placement for some children is not the regular classroom as they cannot learn in that setting.
The law says that you must find the least restrictive environment that the child can handle.
Note, back when I was in school, these kids were put away in institutions or shunted into classrooms where nothing was taught. That should never happen again. Special needs children can learn. They may need a special classroom, but that classroom should always be teaching the child to reach his or her potential.
First, no one is talking about YOUR grandson, as I doubt any of us have him in the classroom. What we are talking about is balancing the needs of the majority of non-special needs kids with the huge economic and academic cost of special needs students. No one said they can't learn or should be shut away somewhere, that is a strawman argument.
I can only speak to my experiences in a traditional school and the school I am at now. The problem at my current school is we are a magnet school and thus a school of choice. It is not possible for children to go to a special classroom, as we do not have any. Our school is so small we have no electives until senior year and now we maybe faced with getting rid of one of our regular teachers and 6 classes that serve over 150 students so we can hire a special ed teacher for 7 students.
I am truly concerned that this may actually have huge impacts on our program to the degree that it detrimentally effects the entire school.
What do you do if you get distracted? You deal with it.
Yes but I am legally responsible for my students safety. So when this child becomes "distracted" I am held responsible.
When one student has an IEP in place that requires me to monitor his attention level every moment of class and to read directions to him three times (as his freshman science teacher is required to do) that effects the safety of everyone in class. If he has all of my attention, I will not be able to make sure all of my other students are as safe as possible.
I really am concerned about this IEP for next year. I have no idea how to safely accommodate this child in a laboratory chemistry course while also making sure my other students are safe as well.
1. You signed the IEP with those accomodations. If you felt like it could not be done, you did not have to sign it.
Good grief! Everyone is afraid to stop the out of control frieght train of SPED!!! I have said no to parents, and of course, they went over my head, and 90% of the time admin caved on me. Which is primarily why I left teaching. I could not take it any longer. The straw that broke the camel's back? I was told to teach a skill to a child that the child was not able to do. It was a complete waste of time, and an inappropriate, unobtainable goal. And I felt like no one was listening to me...20 years of teaching experience, 2 masters degrees, and they treated me like I was the stupid one?!
At least if you complained to admin, and refused to sign the IEP, if anyone got hurt, it would not be on you. The LEA would have signed in your place.
1. You signed the IEP with those accomodations. If you felt like it could not be done, you did not have to sign it.
Good grief! Everyone is afraid to stop the out of control frieght train of SPED!!! I have said no to parents, and of course, they went over my head, and 90% of the time admin caved on me. Which is primarily why I left teaching. I could not take it any longer. The straw that broke the camel's back? I was told to teach a skill to a child that the child was not able to do. It was a complete waste of time, and an inappropriate, unobtainable goal. And I felt like no one was listening to me...20 years of teaching experience, 2 masters degrees, and they treated me like I was the stupid one?!
At least if you complained to admin, and refused to sign the IEP, if anyone got hurt, it would not be on you. The LEA would have signed in your place.
Just for the record, where I taught only the classroom teacher and SPED teachers ever got to SEE the IEP. This was an edict from downtown; they felt the kids from SPED would benefit more this way. You had to pray the regular teacher talked to you about said child. I saw SPED kids succeed ( one favorite was a bright young lady with CP who did her darnedest to do everything every kid in the class did and basically, her "accommodation" was having to walk to class earlier and have someone get materials for her; her pullouts were OT/PT.) --- or --- fail miserably (students who were working 2-3 or more years below grade level and the SPED teacher wanted me to pass them with a wink and a nod. I didn't. They should not have been in the class; they could not do the work).
Bottom line w/SPED? It is an industry. Where once itinerant teachers came school to school to do specialized work with kids who could be mainstreamed with ease and other kids were in a class where they could learn, it is now "least restrictive environment".... more kids are SPED with pullout, it is more disruptive and I honestly think there are so many SPED teachers, they will outnumber the classroom teachers soon. I fear for the kids who will go out into the world and not have an aide or a SPED teacher to hang onto, as well as the average student who has lost help because any teacher needed to spend more time with SPED
I completely agree with you on that. LRE is out of control, and I don't think it benefits SPED students in the long run. I worked with a boy who was deaf, he was completely isolated in a reg. Ed classroom, no one to talk to but his interpreter all day. And the interpreter was a barrier for other kids to talk to him. In a class with other deaf kids, he would have been part of a group. His parents did not even learn sign. Why was he at his neighborhood school? A stupid advocate, who knew nothing about HI, but she told the parents what to do. This advocate had issues with the district, and used her leverage. It was a political agenda. Nothing about this little boy.
I completely agree with you on that. LRE is out of control, and I don't think it benefits SPED students in the long run. I worked with a boy who was deaf, he was completely isolated in a reg. Ed classroom, no one to talk to but his interpreter all day. And the interpreter was a barrier for other kids to talk to him. In a class with other deaf kids, he would have been part of a group. His parents did not even learn sign. Why was he at his neighborhood school? A stupid advocate, who knew nothing about HI, but she told the parents what to do. This advocate had issues with the district, and used her leverage. It was a political agenda. Nothing about this little boy.
I agree, I think that the parents are often the worst impediment to many SPED kids. They want their child to be like everyone else, well guess what, he isn't, so stop thinking about yourself and do what is best for your child and more often then not, mainstreaming is NOT in their best interest. How about these parents have to sit in a classroom all day and not talk to anyone, see how they like it.
There is this undercurrent in the SPED family too about having to get EVERYTHING for MY child and to heck with the rest of the world. MY child NEEDS a one-on-one aid so I will sue the school to get that...and to heck with the other 5 kids that could get some help if your child wasn't using up all the resource time--or heck, even ALL of the rest of the regular ed kids that are having programs cut, classes sizes going through the roof so you can have your aid...sleep well tonight.
This thread started with with a post about MA schools being underfunded by $2 billion/year and the need to cut regular expenses in order to provide federally mandated but unfunded services to rising numbers of SpEd students. For example, the number of students diagnosed with autism increased from 600 to over 10,000 in ten years. The question posed was what is going to happen in the next ten years.
There have been posts about the how students with disabilities deserve an education in the least restrictive environment, mainstreamed if at all possible, and if that distracts the other students in the class and slows down their academic progress, so be it.
There have also been posts about the difficulty in teaching and learning in a classroom when there are significant numbers of disruptive students, who often but not always are the SpEd students.
But we have yet to discuss what is to happen in the next ten years.
I was dismayed to read that a college prep chemistry class would have a dozen SpEd students, but not surprised to read about the frog noise game. It is one thing to have a couple disruptive students, quite another when it is half the class. Is that where mainstreaming in public schools is headed?
As others have noted, families are pulling their kids out of public school at a steady pace. Charter schools are picking up steam. Homeschooling is growing. Vouchers are gaining support. Even in this tough economy, private schools are still plugging along.
There are, of course, all sorts of reasons why families pull their kids out of public school, why they believe their children will get a better education in a different school environment.
Ten years down the road, who will be left in public schools if we continue down the path we are on now?
FTR, the chem class I teach with 12 SpEd kids isn't college prep, however, it's held to the same standards the state has for college prep chemistry. Michigan "raised the bar" by requiring all kids take chemistry or physics. Unfortunately, not all kids are cut out for chemistry or physics (physics is a better fit for SpEd kids IMO as it's less abstract and can be taught with technology to do the math for them.). Michigan pushce Chem for All because there aren't enough physics teachers to go around. So, I have two levels of chemistry. 2/3 of our students take college prep chemistry. The other 1/3 take consumer chemistry. Consumer chemistry is watered down. I go light on the math and don't go into any of the topics not considered power standards.
The frog noise game is one that drives me nuts. There's something about my room that makes it difficult to tell, exactly, where a sound is coming from and, of course, they don't do it if you're standing right over them. Someone else in the room will. I threatened to give the entire room detention during the last test and will, likely, have to follow through during the next one. They know I have a hard time figuring out who is doing it and my coteacher is not in the room when they're doing this because she's reading tests to the kids who need theirs read to them.
During the holiday phone calls with the nieces who are raising kids, they described public school classrooms filled with Spanish speaking students who are in the classroom for language immersion, with students who have been bussed in for diversity so that no school in the district has primarily low income/low performing students, with students with a variety of behavior problems. Obviously, they don't know who the SpEd students are, but strongly suspect based on the behavior, treatment by the teachers, and their children's take on the situation.
Out of a dozen students across the country in grades from kindergarten through high school, only two of the kids are still in public school. The rest are either homeschooled or in enrolled in private and charter schools.
1. You signed the IEP with those accomodations. If you felt like it could not be done, you did not have to sign it.
Good grief! Everyone is afraid to stop the out of control frieght train of SPED!!! I have said no to parents, and of course, they went over my head, and 90% of the time admin caved on me. Which is primarily why I left teaching. I could not take it any longer. The straw that broke the camel's back? I was told to teach a skill to a child that the child was not able to do. It was a complete waste of time, and an inappropriate, unobtainable goal. And I felt like no one was listening to me...20 years of teaching experience, 2 masters degrees, and they treated me like I was the stupid one?!
At least if you complained to admin, and refused to sign the IEP, if anyone got hurt, it would not be on you. The LEA would have signed in your place.
Actually no. IEPs are consensus documents. We sign them to acknowledge that we read them not to say we agree with them. This is exactly the same as parents saying they refuse to sign IEPs. They are still implemented even if a parent does not sign them. And as a chemistry teacher the liability in my class begins and ends with me. That is a fact. If I do a lab in a class with too many students, even if I have complained to the admins, and something happens, I am personally responsible.
Additionally IEPs are typically redone at the end of the school year so upcoming new teachers actually have no input.
This is exactly the same as parents saying they refuse to sign IEPs. They are still implemented even if a parent does not sign them.
If a parent doesn't show up for a meeting, that's one thing, but if a parent refuses to give permission for the IEP, it can't legally be implemented.
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