Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Many developmental disabilities, neurological impairments, and other special needs come with disruptive, challenging behavior as part and parcel. Barring children's access to an appropriate education is inappropriate and discriminatory when their behavior is due to disability.
You can't say that a child in a wheelchair may not attend your school, because the school isn't equipped to make necessary accommodations for his or her disability, and it's wrong, for example, to say that a child with tics due to Tourette's Syndrome, or challenging behavior due to an autism spectrum disorder should be denied the same education guaranteed any nondisabled child because the school isn't equipped to make necessary accommodations for his or her disability.
Any school district that discriminates against a student on the basis of disability should expect negative attention to be drawn to it in a very big, very public way.
Oh I completely agree. There are students with very real disabilities that deserve access to an education as much as any other students. And schools have to be able to provide for them. No question.
The problem is there are far too many students who are not the least bit disabled who end up tossed into the SPED program under weak classifications. ADHD, for instance, was never supposed to be considered a learning disability. Yet, every day of the week kids are getting labeled as SPED under Other Health Impairment, which is about as vague as it gets. And so if a kid is said to have ADHD, they just go with the OHI-other- label and that gets the kid through to SPED. Same with conduct disorder or oppositional defiance. These are made up labels that are not disabilities. But kids exhibiting these behaviors end up with IEPs far too often anyway. And the biggest reason is there is nowhere else to place the students given the desire to get them away from disrupting their classes.
Many developmental disabilities, neurological impairments, and other special needs come with disruptive, challenging behavior as part and parcel. Barring children's access to an appropriate education is inappropriate and discriminatory when their behavior is due to disability.
You can't say that a child in a wheelchair may not attend your school, because the school isn't equipped to make necessary accommodations for his or her disability, and it's wrong, for example, to say that a child with tics due to Tourette's Syndrome, or challenging behavior due to an autism spectrum disorder should be denied the same education guaranteed any nondisabled child because the school isn't equipped to make necessary accommodations for his or her disability.
Any school district that discriminates against a student on the basis of disability should expect negative attention to be drawn to it in a very big, very public way.
I don't really disagree with any of this, but these kids are already slowly being isolated from their peers and being lumped in with the kids that have serious behavior problems or other issues that prevent them from being successful. We all know where this is happening. I'm just saying that I think there needs to be more of a discussion about the situation, because right now certain schools that call themselves "public" are claiming magical successes based primarily on who they can get away with excluding. We need to publicize this situation more and decide as a society if that's who we want to be.
Oh I completely agree. There are students with very real disabilities that deserve access to an education as much as any other students. And schools have to be able to provide for them. No question.
The problem is there are far too many students who are not the least bit disabled who end up tossed into the SPED program under weak classifications. ADHD, for instance, was never supposed to be considered a learning disability. Yet, every day of the week kids are getting labeled as SPED under Other Health Impairment, which is about as vague as it gets. And so if a kid is said to have ADHD, they just go with the OHI-other- label and that gets the kid through to SPED. Same with conduct disorder or oppositional defiance. These are made up labels that are not disabilities. But kids exhibiting these behaviors end up with IEPs far too often anyway. And the biggest reason is there is nowhere else to place the students given the desire to get them away from disrupting their classes.
Then there's this, too, which needs to be addressed. I'll say it again, even with disabilities, I'm not sure than any kid has the right to impede another from receiving an education.
It's a slippery slope, though, and all too easily gets dangerously into the territory of "some are more equal than others."
There needs to be a way to adequately serve all students. But students have differing needs. Instead of having one, standard, one-size-fits-all approach where those who are excluded feel left out, there should be multiple avenues and settings for students. Right now, if a kid doesn't succeed in the one setting (general ed class with ~30 students and one teacher), there's no other option outside of SPED. At the same time, if the kid is removed from the one available setting, there is a stigma attached to that and we want to avoid that as well. But if you had multiple avenues instead of one "regular" avenue, there'd be no stigma attached to being in one or another. And many more kids would see their needs met.
It's a slippery slope, though, and all too easily gets dangerously into the territory of "some are more equal than others."
It's already a slippery slope of either steering kids into SPED or bringing everybody's educational quality down. We need to be honest with ourselves and recognize that some kids are better prepared to receive an education than others, and it does them as students and us as a society no good to pretend that every student is as willing and able to receive an education as every other student.
I have to disagree with a lot of what I read. I don't know much about "private" academies, but all the private schools in my area are Catholic schools. I am a product of Catholic education from grade k up to college since I went to a Catholic university. When I was in school, starting in the 80s, you RESPECTED your teachers, feared the principal and were afraid to go home with a bad grade. If you couldn't keep up with the work, you were asked to leave or left behind. There was no behavior problems either and if there were, you feared going to the principals office. I can without a doubt say I got a good education. It wasn't "On, well as long as my tuition is in, my kids stays in the school."
I had the unfortunate luck of teaching in a "private" Catholic school for a few weeks the beginning of this school year. I was forced to a resign (best thing I did though) due to my family member's illness(she was providing daily care for my daughter.) I was told by many people who knew what was going on in the school to get out while I could and I can say the school was the pits. The principal only cared about collecting tuition and that was it. It was very obvious that the actual curriculum, forget about any common core training lol, was not the least bit important to her. I had a few students who got left back and one child who was 3 grade levels behind and on a pre-k reading level in the 2nd grade. The poor kid could literally not read at all, but somehow, bc mom and dad paid their tuition, made it to this grade. I had another disrespectful, out of control ADHD child, who obviously needed special services that he could not get at this school. I was told by teacher after teacher how they did not understand how he kept being pushed from grade to grade. He had an entitled father who thought that bc he cut a check each month, he should stay in the school and his kid could talk to whoever he wanted however he wanted.
The school was very small, was obviously a poor parish and had a low enrollment. It was so bad that before the previous school year ended, a few teachers had their frigin pay check BOUNCE. That's right. The school didn't even have enough funds to pay their staff. I can honestly say the only reason I accepted the position was bc I was a first year teacher with no experience. Plus, I had assumed, being a product of the Catholic school system, I would be in a faith centered school, with a good staff and principal that cared. WRONG. It was def. not for the money since I would be making close to 20 grand more working at a public school first year, vs. a private.
This school had some teachers, who were there for 20 or so years, who clearly should have retired eons ago, one who got in good with the principal since her kids went to the school and was her mole, and the rest were subbing for years before and probably wanted full-time experience like I did. In this school's case, the school was not attracting any great teachers IMO and after this experience, I would be really hesitant about ever working in a catholic school again. Probably, more like never.
When I went to school, no one cared if my feelings were hurt. Neither did my parents. If a classmate made an F, that's what they got. At a certain point, parents began to change. They filed lawsuits and won. This brought on more lawsuits.
First off I think it's a fallacy that private schools attract and keep better teachers. A lot of it depends on the school. If it is a prestigious, non-sectarian college prep school then yes they can attract and keep better teachers, but their pay is also close to public school pay because of the very high tuition. But for catholic schools in particular I've found the teacher quality to be worse than what I've seen at public schools.
Obviously teachers will take a little less pay to teach private school kids because the discipline issues are much lower which makes for a better work environment. The results of private school kids has very little to do with teachers and much more to do with parents that value education. The fact that they took the time/money to enroll them in a private school proves this.
It's already a slippery slope of either steering kids into SPED or bringing everybody's educational quality down. We need to be honest with ourselves and recognize that some kids are better prepared to receive an education than others, and it does them as students and us as a society no good to pretend that every student is as willing and able to receive an education as every other student.
This isn't true, though. Every student can be taught and can learn. I have successfully taught students other schools labeled ineducable, and have seen them meet their goals. The only difference was HOW we taught them. To say that some students can't be taught is simply an admission that you aren't able to/don't care to find a way that works.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
