How much help?

The school is required by law to follow his IEP. The answer to your question would depend on what his IEP says.

Even in the best of all possible situations with a well-thought out, no exceptions IEP, getting a teacher to do the things in the IEP can be difficult. You can write a great many provisions into IEPS - that doesn’t mean that teachers can or will follow them all.

Getting a school into compliance with an IEP or proving that they’re not in compliance… these are sticky wickets.

Good luck.

The teacher is basically saying she doesn’t have the time to give him the attention he needs. The resource room teacher said the exact same thing last year. Why put him back in that situation?? And how do I get the school to actually provide the services he needs??

Patty,

Speaking from experience, it is very rare for any child in special ed. to get what they really need at school. You have just mentioned the two biggest problems, ineffective resource programs and regular teachers who are trying to keep their heads above water and get the most possible kids to pass the test at the end of the year. There are so many kids with so many different needs that I am amazed that anyone teaches in the regular classroom anymore. My child has a wonderful teacher, but she can only do so much. My child will be getting most of the remediation she needs outside of the school…either by me or a paid tutor, if necessary, using the very best programs available. I would never count on the school to do it well.

Janis

Sadly it can be that we don’t. I’ve had to ‘close the gap’ with my own son for years.

Where does the buck stop, as they say? It stops with our children. You have the right to place him in any class or program they have. You cannot stop them from failing him or making his life there miserable. They were going to fail my son and they were already making his life miserable so I stepped in at home and spend hours with him every night doing homework that should never have been assigned to him.

As a parent and as a teacher I’ve learned that schools are sadly imperfect places. Sometimes with great finesse, we can wheedle things out of schools for our children but far more often the high cards are all in their hands.

Where will your son be happiest? Where will be most successful? Is there anything that can be done on the outside of school that will help him in school? Those are the kinds of answers that can be helpful to ask when you’ve asked all the others.

Good luck.

Is the resource room actually “dumbing down” the curriculum or teaching to the student’s instructional level? I find that the resource room is a misunderstood piece of special education. I have been very happy with my child’s success in the resource room and extremely lucky to have such a knowledgeable person facilitating my child’s learning. Because of the time my child has spent in resource he will be able to be in the regular classroom next year full time with some collaboration of the regular teacher and special education teacher.

The resource room in this school is a general “catch-all” for any students not meeting expectations. They are “supposed” to be teaching at each childs level. However with 10 students, 3 different grade levels, and 1 teacher, that is nearly impossible. When my son was in the resource room last year for first grade, he got a primer on the alphabet which took 4 months. My son knew and could write the alphabet before he started this class. By the time they had progressed to actually trying to read words, he was bored and wouldn’t/couldn’t pay attention. He needed help putting his thoughts onto paper, not being taught the proper form of each letter. However when explaining this to the teacher during an IEP meeting, she got very disgusted with me and proceeded to verbally attack me….basically telling me if I didn’t like what she was doing, to pull him out of her class. We did, and while he was behind his peers in the regular classroom, he was much better off than in the resource room. Nothing has changed in the room since last year, same teacher, same students, and for the 1st 4 months of the school year they have “reviewed the alphabet”. I don’t want him in that classroom again! I want him to be where he can learn, but he needs help, remediation, or something other than the resource room.

I to agree that public education is far below par. I think what needs to happen is more resourses for teachers. There needs to be more continuing education for these teachers. Every persons/child learns in a different manner, if a teacher does’nt have the resources to teach on different levels, they are only reaching a percentage of their kids.
As far as a teacher verbally attacking you at an IEP meeting, that should have never happened. Parents are the ones who know their child the best and should be used as a resource, if the school and parents are’nt on the same level the child is doomed.
You can have weekly meetings with his team, put into his IEP to “check in”. At that time you can fill them in on how things are at home and they can do the same for you. While at the same time building a relationship with his teachers.

Teachers in the Regular Ed classroom are given a huge responsibility when asked to teach classess of 25-30 students with half of them having IEPs. I feel that Regular Ed teachers need training provided by their school systems to help them address the needs of their Special Education students. I teach in a high school and find myself many times frustrated trying to find ways to meet my individual students’ needs. Most of the time the classroom teacher receives an IEP which states what the students’ “modifications” are for your particular class without any further help or guidance as to “how to” go about making these modifications on a day-to-day basis. I try to attend as many conferences as possible and always look for workshops that deal with addressing the needs of Special Needs students in a Foreign Language Class. I still feel, however, that I need to do more.

The key word is “with assistance”. How much assistance is this student receiving? Is he/she continuing to be responsible for their learning or does the general education teacher/para take on the majority of this responsibility? Minor accomodations should be made in an inclusion class or else all you have done is move a resource room into the walls of a general education class.

You have got to be kidding? The casemanager of this student is legally responsible to see that the services are provided for as outlined in the IEP. If this is not happening - you have a serious situation and is certainly not the responsibility of the general education teacher. I would suggest you request a staffing ASAP.

Thank you. Too many assumptions are made regarding what is done “in that room”. It’s too bad nobody seems to take the time to ask. Good luck to your son.

Good teaching practices are the best methods for all students. Modifications in the general education class which require additional time from that staff member should not be done without collaboration from the special education staff. No wonder so many of us get such a bad name when this type of thing is happening.

I’m a teacher in a grade 5 class, with 31 students, 13 of which are on IEP’s, 8 of which are only at grade 1-2 level in language and math and go out for only those 2 subjects — which helps, but reading and writing are an integral component of every subject, particularly science and social studies. I have no help in the classroom. I was a Special Ed. Resource Teacher last year, so am trained in remedial teaching and understand many special ed. issues.

I have spent 2 terms struggling on a daily basis to assist the 13 students who cannot read the words, process the language or keep up with the fast pace the classroom must work at to get through a full curriculum, especially in science and social studies. I attend meetings, contact parents, provide extra help 3 lunches per week. I start my day at 7:00-7:30 a.m., never take a lunch or recess breakand leave at 6:00 p.m., taking work home with me and going in to the school on Sundays for 4-6 hours to call parents, modify upcoming tests/assignments for the following week, and make visuals or other misc. to support my teaching, etc.. I meet with the Spec.Ed. team every morning for 15-25 minutes to discuss the day ahead. Hours of work: from Sept-Nov.
100 hrs/wk, from Nov. to now 70 hrs/wk.

The other 18 students in my class vary from D students up to B students. When do they get what they legally deserve out of an education? They don’t. It is unfortunate. With extra time, a D or C student can usually improve a full grade, but they don’t usually do it on an independent study, which is primarily what has happened here.

I’m exhausted, and don’t even see my own 3 children, who are in grade school as well. I live daily with concern that the other 18 students in my class will enter gr. 6 fully unprepared for it, for they have virtually had little support or guidance from me, their gr. 5 teacher. I know that I (but really the system) have failed them, and I see little progress in the students with IEP’s who get so much of my time and attention. That makes me feel I (and the system) have failed them as well.

It’s really disheartening to read these bulletins from parents blaming the general classroom teacher for not meeting the needs of the children. The task is doomed to failure, but not for the lack of effort on the teacher’s part. These students are the last thing I think about as I drift off to sleep at night. I often lie awake in the middle of the night thinking about them and how I could somehow do better, and they are the first I think about when I wake in the morning. Please don’t make blanket assumptions that because special needs students aren’t getting the help they need, that it’s because the teacher doesn’t care and isn’t “prepared” to help. I’m sure many of the parents in my own classroom are criticizing my efforts and blaming me for their child’s lack of progress. They have no way of knowing what my days are like, but they make huge assumptions that they do. Though I can’t speak for all teachers, I would wager a bet that most of them are probably like myself….doomed to fail at mission impossible.

It is now time I turn some of my attention over the the other 18 students in my class. I have only 16 weeks to prepare them for gr. 6. I can only pray their parents have been supporting their education at home, because they certainly did not get one at school.

Oh, Ruby, what an impossible situation they have put you in!!! How wonderful that you are so caring and conscientious. But you know, there is no way you can meet everybody’s needs in that situtation. I call it the illusion of inclusion…it may sound good to parents, but it’s really not workable in most cases. The materials you use in your classroom will be above the reading level of those 13 children if they are only reading on first or second grade level. These kids need to be pulled out until their reading is up to grade level. I’m sorry. It is the system that is SO ineffective. We will end up losing good teachers like you form burnout and end up with more who just don’t care.

I agree that you cannot neglect the majority of students in your class. It is time for the special ed. parents to wake up and demand that their children be remediated before being returned to the regular classroom for subjects they cannot possibly be successful in with such low reading levels. They need intensive remediation using effective materials. You cannot in any way be expected to do that in addition to teaching the regular curriculum. It also shows me that the children have not even been learning in resource if they are stuck at 1st-2nd grade reading levels!

I am going to say one more thing that you may not be happy about. No job is so important that you should neglect your own children. Maybe you have a husband who comes home early or a grandmother who is nearby to help you, I don’t know. But you need to do your very best during the school day, and then close that door by say 4:00, and go home and give your own chidlren the attention they need. They are with us for a very short time.

I fully agree that there are many good teachers like you who are in this position. I will be so thankful when the tide turns and real remediation by a special ed. teacher becomes the norm.

Janis

Rudy, and all,

I am not blaming the teacher. Or maybe I am *shrug*. Really though, I am blaming the school, for not listening to my sons needs. We have tried and tried, through several IEP meetings, meetings with the teacher and the special ed coordinator, to see exactly where our son is in the whole overall context of things. When he brings home A’s and B’s and C’s on papers, we feel he is progressing with the rest of the class. However we meet with the teacher who says he isn’t working independently enough to progress to the next grade. So keeping him another year, to repeat the material already taught is the answer? He has the information, he needs to be taught how to write independently. No response from the school on how to do this. And many many teachers are wonderful examples of what caring teachers are….however you sometimes meet those totally overwhelmed teachers. And being a somewhat overwhelmed parent of a learning disabled child, you start to “butt heads”. Those head butts turn into the parent being the bad guy in the sitation. I personally have been banned from entering the school during school hours because I wanted to volunteer with my sons class and the teacher forbid it. Other parents are allowed to volunteer, why am I not allowed? I still continue to make daily trips to the school to drop him off and pick him up…they can’t stop that. But as for volunteering (which I have done for both my children up to this point) I am barred. The question is, if he is doing grade level work with assistance, (Assistance being he has to verbalize thoughts to someone before writing) how can you determine if that is helping too much and therefore say he has to be held back another year?

Your are absolutely correct and I would suggest she shuts down sooner. As a special educator, the illusion of inclusion (I really liked that!) is so completely correct. At some point people have to realize placing children who are reading far below grade level with a legitimate learning disability are only making their parents think they are doing well. I haven’t found any research that supports inclusion as being a good alternative when looking at improved performance and remediation (our job, right?). Putting the words education after inclusion is a joke!

Steve,

I’ll tell you something funny. The other day I asked for money to go to a summer workshop to learn a multisensory structured language program. I told my special ed. director that it was essential that we use these methods or our children would not be remediated. She replied that she did not think the training would provide anything teachers could not already do, and besides, we use multisensory techniques in our inclusion classes. Right!!!!!!! That’s probably why the achievement level of our special ed. students is so high.;-)

So a teacher like me who has done my homework and knows what is needed to remediate can only get the training at my own expense. That is pitiful, isn’t it?

I suppose it is good I did not tell her about my “illusion of inclusion” idea.:-) I might be looking for a new job! Fortunately I am not required to do inclusion as I mainly work one-on-one with hearing impaired children. However, I could probably build a pretty good private tutoring business to help all the chidlren the schools fail to help.

Janis

Janis, I think the reason we parents look to the illusion of inclusion is that there is such a negative picture of self contained LD classes. I for one think back to the self contained classrooms and schools of my day, when I was growing up. I have 2 brothers and a sister who grew up in this system and they did not learn anything. When it was suggested my own son be placed in a self contained LD class I felt like a failure and worried about what he would learn. I visited the class though and was surprised at how much these students were expected to do. They are expected to learn to become independent learners. Their course of study is similar to their peers but presented more slowly. There is smaller group instruction to actually remediate difficult areas. After visting the class I allowed my son to be placed—the best decision I ever made. My son is much happier, his reading, writing, and social skills have grown more in this 1 year then his 3 years of inclusion. The ultimate goal of the program is to mainstream as many of the students back as possible—but not until they can handle it. For some that time may never come and they will be taught life and job skills, for others it may take years, and for some maybe just 1 or 2. If a good alternative to inclusion is offered such as in my district I think most parents would opt for it. The problem is this is a VERY expensive way to do things and not all districts can follow the model.

Yes! You are so right! It costs more at the outset and that is why it is not common. Do you know that there are NO self-contained LD classes in my district? Self-contained is such a dirty word that only the trainable mentally handicapped kids are self-contained! I’d settle for half day resource where intensive help in the basics was given. It’s not that I’m really so in favor of self-contained. I’m just in favor of remediation that puts kids back in regular class on level.

I am SO excited to hear of the rare district that seems to be serving students well, though! It gives us hope that maybe their successes will spread elsewhere! I am especially happy to hear that your son has this option and is doing well!

Janis

Can I hire you? I’m so glad to hear that your son is challenged in his sped classroom. My field has been very bad at providing students with the appropriate educational experiences. For all the right reasons, they tried to keep kids happy and have them feel good about themselves. So for a very long time they were taught things they already knew because they could be successful at this level. Unfortunately, this continues to happen. You have your son in a class with a good teacher, in my opinion. I happen to work with a staff of five excellent teachers. Our students are pushed to the point of frustration on many occasions, but they are learning. This learning isn’t just of content but of what they can accomplish when they exert effort. They are surprised at what they can do because they haven’t had to work hard as long as they were in sped classes. We too try and move students to general education classes when we think they will be successful. That is the real excitement for me - success!

I am delighted to hear that my district is not an isolated case. I think that learned helpness can be as much of a handicap as the learning disability itself. The problem is trying to find a balance-how much do you push and when do you back off and say they just can’t. You want to have a healthy dose of reality but at the same time not give up. I find that this is what people find the hardest. At what point do you shift gears from remediation to compenstating strategies and life skills. And of course another big difficulty it is not a one glove fits all answer. Sorry for the rambling, just thinking of the many great posts that have been on the board lately. There are no easy answers for any of the questions.

Personally, I feel in this situation that the teacher who is supporting this student in the room deserves some assistance. Perhaps the student’s parent(s)/guardian, or case manager can step up? Taking a step backwards on a student IEP should not happen. How can you legally justify that? The school must provide the services as written in his/her IEP. Inclusion means inclusion not separate class.

Another question that occurred to me was; why is the student doing so much extra work. why doesn’t the teacher simply modify the existing work or give resource time to complete that work? The student should not be required to do extra work just because they have a disability and receive assistance to do that work. It is still a challenge to the student’s learning, isn’t it?

The school is required by law to follow his IEP. The answer to your question would depend on what his IEP says.

Even in the best of all possible situations with a well-thought out, no exceptions IEP, getting a teacher to do the things in the IEP can be difficult. You can write a great many provisions into IEPS - that doesn’t mean that teachers can or will follow them all.

Getting a school into compliance with an IEP or proving that they’re not in compliance… these are sticky wickets.

Good luck.

The teacher is basically saying she doesn’t have the time to give him the attention he needs. The resource room teacher said the exact same thing last year. Why put him back in that situation?? And how do I get the school to actually provide the services he needs??

Patty,

Speaking from experience, it is very rare for any child in special ed. to get what they really need at school. You have just mentioned the two biggest problems, ineffective resource programs and regular teachers who are trying to keep their heads above water and get the most possible kids to pass the test at the end of the year. There are so many kids with so many different needs that I am amazed that anyone teaches in the regular classroom anymore. My child has a wonderful teacher, but she can only do so much. My child will be getting most of the remediation she needs outside of the school…either by me or a paid tutor, if necessary, using the very best programs available. I would never count on the school to do it well.

Janis

Sadly it can be that we don’t. I’ve had to ‘close the gap’ with my own son for years.

Where does the buck stop, as they say? It stops with our children. You have the right to place him in any class or program they have. You cannot stop them from failing him or making his life there miserable. They were going to fail my son and they were already making his life miserable so I stepped in at home and spend hours with him every night doing homework that should never have been assigned to him.

As a parent and as a teacher I’ve learned that schools are sadly imperfect places. Sometimes with great finesse, we can wheedle things out of schools for our children but far more often the high cards are all in their hands.

Where will your son be happiest? Where will be most successful? Is there anything that can be done on the outside of school that will help him in school? Those are the kinds of answers that can be helpful to ask when you’ve asked all the others.

Good luck.

Is the resource room actually “dumbing down” the curriculum or teaching to the student’s instructional level? I find that the resource room is a misunderstood piece of special education. I have been very happy with my child’s success in the resource room and extremely lucky to have such a knowledgeable person facilitating my child’s learning. Because of the time my child has spent in resource he will be able to be in the regular classroom next year full time with some collaboration of the regular teacher and special education teacher.

The resource room in this school is a general “catch-all” for any students not meeting expectations. They are “supposed” to be teaching at each childs level. However with 10 students, 3 different grade levels, and 1 teacher, that is nearly impossible. When my son was in the resource room last year for first grade, he got a primer on the alphabet which took 4 months. My son knew and could write the alphabet before he started this class. By the time they had progressed to actually trying to read words, he was bored and wouldn’t/couldn’t pay attention. He needed help putting his thoughts onto paper, not being taught the proper form of each letter. However when explaining this to the teacher during an IEP meeting, she got very disgusted with me and proceeded to verbally attack me….basically telling me if I didn’t like what she was doing, to pull him out of her class. We did, and while he was behind his peers in the regular classroom, he was much better off than in the resource room. Nothing has changed in the room since last year, same teacher, same students, and for the 1st 4 months of the school year they have “reviewed the alphabet”. I don’t want him in that classroom again! I want him to be where he can learn, but he needs help, remediation, or something other than the resource room.

I to agree that public education is far below par. I think what needs to happen is more resourses for teachers. There needs to be more continuing education for these teachers. Every persons/child learns in a different manner, if a teacher does’nt have the resources to teach on different levels, they are only reaching a percentage of their kids.
As far as a teacher verbally attacking you at an IEP meeting, that should have never happened. Parents are the ones who know their child the best and should be used as a resource, if the school and parents are’nt on the same level the child is doomed.
You can have weekly meetings with his team, put into his IEP to “check in”. At that time you can fill them in on how things are at home and they can do the same for you. While at the same time building a relationship with his teachers.

Teachers in the Regular Ed classroom are given a huge responsibility when asked to teach classess of 25-30 students with half of them having IEPs. I feel that Regular Ed teachers need training provided by their school systems to help them address the needs of their Special Education students. I teach in a high school and find myself many times frustrated trying to find ways to meet my individual students’ needs. Most of the time the classroom teacher receives an IEP which states what the students’ “modifications” are for your particular class without any further help or guidance as to “how to” go about making these modifications on a day-to-day basis. I try to attend as many conferences as possible and always look for workshops that deal with addressing the needs of Special Needs students in a Foreign Language Class. I still feel, however, that I need to do more.

The key word is “with assistance”. How much assistance is this student receiving? Is he/she continuing to be responsible for their learning or does the general education teacher/para take on the majority of this responsibility? Minor accomodations should be made in an inclusion class or else all you have done is move a resource room into the walls of a general education class.

You have got to be kidding? The casemanager of this student is legally responsible to see that the services are provided for as outlined in the IEP. If this is not happening - you have a serious situation and is certainly not the responsibility of the general education teacher. I would suggest you request a staffing ASAP.

Thank you. Too many assumptions are made regarding what is done “in that room”. It’s too bad nobody seems to take the time to ask. Good luck to your son.

Good teaching practices are the best methods for all students. Modifications in the general education class which require additional time from that staff member should not be done without collaboration from the special education staff. No wonder so many of us get such a bad name when this type of thing is happening.

I’m a teacher in a grade 5 class, with 31 students, 13 of which are on IEP’s, 8 of which are only at grade 1-2 level in language and math and go out for only those 2 subjects — which helps, but reading and writing are an integral component of every subject, particularly science and social studies. I have no help in the classroom. I was a Special Ed. Resource Teacher last year, so am trained in remedial teaching and understand many special ed. issues.

I have spent 2 terms struggling on a daily basis to assist the 13 students who cannot read the words, process the language or keep up with the fast pace the classroom must work at to get through a full curriculum, especially in science and social studies. I attend meetings, contact parents, provide extra help 3 lunches per week. I start my day at 7:00-7:30 a.m., never take a lunch or recess breakand leave at 6:00 p.m., taking work home with me and going in to the school on Sundays for 4-6 hours to call parents, modify upcoming tests/assignments for the following week, and make visuals or other misc. to support my teaching, etc.. I meet with the Spec.Ed. team every morning for 15-25 minutes to discuss the day ahead. Hours of work: from Sept-Nov.
100 hrs/wk, from Nov. to now 70 hrs/wk.

The other 18 students in my class vary from D students up to B students. When do they get what they legally deserve out of an education? They don’t. It is unfortunate. With extra time, a D or C student can usually improve a full grade, but they don’t usually do it on an independent study, which is primarily what has happened here.

I’m exhausted, and don’t even see my own 3 children, who are in grade school as well. I live daily with concern that the other 18 students in my class will enter gr. 6 fully unprepared for it, for they have virtually had little support or guidance from me, their gr. 5 teacher. I know that I (but really the system) have failed them, and I see little progress in the students with IEP’s who get so much of my time and attention. That makes me feel I (and the system) have failed them as well.

It’s really disheartening to read these bulletins from parents blaming the general classroom teacher for not meeting the needs of the children. The task is doomed to failure, but not for the lack of effort on the teacher’s part. These students are the last thing I think about as I drift off to sleep at night. I often lie awake in the middle of the night thinking about them and how I could somehow do better, and they are the first I think about when I wake in the morning. Please don’t make blanket assumptions that because special needs students aren’t getting the help they need, that it’s because the teacher doesn’t care and isn’t “prepared” to help. I’m sure many of the parents in my own classroom are criticizing my efforts and blaming me for their child’s lack of progress. They have no way of knowing what my days are like, but they make huge assumptions that they do. Though I can’t speak for all teachers, I would wager a bet that most of them are probably like myself….doomed to fail at mission impossible.

It is now time I turn some of my attention over the the other 18 students in my class. I have only 16 weeks to prepare them for gr. 6. I can only pray their parents have been supporting their education at home, because they certainly did not get one at school.

Oh, Ruby, what an impossible situation they have put you in!!! How wonderful that you are so caring and conscientious. But you know, there is no way you can meet everybody’s needs in that situtation. I call it the illusion of inclusion…it may sound good to parents, but it’s really not workable in most cases. The materials you use in your classroom will be above the reading level of those 13 children if they are only reading on first or second grade level. These kids need to be pulled out until their reading is up to grade level. I’m sorry. It is the system that is SO ineffective. We will end up losing good teachers like you form burnout and end up with more who just don’t care.

I agree that you cannot neglect the majority of students in your class. It is time for the special ed. parents to wake up and demand that their children be remediated before being returned to the regular classroom for subjects they cannot possibly be successful in with such low reading levels. They need intensive remediation using effective materials. You cannot in any way be expected to do that in addition to teaching the regular curriculum. It also shows me that the children have not even been learning in resource if they are stuck at 1st-2nd grade reading levels!

I am going to say one more thing that you may not be happy about. No job is so important that you should neglect your own children. Maybe you have a husband who comes home early or a grandmother who is nearby to help you, I don’t know. But you need to do your very best during the school day, and then close that door by say 4:00, and go home and give your own chidlren the attention they need. They are with us for a very short time.

I fully agree that there are many good teachers like you who are in this position. I will be so thankful when the tide turns and real remediation by a special ed. teacher becomes the norm.

Janis

Rudy, and all,

I am not blaming the teacher. Or maybe I am *shrug*. Really though, I am blaming the school, for not listening to my sons needs. We have tried and tried, through several IEP meetings, meetings with the teacher and the special ed coordinator, to see exactly where our son is in the whole overall context of things. When he brings home A’s and B’s and C’s on papers, we feel he is progressing with the rest of the class. However we meet with the teacher who says he isn’t working independently enough to progress to the next grade. So keeping him another year, to repeat the material already taught is the answer? He has the information, he needs to be taught how to write independently. No response from the school on how to do this. And many many teachers are wonderful examples of what caring teachers are….however you sometimes meet those totally overwhelmed teachers. And being a somewhat overwhelmed parent of a learning disabled child, you start to “butt heads”. Those head butts turn into the parent being the bad guy in the sitation. I personally have been banned from entering the school during school hours because I wanted to volunteer with my sons class and the teacher forbid it. Other parents are allowed to volunteer, why am I not allowed? I still continue to make daily trips to the school to drop him off and pick him up…they can’t stop that. But as for volunteering (which I have done for both my children up to this point) I am barred. The question is, if he is doing grade level work with assistance, (Assistance being he has to verbalize thoughts to someone before writing) how can you determine if that is helping too much and therefore say he has to be held back another year?

Your are absolutely correct and I would suggest she shuts down sooner. As a special educator, the illusion of inclusion (I really liked that!) is so completely correct. At some point people have to realize placing children who are reading far below grade level with a legitimate learning disability are only making their parents think they are doing well. I haven’t found any research that supports inclusion as being a good alternative when looking at improved performance and remediation (our job, right?). Putting the words education after inclusion is a joke!

Steve,

I’ll tell you something funny. The other day I asked for money to go to a summer workshop to learn a multisensory structured language program. I told my special ed. director that it was essential that we use these methods or our children would not be remediated. She replied that she did not think the training would provide anything teachers could not already do, and besides, we use multisensory techniques in our inclusion classes. Right!!!!!!! That’s probably why the achievement level of our special ed. students is so high.;-)

So a teacher like me who has done my homework and knows what is needed to remediate can only get the training at my own expense. That is pitiful, isn’t it?

I suppose it is good I did not tell her about my “illusion of inclusion” idea.:-) I might be looking for a new job! Fortunately I am not required to do inclusion as I mainly work one-on-one with hearing impaired children. However, I could probably build a pretty good private tutoring business to help all the chidlren the schools fail to help.

Janis

Janis, I think the reason we parents look to the illusion of inclusion is that there is such a negative picture of self contained LD classes. I for one think back to the self contained classrooms and schools of my day, when I was growing up. I have 2 brothers and a sister who grew up in this system and they did not learn anything. When it was suggested my own son be placed in a self contained LD class I felt like a failure and worried about what he would learn. I visited the class though and was surprised at how much these students were expected to do. They are expected to learn to become independent learners. Their course of study is similar to their peers but presented more slowly. There is smaller group instruction to actually remediate difficult areas. After visting the class I allowed my son to be placed—the best decision I ever made. My son is much happier, his reading, writing, and social skills have grown more in this 1 year then his 3 years of inclusion. The ultimate goal of the program is to mainstream as many of the students back as possible—but not until they can handle it. For some that time may never come and they will be taught life and job skills, for others it may take years, and for some maybe just 1 or 2. If a good alternative to inclusion is offered such as in my district I think most parents would opt for it. The problem is this is a VERY expensive way to do things and not all districts can follow the model.

Yes! You are so right! It costs more at the outset and that is why it is not common. Do you know that there are NO self-contained LD classes in my district? Self-contained is such a dirty word that only the trainable mentally handicapped kids are self-contained! I’d settle for half day resource where intensive help in the basics was given. It’s not that I’m really so in favor of self-contained. I’m just in favor of remediation that puts kids back in regular class on level.

I am SO excited to hear of the rare district that seems to be serving students well, though! It gives us hope that maybe their successes will spread elsewhere! I am especially happy to hear that your son has this option and is doing well!

Janis

Can I hire you? I’m so glad to hear that your son is challenged in his sped classroom. My field has been very bad at providing students with the appropriate educational experiences. For all the right reasons, they tried to keep kids happy and have them feel good about themselves. So for a very long time they were taught things they already knew because they could be successful at this level. Unfortunately, this continues to happen. You have your son in a class with a good teacher, in my opinion. I happen to work with a staff of five excellent teachers. Our students are pushed to the point of frustration on many occasions, but they are learning. This learning isn’t just of content but of what they can accomplish when they exert effort. They are surprised at what they can do because they haven’t had to work hard as long as they were in sped classes. We too try and move students to general education classes when we think they will be successful. That is the real excitement for me - success!

I am delighted to hear that my district is not an isolated case. I think that learned helpness can be as much of a handicap as the learning disability itself. The problem is trying to find a balance-how much do you push and when do you back off and say they just can’t. You want to have a healthy dose of reality but at the same time not give up. I find that this is what people find the hardest. At what point do you shift gears from remediation to compenstating strategies and life skills. And of course another big difficulty it is not a one glove fits all answer. Sorry for the rambling, just thinking of the many great posts that have been on the board lately. There are no easy answers for any of the questions.

Personally, I feel in this situation that the teacher who is supporting this student in the room deserves some assistance. Perhaps the student’s parent(s)/guardian, or case manager can step up? Taking a step backwards on a student IEP should not happen. How can you legally justify that? The school must provide the services as written in his/her IEP. Inclusion means inclusion not separate class.

Another question that occurred to me was; why is the student doing so much extra work. why doesn’t the teacher simply modify the existing work or give resource time to complete that work? The student should not be required to do extra work just because they have a disability and receive assistance to do that work. It is still a challenge to the student’s learning, isn’t it?