Why Inclusion?

Could you elaborate as to why? I agree there are pitfalls as there are with anything, but surely the benefits to the child outway the potentential problems?

They don’t, when the child in question is set up to fail academically and socially. The reason children in special education need it because they couldn’t succeed in a regular class with 25-30 other children. And that’s just what regular ed is, as a rule—a big class with many children and an overworked teacher who, at best, has been poorly trained in educating children with disabilities, and at worst is prejudiced against such children and determined not to alter his/her methods for them.

Yours truly,
Kathy G.

Michelle Wruk wrote:
>
> Could you elaborate as to why? I agree there are pitfalls as
> there are with anything, but surely the benefits to the child
> outway the potentential problems?

I absolutely agree with Kimberly and Kathy. Inclusion is an absolute disaster for some special ed children. I was given that line “the benefits outweight, blah, blah, blah.” What benefits? If my child does not have the foundation skills, the basics mastered, what could he possibly be receiving from that classroom other than a beating to his already suffering self-esteem.

Here is a perfect example. My son just finished 4th grade. He has profound dyslexia (visual, auditory,and tactile) along with serious memory issues. Our district follows the total inclusion model. The point is, my son cannot read, has very limited auditory processing capabilities and cannot write a complete sentence at 10 years old.

The fourth grade curriculum requires reading novels, being tested for comprehension on the novels and doing various projects related to the novels. They did four novels this year. We (his parents) had to read all of them to him. When they were given silent reading time in class, he couldn’t do it, he just sat there and I got a phone call, every time, telling me that he doesn’t use him time wisely.

Therefore, he could not participate in the class discussion on the previous silent reading time, he did not pass ONE comprehension test for any of the 4 novels and the projects were mostly completed by me.

He does not benefit from the 4th grade reading curriculum because he cannot participate in the fourth grade reading class unless I am there to read it to him. Please tell me how he benefits from this?

To add insult to injury, this applies to every subject. If you do not have the basics, you cannot participate in a general education classroom. You are fooling yourself and hurting the child by believing anything else.

Inclusion is cruel and unusual punishment for some children. It should not be used as a blanket treatment for all special ed kids. It is wrong. That time he wasted staring off into space could have been better spent in direct, intensive, appropriate instruction instead of ignoring him. It just sickens me.

By the way, through this teacher’s expert and keen sense of observation, my son got a C in reading even though he did not pass one test all year. I think we need to check HER math skills.

Your child would be much better off in a self contained classroom. Does the district offer any? If he were my child, I would make sure that something was different next year. No child needs to go through this.

I’d be tempted to pull him out and homeschool him or put him in a private school and take the school to due process. I would just make sure that you have his reading/writing level documented before you do anything. There is no way he will learn to read with what they are doing.

My son just finished third grade. He is about a year behind in reading—after much work by us and the school (this year finally—I had partially homeschooled him in second grade when they would not offer an appropriate program). His school uses a resource model but the fact is he spends most of his time in the regular classroom. If a child cannot read, he cannot access the circulumn and have a FAPE. It was somewhat of a struggle for us you must have had a nightmare of a year.

I think inclusion is a bit of a myth for reading disabilities and even the resource model only works if the child’s skills are not seriously behind. (Inclusion does seem to work well with kids who have NVLD.) Next year we have negotiated to have our child taken out for resource room during science/social studies instead of language arts. This way he can have language arts twice. His reading level though is on par with the lowest reading group in the class.
Beth

I am a 1st year 6th grade teacher. ( I have had 5 years of experience in high schooland 1 year teaching 6th, 7th and 8th grade S.S. and 1 year teaching middle school summer school) I teach in a very low income school with not a lot of support. We are in our second year of teaming ( its not great yet) and my background is in Social Studies and Language Arts. I truly believe all students can learn no matter what, however, they are all different and require indivdual help. This year alone, I have been astonished to find a huge (in my opinion) amount of students that have “fallen through the cracks” 19 in my homerrom class alone out of 9 6th grade classroomsand & with my teams help and support staff we were able to help students to achieve and find success through what ever means possible( we were handed an in your face approach to learning and success all about 504’s, IEP’s and Title 1 services, none for which my team had ever been exposed to and came out better than anticipated) It has been an eye opener! Unfortunatly, I have recently been informed ( last week) that I will not have any choice but to teach an inclusion class next year the only one in the 6th grade ( or find a new job). I am currently taking an Intro to Learning Disabilities class ( irony at its best) at the local university to increase my personal knowledge of special education even before learning about my new asignment. I have had very limited and controled experiences working with special education and learning disabled students. This whole new introduction to an inclussion class for next year is terrifying me due to several factors. 1) Lack of inital support 2) Being completly unknowledgable about the topic other than the course I’m currently taking and tons of research on line and in books.3) Lack of funding 4) Lack of experience.and ultimatly the ethical and emotional questions I have on the topic (ie. is this right to do). If someone could write me to give me some insight of what I’m getting into please do so! I voiced my concerns at a meeting on Monday and kinda got blown off and said things would just work out. I am too concerned with all the students I teach to just go by the seat of my pants. I educate the future not just teach my subject area and feel it completly overwhealming to think that I could be the best canidate for the job, however, I know I’ll try my best—but the kids dersrve the most knowledgable teacher in this capacity, as well as the LRE and support. And by putting 15-16 inclusion kids into a reg ed class with 1 gen ed teacher, 1 special ed teacher, and having them go through their entire day as one unit (classroom) just does not seem fare to those kids (“LD kids”) who need all they can get and again deserve! Please respond to me ASAP! Thank you! I am looking for opinions and information on what LD parents would like to have done and how they want it to be administered, as well as, any of the best practices for inclusion. I am even more nervous after reading the previous enteries but promise you all I will surely do my best with all your help.

Little Lulu,
I am a special education teacher in inclusion classes and also small group. The small group classes have only special education students. In our school, students will severe reading problems and those that can not handle inclusion classses are in small group classes. Of course, these decisions are made during the annual meeting to discuss needs and make a plan.

I truly feel bad for your child and you as a parent. I can only imagine how frustrating this is for both of you. In my opinion his educational needs are not being met. From what you say, he needs to be taught reading in a different class, one that will meet his needs.

It sounds like he needs special ed classes for many subjects, if he is not being successful in inclusion classes. Hopefully, modifications were discussed that would help your child succeed.

It sounds like a committee involving you, an administrator, some his teachers, etc. need to reconvene and meet again to review what is happening to him and make a new educational plan. Right now, is only sounds like a disaster for him and you. Special education services to meet his needs should be provided.

Thank you for your response. I’m very encouraged to hear that a special ed teacher agrees with me and sees that there is something wrong with our current situation.

Our district follows the full inclusion model. For two years we have been trying to get what we feel is appropriate for our son’s needs. We keep getting told no. We recently completed a neuropyschological evaluation (at our expense, of course) in hopes of the school seeing that his problems are not being remediated. It had gotten so bad this year, that my son said that he would rather be dead instead of go back to school. Needless to say, he is in private counselling to deal with school everyday because when I told the school about this, they told us that they couldn’t help him with this problem.

The Sped director told us in the last IEP that we need to lower our expectations for him. My husband nearly jumped over the table at her. The IEP meeting ended at this point with nothing resolved. Everyone that I have talked to cannot believe that this is the philosophy of the person in charge.

We are meeting again for another attempt before school starts. We will be bringing the private psychologist, an educational consultant and depending on what she says next week as we prepare for the meeting, an attorney may accompany us as well.

We’ve gone on the school’s advice for three years now and it came to the boil with my son’s wishes to be dead rather than go to school. To me it smells like due process.

One question if I could?: you mentioned severe reading difficulities. Who determines what is severe, moderate or mild?

Thank you again.

THANK YOU !! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!
I TOTALLY agree, especially working in a system where full inclusion is required (although my principal let me cheat and pull kids into resource so that they could actually learn something!) In fact, I am currently taking some grad classes and that is all I hear…it is NOT the best thing for all children…Aren’t they making us break federal law by not doing what’s best for the children?

You do realize, that inclusion is the result of some kid’s parents that decided he had the civil right to be “included” in regular classes?! Funny thing, why do they decide this is what we should do for ALL children? Don’t the others have rights too?

Little Lulu,

No doubt your school system is different than ours (Ontario, Canada), but I am a gen. ed. teacher. By law, I cannot give any grade lower than a C- to a student on an IEP. If that student cannot achieve a grade at C level, the expectations are to be lowered until he/she can. So……it may be that your child’s teacher is legally bound by a similar rule. I have 14 students out of 32 in my gr.5 class who are on IEP’s. They cannot keep up with the curriculum because I can’t find resources for them in soc. stud. and science at a gr. 1/2 level for language. I am simply to expect that they are to gain some exposure to the curriculum by being in the room during classroom discussions and other student presentations/videos/etc. Even if they are completely unable to demonstrate to me they have absorbed any learning I can only go as low as a C-. Is it a joke? Of course it is. I don’t see how these children are being given a decent education. But a decent education does not happen in the regular classroom. It is an impossible feat. An individualized program with small groups is where the student will succeed, not in a gen. ed. classroom with the class sizes we have.

Inclusion is hard to do but it is rewarding for my child.Being at the neighborhood school where she knows everybody and saying hi to them outside school and learning the language from the other kids greatly benefits my child as she has expressive language problems.The tough part is getting the general ed to do modifications as they don’t understand her needs.She is pulled out for speech,math,reading and writing.So she is getting those needs met.The modifications she needs are preteaching of vocabulary and having an extra text at home so we can preview and have multiple choice tests. In some cases they were giving her modifications where another child would scribe for her’ but looking at the answers I knew my child did not say that so the test was showing what the other child knew not my child.In another case teacher thought she was preteaching cause she told the whole class the vocabulary words. She should have given me the vocab words so my child could understand the class discussion.Inclusion is hard work but I see that it can be done and be very effective if done right.

I took my child out of public school after 2nd grade. He had basically failed 1st and 2nd grade even with some resource help. The school system he was in has no self-contained classes, just resource room. I moved him to a private LD school where there are 8 to 9 children per class with 2 fulltime special ed teachers. He also receives Speech Language and OT (both group and individual) as part of the curriculum, so he doesn’t have to get this help before or after the school day as he did when he was in public school. We went through due process and lost. The hearing officer told us that since we didn’t give him Ritalin until 2nd grade it was our fault that he was “unavailable for learning.” She ignored the fact that he barely passed 2nd grade while taking Ritalin, getting resource help, and attending 4 sessions of private Speech/Language a week (at our expense). We appealed, had an unsuccessful mediation process, and the case is now sitting on a Federal judge’s desk somewhere and has been gathering dust for almost a year. Meanwhile I am paying the $30,000 a year for the school and related services and I am poor but happy. I feel very lucky that we live in a city that has some private schools for LD children. I will never put my child back into the public school system. His self esteem has grown and he has made great progress academically. It is really worth it! Bottom line is that inclusion did not work at all for my child.

WOW, I had no idea, but that could very well be the explanation. If it is, I am appauled!!!!! I live in Illinois in the US. Any idea how I could find all these little things parents don’t know? If not, thank you anyway for the “heads up.” I definitely want to look into this possibility. I would definitely agree that this is just plain wrong. And I absolutely agree that a decent education does not happen in the gen ed classroom. It is just not humanly possible for a gen ed teacher to possibly fulfill all IEP requirements and tend to the rest of the class. I truly feel for teachers like yourself who are put into this situation. Thanks again Ruby.

I am sorry to hear of your son’s experience. This is exactly why I am against full inclusion. There are many students out there who do not benefit from being placed in general education. You’re right, your son would have benefited so much from being placed in a class where there were less students and his curriculum was individualized. Does he have an IEP? Can you send him to a different school in the district? I would try every route to prove that he is not being served in the inclusion model.

There are many organizations that serve parents of children with special needs. I would try the Council for Exceptional Children, they have many local branches and can guide you to the answers you need so you can fight the system.

I am glad that your daughter is receiving services in the areas that she needs them. However, a full inclusion model (which is what many are pushing for) takes away ALL support services. If your daughter was in a school that had this practice, she would not receive help in the subjects she needed them. That is why full inclusion is a policy that must be stopped. To be included in the general classroom is wonderful, but only with the right support and only at the right time.

Little Lulu, I too live in Illinois and can tell you from personal experience that yes an IEP student can be given D’s and F’s. My son received a D in his health class and an F in his English class. They can also be left back if the team feels they are not meeting their potential. At least in our district most students are required to take the same state mandated test only the most severe of cases are exempt and I too this day have yet to meet one that was exempt. My son who falls on the autism spectrum and is clearly behind is even required to take the test although his teacher even admited he did not even read the test he just circled in answers.

I don’t agree. Not all ESE/LD students need to be in another class besides general ed. My daughter attends a general ed class, with accommodations and a gifted resource, with accommodations. She is doing fine. It all depends on the child and the teacher’s level of support.

What about an inclusion class with assistive technology, .ie., the computer reads to your son and he uses earphones? Many LD students are using this kind of technology and are make strides. My daughter uses AT in the general ed classroom and it has provided her with renewed confidence and performance.

Kimberly, I have not heard anything about “them” trying to push for full inclusion without pullout for special needs/resource. The self contained classes in my area have children with varying exceptionalities. Everything from bipolar, to CP, to autism, to LD. Many with severe behavioral issues (3rd grader pulling a knife on a teacher - and I live in an upper middle class area) I’m sorry, but I would much prefer my daughter be in a general education class with general ed kids.

I have many reservations about relying on assistive technology at an early age. Even though it is difficult for my son to read, write and do math problems I still want him to do it. I believe it is important to have those skills before we know what his max capabilities are for these skills and at 10, I don’t think we have found that yet. Maybe in his case it is due to the lack of assitance he has gotten so far from his sped program.

I am also not a big believe in accomodations and modifications (excluding time limitations) in the classroom for the same reason. In our case, it really upsets him when things are modified for him, he feels that he is being treated like a baby.

A very good example that just drives me up the wall is this modification that they have given him. When he has to answer a question with a complete sentence (since it is difficult for him) he only has to write the answer. What is the result of this, my 10 year old son still cannot write a complete sentence. When I raised this concern at the last IEP, I was told, don’t worry about it, we will work on that next year. Funny, that sounds like a rerun from last years annual review.

It’s less likely to be law… but sometimes it is policy. I had to fight for the right to give a kiddo an F who simply refused to do any work because he sincerely believed that he would pass anyway, and said so. Once he realized that wasn’t true, he realized that no, I didn’t believe he was too stupid to be worth teaching and he started working.

A good compromise for this is havig the child be responsible for writing two answers in complete sentences. That way there’s work on sentences but most of the work is on the content. It’s also good to teach them that little knack for “reflecting the question” in your answer.
Yet another option is allowing him to dictate those sentences. Where I taught, all the students were taught to reflect the question (so if the question were “What were three good things about the INdustrial Revolution?” They learned to start with “Three good things about the INdustrial Revolution were…”)

I think if a kiddo is not doing the work just for the sake of not doing it they should fail. Teachers need to be careful though to find out what is going on. In my sons case the semester he got an F in his English class was due to missing assignment. The problem was though that he attempted them, they were miserably incomplete, or even sometimes just not done but it was because he did not understand them. This teacher did not know that he was 3 years below grade level in reading. What made it worse was she usually taught gifted children and due to staffing shortage got a regular ed class. She admitted to having difficulty adjusting her standards. Her work was so hard that even the tutor we hired for my son sometimes had difficulty with the assignments. As horrible as it sounds we opted to keep in the class because despite his struggles he seemed to be learning. We are glad we kept him in he finished up her class with a C average and his reading ability did improve. We left him in because it was his desire to prove he could do it with support and he did. Since sticking with the class he has learned not to give up and that things are not always as the appear. I was very pleased with him yesterday, he was working a computer problem, it involved a lot of technical reading, he stuck with it and fixed the problem on his own. I was floored when he picked up the resource he needed was able to use the index and then to find read and follow the instructions to get the task done. My parantal insticts told me to remove him from the class since he was experiencing failure but I kept him in by his choice and now we are reaping the rewards.

Kimberly,
a full inclusion model does NOT take away ALL support services. When it is done correctly, it provides the services within the context of the Gen Ed classroom rather than pulling the student out for services. It is important to remember that Special Education is a SERVICE not a PLACE. It shouldn’t mean that students spend their time away from their gen ed peers. It should mean that students receive modifications and accomodations to the gen ed curriculum that have been decided upon by special and general educators. The problem isn’t with the model of full inclusion, but rather with the way it is implemented in the schools. Believe it or not, study after study after study supports the fact that inclusion is better for the students, academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally. The key is having it done RIGHT!

Kimberly wrote:
>
> I am glad that your daughter is receiving services in the
> areas that she needs them. However, a full inclusion model
> (which is what many are pushing for) takes away ALL support
> services. If your daughter was in a school that had this
> practice, she would not receive help in the subjects she
> needed them. That is why full inclusion is a policy that must
> be stopped. To be included in the general classroom is
> wonderful, but only with the right support and only at the
> right time.

Can I just say this? If everyone (including the educators) know that it ONLY works when it is done properly, why isn’t it being done properly? Everyone keeps saying this, but I have not run into one person who is actually in a school that does it the right way. Every plan looks good on paper, but if it can’t be implemented why keep forcing the issue. Why keep saying that it is the best option if it can’t be done? Parents and educators are saying in actuality its NOT working.

We are living the full inclusion nightmare, and I wouldn’t wish it on my enemy. It is a joke and I’m tired of school people telling me that it is the best choice for my kids even though they are failing in this environment. The social, emotional benefits outweigh … The fact is my son can’t read, write a complete sentence or learn all the math facts (even after we spent big bucks on the various programs out there) So, who is going to accomodate, modify and hold my kids hand at his desk when and IF he gets a job to support his family.

And I’ll say this, as far as social, emotional benefits of full inclusion, my son threatened to kill himself if I made him go back to school this year. How is that for the beneficial full inclusion model? The school says he’s doing fine. He’s getting Cs on his report card, but when I look at his papers that come home (and I saved them all) they are predominantly Fs.

Lets stop the nonsense and go back to what we know works. This is all about money and personnel convenience.

Lulu,
I am really sorry if I offended you. That wasn’t my intention at all. Instead I was trying to point out that we shouldn’t just throw something out and never consider it. You are absolutely right. If it isn’t working, then something else should be done until people can get their act together. Your son is much more important than policy. But we can still have the goal of inclusion.

Bottom line…every child with special needs is different. Every single one needs different things. There is no cookie cutter solution to this issue. At this point, if I were your son’s teacher, I would be focusing on giving him things that he can succeed at doing and feel proud about. Someone needs to find out what he is GOOD at and then give him assignments based on his strengths. After all, when he gets a job and is supporting a family, he will be doing something that he is good at and he will be independent.

Of course, I am new to special education. I will be starting my first teaching assignment in the fall and I am still very naive. Right now, I feel like I can make a difference in the lives of my students. It saddens me to hear your story and I hope that I never make a child feel as your son has been made to feel.

Jen,

I should be the one who is sorry. After re-reading my post, I feel that I may be the one that came off as harsh, and I apologize.

Being in the position I am right now, with the higher powers of being (special ed in our district) leaving parents no option to help make decisions, I still feel what I state about inclusion is true. I feel it is a cookie cutter attempt at providing an “appropriate” education (which is all the law requires) for children who would otherwise make the schools test scores go down if they are not helped in some way. Like I said too, I have not come across anyone, personally, who has had a positive experience with full inclusion, teachers included.

Hopefully new teachers, like yourself, will be trained to deal with this type of classroom that districts are leaning toward. For me, I am hoping that this is only a bad dream that I have been having for three years.

I wish you luck in the future, but would be very interested to hear your views on inclusion after being in your teaching position, when this burden has been placed on you. I hope you are one of the truly gifted teachers that can make a difference. It sure sounds like you are willing to try.

Best wishes.

Every child is different. That’s why there’s an “I” in IEP.

My daughter, in 2nd grade, only had to fill in the answer to the question instead of writing the whole sentence. Why? Because it took her as long to write the words in 10 blanks as it did the other 30 children to write the whole sentence. She can write a sentence, and speak a sentence even better. I, personally, don’t have a problem with that.

We did, however, provide intervention, and now she takes Concerta and she can write clearly and well, and it does not take her as long, so she usually writes everything herself. Assistive technology, for us, is a Godsend. She CAN write, but why write something when it takes you 3X as long as if you type it? And it’s a whole lot less frustrating and tiresome. It’s still HER knowledge that’s being expressed. AT, for us, just provides the tool/avenue for my daughter to show her knowledge.

Accommodations are great, but they hopefully are in place ONLY while intervention and remediation is taking place so hopefully, they can be removed slowly as the student’s skills catch up. It all depends on how they are being used. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! :)

No Text

HOpe you meant that in a positive way, not “if you don’t like it get out!”

It’s an option worth considering…

not sure I understand what you are saying.

>
> What about an inclusion class with assistive technology,
> .ie., the computer reads to your son and he uses earphones?
> Many LD students are using this kind of technology and are
> make strides. My daughter uses AT in the general ed
> classroom and it has provided her with renewed confidence and
> performance.

That’s only a short-term solution. Don’t you want her to learn to read on her own? She not always going to have access to such thinns.Leah wrote:

That has to be one of the lamest excuses I’ve ever heard. I’m currently in the same process for the second time, after haveing needing to change schools, for my daughter has outgrown her current LD school but still cannot return to the public schools. The First round took 2-3 and so far this round almost a year. My child is almost seventeen, why can’t they just let her go. Inclusions doesn’t work for her. I’ve placed her privately again, hoping to get reambursted.

What to do when inclusion isn’t enough, though your child scores out between grade level and college into some areas. At one time she was behind but was outplaced and made up over six years of work in two. I haven’t seen a public school with a program with small class for bright children with NO physical diabilities or behavior problems that can’t learn in inclusion. All small classes are remedial or teaching life skills, my child is beyond that. My child has expressive language difficulties, severe audiotry processing issues, ADD, delayed processing, word retrival difficulties, visual intergation difficulites and such. When you meet her she’s just seems like a normal kids and thats all she wants to be, but school is very important to her and has normal ed friends. She doesn’t fit in resource classes available and can’t learn in inclusion. What esle is left except a small private school? The school systems skill challenges this? I’m fighting for a change in outplacement to a more challenging, but still supportive school and the public school is trying to pull her back. I’ve no other option than to fight it while placing her privatley. She is doing well in her new school, where the classes aren’t larger than 8 students and she doesn’t have to feel outcasted by being in seperate classes.

I am about to begin my third year of teaching special education. I have taught five inclusion classes in the past and have requested to teach more next year. I would first like to applaud you for being proactive and initiating your own learning about students who will be in your classroom. I often find that many districts do not give support to general education teachers, and instead force them to do a job they 1) don’t want to do, and 2) don’t know how to do. As the special ed partner in a team, I would recommend that you sit down with your spec ed counterpart and discuss, extensively, both of your expectations for the year. There are many ways to do inclusion, and I have found the best way is what works for the two teachers involved, and most importantly the students. Your special ed person probably knows more about inclusion than any of your administrators or other personnel. She/he will most likely help and discuss each of your roles in delivering instruction to your students. Your spec ed partner will probably be ecstatic that you care so much about the instruction of all of your students, and not just those in general ed. I do have one concern. You mentioned that you will have 15-16 students with disabilities in your general ed classroom (those whose IEP’s state inclusion). I’m not absolutely positive what the federal mandate for that is, but in my state (GA) that is more than is allowed by law. Might be something worth looking into. Also, please remember that most of the students with learning disabilities will be able to handle your curriculum with accommodations. This is where your special ed teacher comes in. She’ll know how best to do those. If you guys are team teaching all day (which it sounds like from your narrative) then you have an ideal situation. That is what I have always wanted. You guys can actually plan together so that all students learn!!

Again, thanks for your motivation to reach all of your students. I can tell that you will be great!

Jamie

I taught in an inclusion environment last year and I thought that it was a total waste of my time and abilities. Many of the teachers that I worked with could not find the time to meet with me either before or after school. I was given a team time every day, but our principal made out an agenda for us every day so I was not able to work with those teachers. I also had a planning period which did not coincide with the other teachers. I was not given lesson plans in advance and I was also told how to grade my students work. The teachers would also divide the class up and say in front of the whole class, “Would the special ed students please go with Mrs. Kermmie.”I spent a great deal of my time making copies for the teachers. I felt that I was an over paid classroom aid. Also, if the district has inclusion then they do not have to provide the special education department with textbooks of their own. The district which I came from had a special ed budget of $250 for the five schools which were k-12. I also think that as some of the districts are growing so rapidly that classroom space becomes an issue and then they take over the special ed classrooms because they aren’t needed when you have inclusion.

I HATE INCLUSION

I will never teach in a district that uses inclusion. I have found a district that has a no inclusion policy

I forgot to mention that the inclusion classes that I was in were between 31-36 students. The principals rationale was that there were two teachers in these classes.

I believe that all a parent has to do in the state of Illinois to home school their child is register at the Regional Office of Education. I don’t think that you have to provide grades or reports to the regional office.

Did you ever consider going Due Process with the schools?

HOmeschooling may be the best option, even if it “isn’t fair” or technically legal. When school is basically toxic, or just isnt’ doing any good, then even a fair-to-middling job of homeschooling can be infinitely better than what happens and doesn’t happen at school.

In support of all the teachers out there all classes should be smaller and have an aid. That being said, since I am old I remember when there was no sped and kids did get extra help when they needed it.

My child has been exposed to horrible behavior problems in his class and tries to avoid those kids. He has been shuffled from his own district to other schools for 4 years. If he didn’t participate in sports he wouldn’t know any kids in our area.

Life is inclusion there are ways it can work the problem is that many people truly don’t want to make it work.

Yes, and kids with mental retardation either routinely went to special schools, or were excluded from school. Of course, most of them eventually ended up in institutions, where they lived out their lives. And if kids with LD didn’t have the good fortune to have enlightened teachers, they were treated as if they were either lazy, stupid, or both. The lucky ones managed to survive school, but at a horrible emotional price. Others dropped out early, because school was just too hard for them in the regular-ed classroom. Needless to say, college, for most of them, was out.

Yours truly,
Kathy G.

marion wrote:
>
> In support of all the teachers out there all classes should
> be smaller and have an aid. That being said, since I am old
> I remember when there was no sped and kids did get extra help
> when they needed it.
>
> My child has been exposed to horrible behavior problems in
> his class and tries to avoid those kids. He has been
> shuffled from his own district to other schools for 4 years.
> If he didn’t participate in sports he wouldn’t know any kids
> in our area.
>
> Life is inclusion there are ways it can work the problem is
> that many people truly don’t want to make it work.

kermmie wrote:
>
> Did you ever consider going Due Process with the schools?

Have already been in due process for over a year. I thought was stated in my first message. This is actually my second time going through this. Once when my daughter was twelve and now when shes 16.