Disadvantages of Inclusion

I think full inclusion makes for classrooms that are impossible for any one teacher to teach.

As the parent of two boys with LD, I could not agree with you MORE!

Inclusion will come back to haunt us.

There needs to be a range of placements for special ed. for instance, my child with asperger’s syndrome and no other learnig issues was classified as “resource” in grade school and given a little outside the classroom help with writing. my child made no progress, because the aide helping her did not understand the disability or the writing issues for my child. Switch to middle school, I try to get my child classified as inclustion—so she would have support in the honors classes she attended—the sd refused. since she was under a “resource” teacher, yet not in any resource classes, my child received almost none of the services listed on her iep. the teacher was “too busy” and again, the school tried to have an aide work with my child—the aide did not work on the areas where my child had problems and did not understand the disability. Also, my child is smarter and more clever than the aide and did not get the respect needed to make progress—Year # 2 of no progress.
After mediation and a long compliance complaint—my child is reclassified inclusion. She is still in honors classes 95% of the time, but the inclusion teacher is making great efforts to see that the iep is being carried out by the teachers, the teachers are making efforts to include her (with modifications) and my child is happier. She has a designated person to help her with iep issues and my child knows who that person is (unlike last few years).
But is inclusion working?? yes and no. my child is getting more of what support she needs to be in a regular honors class—she finally has an aide for PE, but there is no where in the districts “inclusion” model to allow remediation for my child on her writing issues. My child needs one-on one or extremely small group assistance on learning to write. She reads at the college level (in 8th grade) and can’t fit into resource classes.
where is the specialized help she needs to make it? the inclusion teacher is nice, but she has a 15 kid load and can’t spend 1 hour a day teaching my child to write.
We will be back fighting over this issue with the school next month—they want to throw it back on the parents to teach this subject (ha, ha). PS there seems to be no high school in the district where my child can get the help she needs.
I know kids with more severe disabilities who could not fit into an inclusion model and I know kids who thrived in inclusion. What is failing is school districts being flexible and open to a range of possibilities—they want your child to fit their program—that is the big problem.

Have you thought of a tutor to teach her handwriting?

my daughter writes physically—she can’t do the mental organization, prioritization and editing and research needed to write much more than a paragraph (unless it is a creative writing piece). she lacks perspective of the audience.

My son was also included before inclusion became a buzz word. I agree that inclusion will come back to haunt us. It seems a good excuse for the districts to save money and toss the kids back into a regular classroom with an untrained aide, whom he ended up tutoring, and hope for the best… but oh the socialization! So we raise a bunch of friendly, uneducated, frustrated LD kids!

As far as your Aspberger’s daughter’s writing problems, you are right that the school is required to provide a tutor or class for her. However, given the fact that they won’t, you should consider getting her a tutor or look into some computer programs. There is one that we are using in my school (I teach 8th grade English in a private school for LD students) called Inspiration, that helps students design graphic organizers and then turns them into outlines. You might ask her classroom teacher to structure the assignments more by giving her specific questions to answer that she can develop into sentences and paragraphs, or she might work with a buddy-peer tutor who can do the organization with her and then she can do the writing herself. It’s hard to say if I haven’t seen her working style. Good luck!

At the point of where my child is now, I am glad my child is not in a resource room only. My child is being pulled out but let me tell you the troubles we are having.Learning support teacher is new (just out of college) and is having problems dealing with behavior problems in resource room.My child and others are not getting appropriately taught as child with behavior problems constantly bothers the class.I saw psychologist in there a couple times viewing but still I am seeing problems.Also my child is grouped together with other kids for reading and I was first told my child was at low level 2nd grade at conference time then later corrected to say she was mid second grade. Our outside tutor says she’s at cusp of 3.My problem with resource is that they don’t raise the expectations or teach the higher concepts.But even though my child has a wonderful regular education teacher.Reg Teacher had said won’t use some modifications cause other students would be curious and distract them.Reg Teacher also said would’nt be able to teach my child math because way below.But teacher did take my suggestion that maybe learning support teacher could help my child and others in class that were having a hard time also.The regular classroom brings richer language to my child than the resource room would.Both have advantages and disadvantages.

I have requested a tech assessment for writing, sent two letters to district administrator—no written response-just-third hand comments that your daughter doesn’t need this. Inspiration has been suggested by my dev. pediatrician and I will try it out soon, but I’m doubtful that it will work without support and without school support. The teacher has been teaching a very structured essay writing method, but it doesn’t work for my child. She had a one-on-one Lindamood Bell tutor this summer and made progress, but the reports are that my daughter still needs the one-on-one trained support person to get her going and to produce anything. She does not get along with her peers, so no buddy stuff would work. Unfortunately, unless it is a subject near and dear to her, she just doesn’t write more than three or four sentences. The essays are things like” what is your stand on the death penelty?” and “What are the challenges you have found in applying for high school? are they the same or different from your parents?”. She has nothing to say.
I would pay for the tutor, but it is $80 an hour and I can’t afford it 4 hours a week. I am already paying $350 a month for social skills training, and paying an advocate, because the school never follows the law regarding ieps. I will pay for a private technology assessment-but beacuse my daughter writes on a 3/4th grade level, and because she is in honors class in 8th grade, I suspect I will have to send her to a private special needs high school to see progress in this area. The help needs to be intense and with a teacher—both of which the district doesn’t want to provide.

You have two issues that you should be screaming about to the school principal and, if he/she won’t listen, the district superintendent. First of all, the regular ed teacher doesn’t get to decide which modifications she will or will not do. She is REQUIRED BY LAW to implement the IEP. Your child and you should not be made to feel guilty if she needs support and reasonable modifications. Most kids in class are a lot more flexible and easy-going about these things than teachers think. The teacher should just tell them, if they even ask, that Suzy needs this to help her learn. Secondly, if the resource teacher is new, she should get some help to control the discipline problems; however, there is no excuse for “dumbing down” the curriculum. Special Ed is not Stupid Ed, and your child’s teacher had better learn that! Good luck.
Fern Goldstein (Special Ed teacher and parent of a special needs young adult… now in college)

The school district cannot refuse your request for a tech assesment out of hand and certainly not third hand; you deserve a formal response and an explanation. Your advocate, whom you are paying, isn’t doing his/her job if
he isn’t threatening to bring the district to court for ignoring the IEP and not meeting your daughter’s needs. Yes, a private high school might be just what she needs. The district is obligated to pay for it and transportation
there and back, if it is determined that her needs cannot be met in district. Very frequently, if you threaten to sue the district, they start listening to you and begin following the law, if not you can go to arbitration and the arbitrator can insist that the school district get your daughter what she needs to succeed in school. If she is in 8th grade, now is
the time to act, before she falls too far behind and loses all her confidence. I don’t know where you live, but there are resources on line that help you find private special ed high schools, through CEC, LDA, ASAH, and other organizations. I work for a k-8 special ed school, and we have a high school, too. About 80% or more of our students go on to college. This is definitely a viable option for your daughter. Good luck!

I have to disagree, as an educator I feel that all students should feel equally important and educated. I also have family members with disabilities so I am not just stated what I learned in college, this is my feelings based on experience. All students should be treated and equally and teachers should have high expectations for them. Students with disabilites feel apart of the whole group when they are placed in a general classroom. Believe it or not many of the kids take disabled children under their wings and help them with their class work.little lulu wrote:
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