classroom teacher resists teaching special ed students...

Although many may not agree with me, including you, I tend to play hard ball. Since you have already addressed this with the teacher, I would make a copy of your son’s IEP and attach it to a letter stating that it “appears” that the accommodations on his IEP are not being implemented in the general ed classroom. I would explain that the IEP is a contract, etc, etc. I would cc: the principal, his ESE teacher, his guidance counselor and the superintendent of the school board. This should get any “reasonable” teacher the clue that you are serious about your son’s needs and his entitlement to accommodations under IDEA 97. It will also alert the principal that you are serious and that he/she may need to “encourage” the teacher to implement your son’s accommodations.

Again, I tend to play “hard ball”, but IMHO, with your child’s education at risk, you don’t have a lot of time to waste.

There are other options, just perhaps not in your school. If the teacher is unwilling to implement the accommodations in his IEP, she is in violation of the law. One of the things you can do is meet with your child’s case manager, then have a meeting with the teacher and the child study team, including your child’s case manager. The case manager can put professional pressure on the teacher without the teacher getting angry at you or your child. You may want to suggest that a different 5th grade teacher might be more accepting. Your other option is to insist that the district look for placement in a private school for students with LD (if there is one in your area that is appropriate). I teach in one, and our students do extremely well… most of them go on to college.

Regular education teachers frequently do not get much training in special education, so when students are “included”, the teachers are not really prepared for it. They have more students in a class than a special education class does, so it is more difficult to give that extra attention. Districts, unfortunately, frequently use inclusion as an excuse to dump classified students back into the mainstream. They get the state aid for the classified child, but don’t pay for the resources to teach that child effectively.

Hooray for hardball. I threatened to sue my district, and lo and behold… they started following the IEP, and he started to succeed.

It’s all about getting the money IN for your child and expending as LITTLE as possible ON your child. I would suggest letter writing as a follow up to any and all conversations with your child’s teacher, “case manager” ? - is that a guidance counselor?) or whomever you speak with.

According to the law, aren’t these gen ed teachers supposed to be provided training? (I know, I know, in a perfect world). BTW, I had an ESE teacher tell me once re: my daughter’s accommodations that the accoms. could NOT be guaranteed outside an inclusion classroom to which I replied, “Excuse me, but I believe it is the LAW that guarantees these accoms., NOT the teacher”. She said, “In a perfect world” and I said, “Well, you know what? I have all the time in the world to spend down here making sure my daughter’s world is ‘perfect’.” - Now, not really, she gets very few accoms., but I just wanted her to understand that my daughter’s education is a priority to me and that it needs to be to her as well.

It’s been a long hard battle, but my daughter’s success in school is the flag of victory. They are beginning to realize it’s easier to give her what she needs than to have me “in their face” all the time. :-).

To me, the key is to to remain calm and reasonable - the 2 things that are hardest when you are dealing with YOUR child and the public school system.

I also agree with Fern in that possibly he needs to change teachers. I write a letter at the end of each school year advising the kind of teacher and classroom that best meets my daughter’s needs. Only once have we received a poor match, and she was moved out of that class 1/2 through the school year. Now they find it easier to give her a good match to begin with.

I often laugh and say the administration is going to be on the front lawn of the school applauding when my daughter graduates and moves on to middle school ! ;-)

The only accomodation my son needed in his regular class was a flexible teacher. He gets no resource or sped of any kind.
I found the sped teacher did not have enough training and when things are done part way (like really badly done behavioral modification) it can do more harm than good.

Flexibility is the key. A teacher that can see the forest (which is your intelligent child) through the trees of his disabilites can make all the difference.

thanks linda f!!!!

that is so true. my child’s current teacher is doing so much harm this year. since my son really is dead set against changing teachers, i am stuck in the position of trying to help him find ways to get along with “this person.” how sad is that? he is 12; the teacher is 35 and the 12 year old is the one who needs to be flexible. does this make sense????

i need to let my child have some say in his education; we had to change teachers in the middle of the year in 3rd grade - and it did a WORLD of good. however, this year my child truly feels it would be harder on him to “explain” his disabilities to a whole new group of peers (if he changed classes) than maybe get a teacher who would be more empathetic and understanding of his needs.

I have many “friends” who are teachers and/or in aadministration at the school - we were better “friends” b4 my daughter had a disability! One said to me recently when I mentioned changing counties for better schools, “Why on earth would you do that? You KNOW you are GOING to get what YOU want.”

Almost like I was stealing the bottle from the baby. I replied, “B/c I get tired of the fight it always is to get what my child is entitled to By LAW”.

When will the teachers (DISCLAIMOR RE TEACHERS ON THIS BOARD) and/admin. realize that the law is in place to protect kids like my daughter and it’s just the parents who are willing to “force” -and it IS literally force - the school to do what the law says who get the appropriate services for their child? She tells me how all the teachers complain about all the IEPs, 504s, etc. and how inconvenient it is. I recently told someone that it’s inconvenient to get a ticket for going 60 in a 45, but it’s still the LAW and the policeman is just there to enforce it. Unfortunately, most schools have put the parent into the policiman’s position and if you are not there to micro-manage your child’s education, they won’t get one.

BTW, in speaking with one of the teachers in my daugher’s future (? - it’s still to be decided) middle school, she mentioned that the things on most students’ IEPs would benefit the ENTIRE class of students. Have to say, I was impressed w/that statement b/c I’ve heard many people on this board say it, and many parents and tutors, but very few gen ed teachers!

I’ll climb down from my soapbox now.

~~~~She tells me how all the teachers complain about all the IEPs, 504s, etc. and how inconvenient it is. ~~~~

and some of the regular ed teachers (present company excluded) complain, at least with their actions, as their words are always the opposite, about just having to have these l.d. kids in their class at all, let alone the associated “paperwork.”

where did this attitude come from that special ed kids belong in special ed and the regular ed teachers feel all their needs will be met there - even if they are only pulled out 30 minutes per day/5 days per week. they still spent 90% of their school time with the regular ed teacher (?) i am beginning to think that the whole concept of inclusion, has done more harm for these kids than anything else in the history of special ed…unless of course you can afford to pay privately for remediation and services and stay on to of the school to get accomodations.

teachers and adminstrators wonder why us parents have to help them “enforce the federal laws”. if we weren’t the policemen who would be? it is unfair to put parents in this position. but it is also unfair to put regular ed. teachers in the position of having to “include” all children in their classroom, yet not be given the support and training on HOW to teach them and include them…..

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Fortunately, I have been able to work part-time (to pay for the remediation) and still keep myself in the “loop” to protect my daughter’s rights. There are no easy answers. I just know, as I told them, “You WILL provide my daughter the services she is entitled to under the law”. They don’t like me, but we have managed to forge a relationship that works for her.

The history of inclusion is an interesting one. I’d say the idea originated with some parents and special education advocates and was picked up by politics. It is certainly not every teacher’s idea of a good thing and some teachers are more comfortable with it than others. Few teachers have any training in it and some teachers actively resist it.

It sounds like your son’s current teacher is one of them. The year is half over and that’s the good news. You might have a conversation with your son’s principal (depending on what kind of a person this principal is) or the guidance counselor or school psychologist and tactfully ask what else you might be doing as a parent to help the teacher with the accomodations your son is to be given in the classroom as per his IEP. Sometimes a school psychologist or guidance counselor or principal can play a hand in helping the teacher to nicely realize there’s a different way to be.

In the future, I’d recommend always meeting with the teacher in the beginning of the year even briefly. It’s much easier for teachers to dismiss the letters they are written by parents. You can usually establish stronger relationships and better understandings through face to face cordial meetings.

Good luck.

I’m not sure who originally thought that a teacher who is trained in traditional teaching techniques for large-group instruction is just as qualified to accommodate and modify instruction as someone who has a master’s degree in special education. Special education teachers have studied the various disabilities and their psychological and educational impact on students. We follow the research about those disabilities and instruction geared to remediate or deal with these disabilities. We want to work with these types of children. Regular education teachers haven’t the same training or the same outlook. If they did, why would we even have specialized teachers? Too many administrators have no idea that LD students have needs other than simple remediation. They think they can be “cured” with extra reading class and extended time on tests. They also prefer paying fewer teachers.

Parents who clamored for inclusion were seeing the social development of their children as paramount, not their academic achievement. Unfortunately, learning disabilities often impact on a child’s ability to function in social situations, so when they are “included”, they frequently find themselves excluded.

In the past, special education was frequently dumbed down and the children segregated. Public school administrators like “those kids” kept quiet, doing worksheets. That’s no answer either.

What we need are special education programs taught to the highest academic standards by well-trained specialized professionals with counseling by professionals to help students integrate with their non-LD peers. But that costs too much. We need paid workshops for regular education teachers and aides to help them learn what the students’ needs are and what to do to accommodate their LD students without resenting the kids and the extra effort. But that costs too much.

The students need a teacher to whom they go for the extra support (academic and psychological) daily to coordinate with the regular teachers to keep the kids on track and organized (that person should know what all the assignments and requirements for the courses are), and someone who can help them navigate the social scene. Then maybe inclusion will work. But that costs too much.

How much does it cost society because we haven’t done this?

I guess it depends on what you call accommodate and/or modify. My daughter has very few:

Use computer for long written assignments
Extended time on long written assignments
and modifications on FCAT.

Next year we will add “no penalty for spelling without use of a computer with auditory spellcheck.

Those are plain, simple and something anyone can figure out. Those are all the accoms my daughter needs to succeed in general ed.

I feel like it IS the teacher’s responsibility to provide those - am I off base?

That is just what I had for my son, and I had a heck of a time getting teachers to comply… until I threatened to sue the school district for failing to follow his IEP and discriminating against him. Unfortunately, the problem wasn’t fully resolved until the next year when he got a great teacher in the class I wanted. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. What is needed are workshops for regular ed teachers to show them that it isn’t too hard to make reasonable accommodations and why students need them.
Fern

Amazing, isn’t it? You’re right it depends on the teacher. We had one in 3rd grade that wrote in my daughter’s planner and wanted her to dictate orally all of her spelling words (inclusion class). I told her I didn’t want HER writing in my daughter’s planner, I wanted my daughter to write in it. We didn’t do the oral dictation of spelling words either. We moved out of that class in the 3rd nine weeks.

4th grade this year, we got the “bonus” teacher. One who is really flexible, loves my daughter and works well with her. Often she will say, Jami wanted more time, today, but I pushed her and she was able to finish, etc - I’m happy with that - a teacher that knows my child and cares enough to accommodate when needed and hold her to the line when necessary.

They are few and far between.

We have one for fourth grade too and it is lovely. It also helps that my son is doing much better, following private therapy. We were talking the other day and it is clear that she has more than her share of ESE students and other teachers have none. Why? Because she is wonderful and other teachers aren’t. So the competent get “rewarded” with more work. There is no doubt that a child like mine is more work.

I also do think the whole model of special education is flawed for LD kids. With a good teacher a child who only needs some accomodation and a little extra help, can succeed. That is my child now but it wasn’t him two years ago. Two years ago he was basically wasting his time at school. He could not access the circul. because he was too far behind. Yet, in our district, only severely autistic are in self contained classrooms. If we had let it be, I am sure we would have eventually had a law suit on our hands. Instead, we pulled him out of school part time and provided much private remediation.

Beth

1. The testing that is done is not even adequate to attach the right set of disabilities and strengths to the right child.

2. It is not the past. My son was in an inclusive (really 2 teacher classroom with the sped kids with the sped teacher, resource room without walls) where they did dumb down the curriculum. He was miserable. He cried every day.

3. His new teacher has no special training. The very first time I met her she made a statement that made me want to jump out of my seat and hug her. She said, “He really gets everything. When I ask him questions he always knows the answer. He just has trouble getting it onto the page.”
Some teachers just get it despite training, despite anything else.

We did the same re: private remediation. Per the instruction of our evaluator - she said “DON’T put here in special ed”, go here, see this person, etc. We were fortunate to have the money (of course, I worked more hours and got a job with flexibility), but it was worth it. I often wonder where she would be today if she had been put in the resource room for reading as per the school’s suggestion.

who figured out my daughter needed a book on her DESK instead of trying to copy from the board. This is a child who, when trying to copy from the board, wrote across the paper, across the desk and then her arm fell off the other side. The teacher said she had NEVER seen this b4 and she had been teaching 20+ years.

This is the teacher who also, when my daughter missed a spelling word/couldn’t read her writing, called her to her desk to spell it outloud and gave her credit.

This is the teacher who allowed her to just fill in the blank in English instead of writing the whole sentence with the correct word in it.

All this without an IEP (b4 the evaluation). My daughter was also voted student council representative in that class, that year. I firmly believe that teacher made all the difference in how my child viewed herself and her difficulties.

My son was in resource room and still is today. But the first resource teacher was worthless!!! When that became clear, we started private remediation. But my son was so behind by then, he couldn’t function in any reading group in the classroom (and it was only second grade!)

Now we have a good teacher but this being FL, she has way too many kids. My friend from Nebraska who is an PT with public schools and has an LD child told me the case load is 1/2 there!! My son’s issues are severe and I am sure he would be reading at a second grade level instead of close to fourth grade level (which is his grade in school) without our intervention.

What we do now is my son does reading in regular classroom and then goes to resource room when his reading group does seat work. This way he gets more reading instruction.

Beth

Fern,

I am sure you are an exceptional special ed teacher like the one my child finally has this year. Unfortunately, not all sped teachers I’ve encountered keep up on different forms of ld or new techniques.

My child spent 2 yrs. of his life doing seat work and reading books 3 yrs. behind his grade level. The teacher would just tell me he can’t do harder reading etc. At the same time the small amount of time he spent in reg ed he did learn and the teacher wasn’t dumbing it down.

There must be a happy medium somewhere.

I am told that the best teacher for 5th grade is the INCLUSION teacher. We had a very BAD experience with 3rd grade nclusion and I am NOT a fan.

Also, we have the problem that the middle school where my kid “feeds into”, thinks the “Inclusion” kids need to go to another middle school, “/c we can’t take care of their needs”. (This is grapevine)

So, even though this is the best 5th grade teacher, I don’t want my child in the Inclusion class b/c of the “label”/preconceived notion that it will give the middle school teachers.

Guess this is the rock/hard place dilemma?

I hate to hear about teachers not teaching LD students in the classroom. I am a special ed. teacher and come originally from ND. In the small schools students only came to us for reading and rarely for math. Most subjects were taught in the reg ed. environment and was called mainstreaming. This of coarse was in the 80’s. I am now in Texas and things were very different here. I am tired of hearing I don’t know anything about teaching LD students. First of all in the 12 years I have been here there have been many workshops on how to teach and modify. Tx. does not require teachers to take any classes in modification or LD as some states do. It is the teachers responsibility as it is mine to be current and to learn how to accomadate for all students. Besides you advocating for your child teach your child to advocate for himself. I have always worked with my middle school students in a way that teaches them to ask for what they need. Many of my students want to go to college and need this skill. It might help your child to know he does have the right to say I need this modification to help me learn this material. Law is law and the teacher must accomadate.

I am only happy that I am not the only one to experience this. I’m tired of hearing, “They can’t do the work.” “They can’t read.” ” I don’t have time with 20 other students.” I’ve had one child just sit and do other things when back in the reg. ed. classroom. Does anyone know of a good reference that we as spec. Educators could help the reg. ed. techer so the student becomes “our” student and not “your” student? Inclusion for LD seems to be harder for the reg. ed. teacher to accept than foor EBD and DCD as those students get removed if there is a problem or they have a para with them most of the time.

I AM A LS TEACHER. I DON’T AGREE WITH WHAT YOU ARE SAYING. REG ED TEACHERS ARE GIVEN SUPPORT AND AIDES AND……… BUT THEY CHOOSE NOT TO USE THEM. SOME OF THE TEACHERS I WORK WITH ARE WONDERFUL, OTHERS NOT SO WONDERFUL. THEY HAVE 1 EXPECTATION OF ALL KIDS AND CANNOT CHANGE THEIR WAYS. BEFORE YOU GO TO THE SCHOOL BOARD MAKE SURE YOU TALK TO YOUR SP EDUCATION TEACHER AND SEE WHAT SHE/HE IS DOING TO MEET YOUR CHILD’S IEP. IF IT DOES NOT FOLLOW —GO TO THE SCHOOL BOARD, IF IT DOES, THE REGULAR ED TEACHER IS GIVEN TRAINING AND SUPPORTS (DON’T DOUBT THAT) AND TRAININGS ARE AVAILABLE TO THEM—BUT SOME THINK THEY DON’T NEED TRAINING BECAUSE LS KIDS AREN’T THEIR PROBLEM. TALK TO YOUR DISTRICTS SPECIAL ED COORDINATOR AND ASK WHY THESE TEACHERS THAT ARE NOT FOLLOWING THE IEP ARE NOT SIGHTED WITH INSUBORDINATION—LEGALLY (I STRESS LEGALLY, THEY ARE PARTNERS IN THE IEP AND NEED TO MAKE THESE ACCOMODATIONS.

I am a special education teacher in an elementary school. I have experienced the same resistance with regular education teachers. How can I work with one student when I have 20 others to worry about? Unfortunately, the times are changing. Even students who do not have IEPs need to be taught differently. Not everyone can be taught the same way, through lecture, worksheets from the 1980s that are still in purple ink, etc.
You may want to talk to the principal/curriculum coordinator about trying to implement a differentiated curriculum. This is designed for ALL students. My principal wants to try this for next year along with full inclusion. It’s going to make a lot of teachers (those ready to retire in 2-3 yrs.) pretty mad. It’s going to be a lot of work for teachers in the beginning but I think it will pay off in the end.

she doesn’t want to obey the law, (as my bestfriendinhighschool’s mother always said) “tough teaty!”.

I would write out the problem in detail and send a copy to the OCR of the Dept of Ed for your area, copy to the school board rep, principal, and teacher.
Frankly, the OCR doesn’t care, but they might not know that.

There was a teacher who lost a multimillion $ lawsuit because he refused to follow the IEP of his students. If you have a lawyer you might consult her/him.