Inclusion - Major Questions For Your School IEP Team

Phil, please ask these questions. What I am seeing as an educator is the trend to place greater and greater responsibilities on the classroom teacher with little to no extra assistance. If this is the case, then you bet, inclusion is not working and will not work.

Before you “beat the teacher up,” please take a moment and consider what her day may be like. Our teachers now take full reponsbililty for ESL instruction, they teach multiple reading groups, math groups, they prepare students for high stakes testing, and they have to make modifications for handicapped. The truth is, no one can do all of that well.

Speak up, speak out firmly, but please before you blame the teacher for not doing what you expect, consider the entire teaching situation. Classroom teachers did not ask for inclusion, parents did. Classroom teachers have little prep time and plenty to prep. The fault, if there is any, may not lie with the classroom teacher, who is sometimes expected to be all things to all people, it may lie with a system that does not support her in doing her job.

Good questions and they reflect the way inclusion should work…

But I’ve found that it is in my role, as my son’s advocate, that the most
changes happen. In middle school I initiate all the modifications.
Remediation is being done at home. I do have a request to have a remediation
program set up at school but that is slow going.

good luck and let us know what happens!

Anne

My third grade son is in a pull out resource program for language arts for one hour a day. Still, that means that he spends most of his day in a regular classroom where the teacher has no aide or no planning with anyone for him. I personally think that inclusion type programs are mainly money savers for districts. I know that was not the intention initially but I think that is the reality in far too many places, including my son’s school.

My son’s reading is actually not far from what is required and he is doing OK but still he requires extra attention. Fortu. his teacher is very good and gives it to him. I have also been told that it is unusual that a kid like him is reading near grade level (thanks to mom and dad not the school) and I honestly don’t see how his teacher would be able to manage 28 kids and a first grade reader or two as opposed to a weak third grade reader (which he is). By third grade reading is such an integral part of the circ. that even with a pull out program you end up with inclusion.

Anyway, I happen to feel sorry for the teachers thrust into this situation with insufficient resources and training. I also feel sorry for the kids who aren’t fortu. enough to have an teacher who does the best she/he can under the circumstances and parents who make up the difference.

Beth

Many, Many Problems? ~ No Solutions~ What a shame.
WHERE ARE THE ANSWERS?
Is it within IEP’s, inclusion or whatever? Or do we maybe need to step back and look at in from a different angle? Maybe one day will figure it out.

As a parent, I realize what a tough job the teacher has, but I also know how hard it is on the child. No, teachers didn’t ask to have inclusion….but my son didn’t ask to have dyslexia either. I have a daughter who is “normal”, and honor student and I know from her years of schooling, lots of teachers don’t want to put forth effort, they want to supply the information and then
let the child do it on their own. This plan works fine for my daughter but not my son. I think considering the number of children who are on automatic pilot, they have enough time to help the kids who aren’t.
In our state, children are required to pass profiency tests in 4th and 9th grade. The science teacher told me yesterday, she has to spend her time teaching to the child who will be able to pass the profiency test. While that looks good on paper, what about the child who still can’t read…..does no one care about them?

I think inclusion CAN work, and I see it working for my son. But as others have said, it takes a TEAM, not just a classroom teacher. In our school system, SPED teachers work in the inclusion classrooms, with the classroom teacher much of the time. Last year, in 4th grade, There was a SPED teacher in my son’s classroom for half of each day, and an aid in the classroom for the other half of each day. So there were few times that the teacher was alone, trying to deal with the needs of 18 NT children and 2 or 3 LD kiddos.

This year, in 5th grade, the kids start changing classes. Because of the greater organizational demands as well as the higher academic demands, my son’s LD (NLD) is making things harder for him as he gets older, which is pretty typical for NLD kids. This year the same SPED teacher goes with his class to both of the main teachers’ classrooms. An aid accompanies them to “specials.” (music, art, etc.) He also has some pull-out time once or twice a week to do re-teaches or organize projects, as necessary. These are in the resource room, but again, with his same SPED teacher.

The SPED teacher also modifies his homework, rearranges test papers so they are less visually confusing, scribes for him as necessary, makes sure that he gets his homework assignments written in his agenda, and maintains the communication log between school and home.

So far, this seems to be working pretty well for him. I don’t know exactly how many other SPED students there are in the class, though I do know he’s not the only one. His SPED teacher does an excellent job, but I have to believe that she’s not super woman, which makes me think that in our case, we are lucky to have a school system that is spreading LD kids out into enough different classrooms, and staffing at a level that they really CAN meet the needs of these kids.

I’m sure that there are lots of school systems that don’t do as good a job, and the system doesn’t work flawlessly here either… it takes a lot of management on my part, and a lot of communication between me and the SPED teacher. But from what I’ve seen here, inclusion CAN work if it’s done right.

Karen

Karen,

You have a good thing going, I can tell you. My son’s classroom teacher is pretty much left on her own with no aide or other help. Of course, my son suffers.

Beth

Believe me, I do appreciate that we have a school system that is really trying. OTOH, I am the type of mom who stays on top of the school too. I work hard to be pleasant, supportive and cooperative, but I also expect that they meet my son’s needs. If they didn’t, I’d be fighting for an out of district placement, and if that didn’t work, we’d home school. The MOST important thing to me is my son’s emotional well-being, followed closely by my desire that he get the education he is entitled to by law.

Karen

Karen,

We actually have a much better situation than last year when I fought the school district all the way to the top. I attended one IEP meeting with two district specialists, the principle, someone in charge of compliance, plus all the usual assorted people. The only amusing thing was how much money they were spending meeting with us! Shortly after this wonderful meeting we pulled our son out of sp. ed. and homeschooled him for several hours each morning. Now though the incompetent resource teacher is gone and the principle hired someone who knows good programs. I like to think that the grief I gave them had something to do with this turn of events!! I handpicked my son’s teacher this year. So although not ideal, things are looking up.

None of the other public schools would be any beter than what we have now. The schools here do not follow an inclusion model but in effect the sp ed kids spend most of their time in a regular classroom. My observation is that the teachers are basically left on their own to try and figure out how to deal with the sp ed kids for most of the day. Since there is no doubt that our kids require more time, this is less than ideal for all concerned including the “normal kids”.

Beth

I know that this is a problem in many school systems. I like the inclusion classrooms and the extra help ALL the kids get because there are SPED kids in the class (and the high ratio of teachers to students) that I have requested that my younger son, who is NT to be placed in inclusion classrooms anyway. Besides the fact that all the kids in these classrooms benefit from the presence of the SPED teacher and aids in the classroom, I think the kids also learn to be more tolerante of kids with different learning styles/abilities.

All around, I think inclusion is a very good thing if it’s done right, but can very easily go badly awry.

Karen

Thanks to all for the comments. The teacher and the Principal have no interest in LD teaching ideas…or woring with parent concerns…so they will get a chance to explain their work to the judge or hearing officer at some point.