Hey all guess what Tampa has been up too!

Hooray! I just had this discussion with my daughter’s ESE teacher and said the same: We need accountability. Presently their solution is: put them in ESE, collect funding, don’t remediate. You’ve got $5,000+ per year to line the pockets of school board yahoos. When schools get their grades from ESE students - then we’ll see real remediation.

DISCLAIMOR: I KNOW that the teachers on this board do not have this mentality. But it is the basic mentality in our county.

Socks I want to hear more about this on Saturday evening!

Parents must demand progress toward need.

OK. Tell me if I get this. My child could be held back, even though he is an ESE student, if he doesn’t get into the 25 percentile on the math and reading exams. BUT it is only the student taking the heat because my son’s school has no accountability. Only the student. Oh, I love that.

Beth

Sounds like the ultimate catch-22. The child in sped gets a dumbed down curriculum, the child in sped is expected to pass a test that he couldn’t possibly pass because of the dumbed down curriculum. The school doesn’t need to worry. They identified the child with a problem long ago. I bet they would even say, “Oh, we knew he would fail.”

They tried that on my child and it didn’t take. I just wouldn’t let it.

Parents like us figure out the system and remediate children on their own using the latest and greatest in brain research. It is almost impossible to convince the educators that work with my child that they need to be doing this. The excuses include, “There is not enough money,” but even if they had more money for the ineffective programs that don’t deal with actual sensory and cognitive deficits it wouldn’t make a difference.

We need to address the actual deficits. What schools do is the equivalent of prescribing tylenol for brain tumors. Then they run the cat scan and low and behold the tumor is still there, but that is the kids fault, right.

I can honestly say, that my son is pretty much remediated. I was told this was a life long condition but it is turning out to be nothing of the sort. He still has a few issues but I have those issues clearly in sight and they are being taken care of as we speak.

I guess some will say he never really had much of a deficit to begin with. To those I say, “You have no idea.”

This kid couldn’t tell you the number before 50 last year and he won 2 out of 3 math games in class yesterday. He came home with stickers that said, “brilliant.” He couldn’t write his name in K. He couldn’t write any letters for that matter and really couldn’t recognize most of them either. He is reading a 6th grade level book (he is in 3rd)of his own choosing on Lincoln for his book report. His teacher has given him extra time because she said, “His book is harder than anyone elses but if he wants to do it I don’t want to discourage him.”

He can write in script and can put together a nice paragraph with periods and everything. He does his homework every night and sometimes I even forget to check it. I used to have to sit down and help him with every agonizing step.

I don’t really belong on this board anymore but it is hard letting go of you wonderful people. I want to help parents see they can do this. I want to scream don’t listen to the schools. Don’t listen to people who put down vision therapy, audiblox, seeing stars, interactive metronome, phonographix or anything else that parents on here have found works.

This place is a godsend. You are all partially responsible for giving this incredible kid a chance.

Linda,

I am so happy for you and your son!!! And don’t go away. You have lots to share.

I think your and my story shows that hard work and right therapies help. It also shows that some kids problems are more remediable than others. We’re still hanging in there—working as systematically as we can. I would love to write a post like yours some day!!

Beth

I think it has been nice to see the number of posts lately where we talk about significant improvement for our kids. Sure they still have difficulties but they are not as great as they once were. My youngest son for example was given a very grim prognosis, we were given a list of things he would never do. One of the things was “you will be lucky if he ever gets functional speech language skills.” Today he is a happy 10 year old who can communicatte his needs, share a story he enjoyed, summarize a movie, ect. Another expert told us not to worry about academics because he can’t learn. This child who can not learn has been partner reading a 4th grade level book with me in which he is able to read 75% of the words himself. He is even learning to read with expression! He excels in math and enjoys science. My oldest son who struggled for so long in school has made similar improvements. Instead of getting calls or e-mails about some infratction he has comitted I get comments like “he is a role model student”, “he tries so hard”. His grades have gone from C-F’s to A-C’s. He takes regular ed classes in which he consistantly performs in the top half. He tries to challenge himself, sets goals for himself, ect. I think his early year teachers would never believe it was the same child. I think it is nice for parents whose child has made improvement to stay here on the board as it gives other parents hope. Plus like I said not all our students difficulties are gone and sometimes new things pop up. I truly enjoy this board.

I agree. While I am delighted for both your children, your older son’s progress gives me a lot of hope. My son is 9 and I worry about the future a lot!!!

Beth

Good work mom I know you did the teacher or had him tutored.

I am not afraid I would be speaking out of line to let all of you with great achievement reports know— the rest of us here need to hear it.

As much as everyone helps understand, advise etc. all of us we love to know no matter what someone told us our kids can prevail.

YES MAAM!!!! Burn your britches don’t it?

Linda,

YOU were the wind beneath his wings.. PLEASE don’t leave.

Anything we can do to change this?

Beth

Yup,it’s called a civil rights complaint:-)

I know many of you are in Florida and the stories always sound so familiar and similiar even though we are all hundreds of miles away from each other sitting in different school districts. Is there a general consensus here that Florida’s special education is about school districts collecting state and federal funds and leaving the learning disabled child behind (way& far behind?) Is this occurring because it is so hot and flat and swampie here?…… If you are worried about ESE kids being retained by low FCAT scores maybe now is the time to react. It may behoove someone to dig into exact state regs. regarding FCAT testing right now, before it is too late for your child. You may need to research this through a school board member or maybe it is all right here, web accessible. I need to share that I was a member of parent/teacher advisory group a few years ago. I joined to help discuss reading methodology.(That proved to be a foolish pursuit.) The meetings were really about how to find ways to pass along a large percentage of regular-ed kids who had failed the FCAT reading portion. Some other friendly district had faxed them a type of list which I would call “ways around the FCAT results” The lists included ways to circumvent FCAT scores. It included using student porfolios and using “other” diagnostic forms of assessment. At this school the form became the “STAR” reading assessment program. Positive results on these were going to be submitted as a substitute for the failing scores. This was a few years ago and I am unsure whether Tallahassee allows such games to continue. It is worth nailing down the rules of the game before you play it. I hope this helps someone.

OH yes the STAR is still around.. I do not know if Florida is worse then any other state. Talk to people all over with basicly the same problems,they just possible have a different name for it. Anyway,there are groups out there trying to help change things. There is a task force formed regarding the FCAT specificly. It does take parents getting involved in it.

I think the ratio of kids to teachers is much higher here. My college friend from Nebraska who is an OT in a school district and has a kid in special education was shocked that we had one resource teacher in a school of 1500 students.

Other issues like state tests ect. are very similar.

Beth

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