Since I am only familiar with one school, I’m wondering if most schools support their LD children in the same manner.
My son has a severe articulation disorder where he unfortunately could not speak to be understood by most people until mid first grade. He was behind in all areas of Language Arts so IQ test were administered to establish if he qualified for services other than speech. His performance IQ tested at 130, Verbal 85, Full Scale 105. Since there is a discrepancy, he qualified. Even though he was still behind at the end of first grade, about 6-9 months reading, his first grade teacher noted much improvement after his speech improved. She could understand him at year end.
My son was placed in Direct Services for 2nd grade. This meant his entire LA curriculum was supposed to be covered in the Resource room. My son spent the entire morning there. Unfortunately, his LD teacher was only there part-time M,W & F. On T/TH a paraprofessional taught the class. The teachers were never in the room together. I believe there were 15-18 children in and out all morning ranging in age from K-5th.
I also was under the impression a “researched based” reading program would be used. Unfortunately this was not the case. She basically had him use a first grade reader, and brought the curriculum down to his level.
By the end of the year, many 2nd grade standards were not even introduced.
As a Mom, I can’t see how one teacher should be responsible for the LA curriculum of K-5, and how he/she could teach all grade levels at the same time. How Wilson or OG could be used with only one teacher in the room? Furthermore, I don’t think First Graders should be spending the entire morning with 5th graders.
Do most schools have only one LD teacher for all the elementary children regardless of their IQ results or ages? I realize there are some children with lower than average IQ’s who struggle in a regular classroom especially if the school strives to work above standards. Maybe they need a reduced pace? But what do you do with the kids who have the capacity to work at grade level, or above, but need specialized programs to “reduce the gap”? Can you do this with one teacher?
Re: Staffing Resource Room
There are specific laws in some states and districts about who can be in what class and it would be good to find out if your state/district has them. However, usually the admins know the laws.
I taught in a district where we couldn’t mix categories - LD had to be with LD, and they fudged a bit with mixing ED, but never mixed MR and LD. However, I had 8 students - 3 “resource” to help with their regular classes, 2 eighth grade history students (with different individual needs of course) 2 math students and 1 English student. Yea, right. When I asked what we could do to meet the students’ needs, I was told “Nothing. It’s legal.” Even just trying to juggle schedules wasn’t going to be considered, because they didn’t have to. (Shoudl have taken the clue in that first in-service, when they told us “the reason we have special ed is that it is required by law.” Unfortunately I sort of thought they were thinking of the law that we provide an appropriate education.)
So, if the district class size/category stuff isn’t being violated, then the only way to get things to change is to go back to the IEP and whether the goals in the IEP are being met. Once the IEP team has met and said “this student needs intensive, individualized work on these specific reading skills” - and you can’t do that at the same time you’re providing student B’s goals, you’ve got a legal leg to stand on (which doesn’t necessarily translate into *anything* useful.)
In our school I am the only special ed. teacher. I see anywhere from 20-30 K-5 students a day. If a child needs ELA support I pull them out for 40 minutes everyday and provide instruction in a small group at the level necessary. I use Wilson and some other comprehension programs. My groups are from 2-8 students and no more than two grades at a time. There is a law that states you can not have more than a three year gap between students, but it is easy to get a varience. My program does work, but as my numbers go up I often feel like some students are getting short changed because I am split in so many different ways. The most each child can be in my class is 80 minutes a day. That way he still participates in the reg. ed curriculum. It can be 40 min. of ELA, 40 min of Math or 40 min of resource room time.