New ideas for special education
Atlanta school leaders will conduct an audit of its special education programs. School leaders say the audit – which could take up to a year to complete – will help the system come up with better ways to serve special education students.
We’ve blogged about special education issues before. Students enrolled in these programs vary widely. There are those with minor learning disabilities and children who may never learn how to read or write.
Atlanta school leaders are looking to improve the graduation rate and test scores for students with disabilities. One idea floated is to mainstream more special needs children with regular education students.
Many argue that isolating special education students makes them feel inferior, causing them to do poorly in school and drop out.
Others say assigning these children to traditional classrooms puts a strain on the teacher and other students. They say teachers spend so much time working with the few special education students in the class that the other children are neglected and don’t learn as much.
How can schools improve their special education programs?
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66 comments Add your comment
Meme
May 29th, 2009
8:35 pm
The students who are at a disadvantage here are the regular ed kids.
ShoeShee
May 30th, 2009
3:33 pm
Puh-leeze. I did a little research and I’ve come to the conclusion that you teachers who complain incessantly about your inability to do your jobs due to special education students are all guilty of misplaced anger and resentment. Here are the facts – in DeKalb County Schools, out of the 99,700 students, 9,318 are identified as special needs. Of those, 20% are in special education settings full time, which leaves just 7,455 special ed students assigned to regular classroom settings at least part of the day. So – let’s see – 7455 out of 99,700 is a whopping 7.5% of the total number of kids in DeKalb classrooms. And you all relish blaming all of your classroom problems on them. How absolutely sad. Perhaps you need to examine the real reasons you are so unhappy in your current chosen profession and stop blaming one or two children for your anger.
An audit??!!
May 30th, 2009
5:57 pm
I am shocked. This is Atlanta, as in the City of Atlanta? There is not enough transparency for APS to do an audit, even of itself.
So many laws have been broken by APS regarding special education. Of course, everyone immediately thinks of the poor boy who was misdiagnosed, fell through the cracks for years, won a lawsuit against the city — and the grossest part of the story was that earlier, an APS employee (paid for by tax dollars) FELL ASLEEP in a court hearing determining the boy’s future. FELL ASLEEP! Luckily, the local news exposed it for us, or we would have never known.
I taught for APS, and the special education director at our school was the laziest person with whom I have ever worked. I worked with a lot of lazy people at APS, but this one — the one who determined the fate of special kids with special needs — was the laziest. It was like pulling teeth to get a meeting with her. Extensions upon extensions were given for meetings with no reason. I had to personally call the Grady Group (good people) and beg them to join me in pressuring the lady so that SSTs could begin. For months, I would wait for evaluations to take place — and then I would hear from a counselor that the requests hadn’t even gotten to her yet. So many times, we would refer kids in the earlier years, and they would leave our school without going through the process. They would move on to high school….problem solved, for her!
After I left, the teachers said they were horrified and sickened that a NUMBER LIMIT per class was put on them for referrals — the paperwork was simply piling up! There was a number – say, 5 – that teachers could not exceed in referring students for testing. Say you had 8 kids in your class who needed help from the Student Support Team? Forget it! You’re only allowed to make 5 (I think that was the number) of referrals! The other kids…….forget it! The parents at the school were very uneducated and ill-informed. I would have loved to have seen them get some help from Atlanta Legal Aid.
ShooShee
May 30th, 2009
6:00 pm
Puh-leeze. I did a little research and I’ve come to the conclusion that you teachers who complain incessantly about your inability to do your jobs due to special education students are all guilty of misplaced anger and resentment. Here are the facts – in DeKalb County Schools, out of the 99,700 students, 9,318 are identified as special needs. Of those, 20% are in special education settings full time, which leaves just 7,455 special ed students assigned to regular classroom settings at least part of the day. So – let’s see – 7455 out of 99,700 is a whopping 7.5% of the total number of kids in DeKalb classrooms. And you all relish blaming all of your classroom problems and the underperformance of the “disadvantaged regular ed kids” on them. How absolutely sad. Perhaps you need to examine the real reasons you are so unhappy in your current chosen profession and stop blaming one or two children for your anger.
ShooShee
May 31st, 2009
11:16 am
Some of you teachers make it sound as if you can hardly do your job due to the demands of Special Education. I did a little research and I’ve come to the conclusion that you are all guilty of misplaced anger and resentment. Here are the facts – in DeKalb County Schools, out of the 99,700 students, 9,318 are identified as special needs. Of those, 20% are in special education settings full time, which leaves just 7,455 special ed students assigned to regular classroom settings at least part of the day. So – let’s see – 7455 out of 99,700 is a whopping 7.5% of the total number of kids in DeKalb classrooms. And you all relish blaming all of your classroom problems and the underperformance of the “disadvantaged regular ed kids” on them. How absolutely sad.
ShooShee
May 31st, 2009
8:04 pm
Sorry for the multiple posts — it never looks like my comment was recognized – then they all show up at once the next day!?? Weird blog…
jim d
May 31st, 2009
9:30 pm
Shoe,
once again you have validated a point I’ve made time and again on these blogs. “5% of the student population create 95% of the problems” Thanks.
echo
May 31st, 2009
9:36 pm
ShooShee, surely someone such as yourself understands about “statistics”. Many classes (honors and AP for example) have no (or VERY few) special education students. So rework your stats to show how many are in regular ed. classes. While you are at it, go ahead and add in the kids who are undiagnosed because of the issues with getting a diagnoses. When you are finished with that then you can step into a real classroom and see how much destruction ONE student can do in a classroom when they have decided that would be a fun thing to do. While I don’t teach in Dekalb, I can assure you my college prep classes have more than 7.5% SPED students in them.
The real “fact” is that you really have no idea in hell wht you are talking about.
ShooShee
June 1st, 2009
8:28 am
Interesting twist on my point, jim. I’m saying that if a teacher literally can’t teach due to one or two students, then perhaps a new profession is in order. I’ve witnessed the students in our DCSS high schools – and believe me – it isn’t the special ed kids who are giving teachers a run for their money. But I’ll agree with you on one point, if a student is acting up, the teacher should feel supported in sending that student to the principal. That isn’t happening in DeKalb.
ShooShee
June 1st, 2009
8:30 am
Echo — why on earth are you a teacher?
echo
June 1st, 2009
5:23 pm
ShoeShee, why are Earth are you commenting on things you know nothing about?
ScienceTeacher671
June 1st, 2009
5:49 pm
How many SpEd kids does it take to disrupt a classroom? Depends upon the kid, & depends upon the disability. LD kids usually aren’t a problem. and MR kids usually aren’t a problem, but one or two BD kids can really “liven up” the room…again, depending upon the nature of the kid and the nature of the disorder.
I don’t know how they do it in other systems, but in my system, it generally ends up so that the classes with the SpEd kids have about 33% SpEd students and 67% “regular” students – and we’ve yet to figure out how they end up diagnosing the students, because many of the SpEd students seem to have fewer problems than some of the “regular” students.
AP teacher
June 2nd, 2009
9:00 pm
I had a student with a reading comprehension on a 5th grade level based on her IEP, sitting in a college prep US history class this year. Even though she has failed at least two classes every year, her parents refused to allow her to be on a career tech track. I provided differentiated instruction and modifications. I gave her different types of assignments and I retested her on every objective, sometimes three and four times. We did this during our lunch break and after school because she was embarrased that she couldn’t get it. In March she cried and told me she couldn’t understand why she just could not remember information and she was hysterical about failing the graduation test. I worried too. When she got her scores back, social studies was the only thing that was passed and she passed with a 500 which meant she got approx. 50% right. However her EOCT (which is a much harder test) scores were dismal. They reflected what her grade would have looked like if I had not spend my lunch time and after school time working with her. I dont know if I was doing the right things because I didnt have an inclusion teacher helping me and I have no training in special ed. My friends that are special ed teachers gave me some ideas. However, I still believe her score was more lucK that anything I did for her. This was one child in my day of teaching 145 students. I was overwhelmed with that one student. God help regular ed teachers that have 10 or 12 special needs children and that does happen in classes across this state. ShooShee is concerned with teachers being angry and ugly about special needs students. Tht anger comes from frustration and most of that anger is directed at parents that are totally unrealistic and unreasonable. The child was so desperate that I gave up my time to help this child and I did not get paid anything extra. I didnt do it for pay but a simple thank you from the parents of the child would have been nice. Instead they said that the reason she did not pass her other GHSGT’s was because her teachers werent doing their job and it was my fault that she did not pass her EOCT.
mom who's fed up
June 3rd, 2009
3:36 am
Here’s my experience…. My oldest child is just finishing Kindergarten this week. He started the year with 20 kids in his class. One child supposedly had Asperger’s. Her main problem is extreme behavioral issues (certainly not the typical shy, avoids social situations Asperger’s most are accustomed to). To give you all a mental picture this girl was the largest in the class, over 60lbs, while my son is just over 40 lbs (most kids were between 40-50lbs in his class). She pushed, hit, kicked, and screamed at other students, the teacher, and classroom helpers. She also used other “weapons” such as pencils and even brandished scissors but was fortunately caught before inflicting harm with the latter. This one child, 5% of the class population, caused so much disruption! My son’s teacher is INCREDIBLE, it was not her inexperience or being ill equipped/trained that caused the behavior to continue!!!! She had to put up with this child’s behavior/abuse. The mother (psychotic, attention seeking, trouble maker IMO) caused much of her child’s behavior by never providing any real consequence for her daughter’s actions. The child was only ever redirected, a technique one should use with a toddler, not a 5/6 year old. She threatened the school, whined to the board and the district and threw fits so she could have her way, whatever her way was for the week (the woman would get what she supposedly wanted and then would decide she didn’t want it that way and would insist on something else). One example of this child’s behavior: My son and two friends were playing in a tire on the playground (it was just big enough for the 3). One of his friends ran to grab something and this girl tried to shove her way into the tire. My son politely (according to the adult present) told her that his other friend was coming back and this girl became enraged, drug my son out of the tire, sat on him and proceeded to pummel him with her fists repeatedly. The adult present tried to get this girl off of my son and could not. She ran into their classroom and this girl’s mom happened to be there to “help” that afternoon. The mom drug her child off my son and redirected her elsewhere to play. The adult present tried to talk to my son and make sure he was ok. My son’s teacher was not informed of the incident until the following day by email from the adult present (Saturday) and we were not informed of the extent of this incident until Monday. I was robbed of being able to let my child talk through his feelings the day it happened. My husband and I spoke with the principal on Tuesday (mind you, this was the 2nd incident of our son being injured by this girl, the first was her shoving him from behind into the corner of a brick wall in lunch line because the person behind her bumped into her; he was shoved so hard he had a 2 inch gash on his back that took almost a month to heal). We were informed that were the girl a “normal” student without an IEP that she would have been suspended for such behavior and expelled by this point for her many transgressions. BUT because she was IEP she would not be suspended and had more rights, including privacy rights than a “normal” student. My son and his classmates did not have the right to be safe and learn in a safe, relatively carefree environment.
Now, I know this is my first experience as a parent with a child in school but for those of you bashing what the teachers are saying on this blog I don’t think you have a clue. ONE child CAN COMPLETELY disrupt a classroom and make every other person in it miserable and not get the attention they DESERVE!!! This girl is highly intelligent, has incredible academic prowess yet received SO MUCH of the attention. Why is that fair? How is that fair? I am absolutely disgusted by our first experience with school these days! This kind of behavior would have not been accepted for good reason 14 years ago when I graduated from high school! Why is it so readily accepted now? Why is it this minority gets their way, any way they want it, because school administration is so afraid of being sued? When will the majority with “normal” kids stand up and say we are not going to take this any longer? Why does being “normal” seem like such a handicap anymore? Heaven help you be a hard working middle class family with “normal” kids anymore!
We are currently stationed in CA where my husband is working on his Master’s but will be stationed this fall in GA, which is how I stumbled on this blog. I am glad I found it. We have recently decided to try homeschooling this coming school year and I feel after reading how GA has the exact same problems we have dealt with this school year even more confirmation for my feelings and thoughts on the matter.
Thank you to all you teachers who do the best you can given the circumstances you face in your classroom. I applaud you! To end, this girl was moved to first grade the beginning of April and my son (and myself) have been able to enjoy a rather blissful last 2 months of school, the way it should have been from the beginning. How sad that 19 other little 5/6 year old had to endure such a sad and hostile situation the majority of their first year of school. But at least “this girl” and her mommy got what they wanted…..
lm4k
June 4th, 2009
1:44 am
Mom who’s fed up:
As a parent of a gifted child with Asperger’s syndrome, I feel your pain. In your situation, everyone was a loser. The mother was obviously clueless as to how to handle AN EXTEREMELY DIFFIUCULT SITUATION, and decided that since government school claimed to have the “experts”, she would leave the training of her child in their hands…BIG MISTAKE! Part of the Asperger child’s weakness is sensory overload. A government school is the absolute worst place for them to be! The child’s perceived violence, is a reaction to this. When young, they need constant therapy and discipline to help them to control their inappropriate reactions. If they are gifted, as most are, they also need a constant academic outlet for their abilities or they become even more frustrated. Often, they have dietary and motor skills issues as well. The stress of parenting such a child can be off the charts, while the average Joe has no understanding. I chose to work with my child myself, and he was able to attend an academically challenging private school through fourth grade. He was at the top of his class and was very well behaved. HOWEVER, the minute he got in the car to go home, he would have a “meltdown”. The stress of the day would build up until he was in a safe place to “let it out”. The worst was in fourth grade. The kids thought he was different, so he was totally ignored. After that year, I began home schooling all my kids, and we haven’t looked back. My son is flourishing both academically and socially. He even has several friends who admire his computer programming prowess. He is so smart and is a wonderful help to me. The meltdown’s have all but disappeared, and he is learning to positively manage his emotions.
It was unfortunate that your child had to bear the brunt of this child’s lack of management/therapy. The teacher was obviously ill prepared, and never should have had this child in a regular class without an aid. However, the root of the problem is that the government (with the consent of the governed) has created a compulsory schooling law that requires all taxpayers to support a “free public education”. The truth is, THERE IS NOT ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY FOR THE PROPER THERAPY AND EDUCATION OF A CHILD LIKE THIS in a typical government school. It requires an incredible amount of one-on-one instruction, which is why I think that home school is the only solution. Yet, the parents of these children are forced to pay school taxes to a school system that CANNOT MEET THEIR NEEDS! We are twice penalized. These inappropriately placed children then gain a bad reputation and ill will because the other children are not adequately protected and the disruptions do keep others from learning. I say, repeal the compulsory school law, DROP ALL SCHOOL RELATED TAXES, and let parents find the most appropriate setting for their child, AND PAY FOR IT THEMSELVES! This is the only fair way to do it.
Angel
June 9th, 2009
2:43 pm
I stumbled across this sight while looking for something else. Im disghsuted with most of you people. I have always been a person that stood up for education, and ecspecially teachers. But after reading the blogs written by teachers, it has changed my mind. All these teachers losing there jobs .. Its a good thing! You all need to be replaced by a “Real Teacher”. The ones writting blogs on here, are the ones everyone wants to retire, or be layed off!
Whooo Hooooo …. Lay these idiots off