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?
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
66 comments Add your comment
jim d
May 27th, 2009
8:53 am
” makes them feel inferior”??
OMG, let’s not do anything to hurt their little feelings–let’s just lower standards and reduce providing for kids that are there to learn instead!
Now there’s a plan that’s sure to work—-NOT!!
dbow
May 27th, 2009
9:07 am
This is a very thorny issue. I’ve been on both sides of it so I know. Whenever I hear talk about a kids feelings and/or self esteem, I start to cringe. As a teacher I am not responsible for a students self esteem. As I tell them, self esteem comes from setting goals and working hard to achieve them. It’s the work that creates high self esteem, not me patting you on the back and saying good boy or girl. As for special needs kids, they are a drain on the class and the teacher, but I say that with caution. Not every special needs kid needs more help than a “regular” kid. The ones that do, need a special program apart from the mainstream. Parents want their kid to feel good about themselves and don’t care about the teacher or the rest of the kids. These parents are doing everyone a disservice. The spineless admin that allow it just to shut the parents up are equaly to blame. This issue isn’t going to go away any time soon. The pendulum has swung way over to the parents side with the creation of IDEA and schools are being held hostage as a result.
Ernest
May 27th, 2009
9:11 am
Since we just blogged on this, I decided to post a portion of my comment from that day:
The ’spin’ is that ‘mainstreaming’ and ‘collaborative instruction’ is going to benefit all students however I have not heard from one teacher that speaks favorably about that.
I’ve heard that centers actually provide the best environment for those with profound needs. For those classified as LD or BD, I would defer to the recommendation of the IEP team regarding how to provide the best learning environment for the child.
This generally comes back as a funding issue which is being scrutinized heavily these days. I did not realize school systems provided services to children as young as 3. My neighbor is a speech pathologist and indicated she visits day care centers to provide services. One could rationalize that this early investment of our tax dollars makes sense to possibly curtail instructional problems down the road.
Kim
May 27th, 2009
9:19 am
I agree, jim d. Hey! I rhymed! We don’t need anymore strain on the teachers and kids already in the classroom. When I was in the classroom I spent the majority of my time dealing with sped kids. Yes, they were out of the classroom sometimes, and I did co-teach with a sped teacher for part of the day (1 hour), but the majority of the time it was only me. It was extremely difficult. It finally was easier to take early retirement than to try to stay any longer.
mystery poster
May 27th, 2009
9:23 am
I would think it would make them feel even more inferior to be with a bunch of students they couldn’t possibly keep up with.
Gwinnett Parent
May 27th, 2009
9:37 am
How about this for starters – reduce subgroup size state rule for NCLB so kids in elementary and middle schools with disabilities actually are counted, diagnose children with learning or behavior concerns early with competent independent professionals who are not tied at the hip to the school system. Err on the side of parents as to placement, and then use real and meaningful data to evaluate progress, often, more so than once a year. Get serious about allowing kids to reach their full potential unencumbered by low expectations that many schools set for the kids. Hire teachers who have demonstrated commitment to kids with disabilities. Stop thinking that ADD and ADHD are just cop out diagnoses. Stop using RTI as a method to avoid diagnosis for middle and high school students. Have smaller classes all around – and give teachers a huge amount of training and support. There has to be cost effectiveness with training teachers and supporting them; lower teacher turnover, lower student disciplinary rates, higher student achievement and a more competent staff overall.
Dr. Craig Spinks /Evans
May 27th, 2009
9:42 am
Another internal audit? Let’s hope not. How about Atlanta public school officials’ going outside our state for experienced, highly competent, and disinterested evaluators to run a SpEd audit in their school system? But why stop with the ATL public school system? There are 179 other Peach State public school SpEd programs which could use impartial audits by folks who are NOT good ole boys and girls.
jim d
May 27th, 2009
9:45 am
Rep. Trent Franks, quoted in World Magazine (Apr. 9, p. 48):
“The American educational system is one of the last experiments in socialism left on earth and, on its present course, it will take its place in the succession of socialist wreckages that litter the highway of human history.”
——————————————————————
But ya know what? That can only happen after total and complete failure. Keep going folks–you have it headed in the right direction.
HS Teacher, Too
May 27th, 2009
9:56 am
jimd, you make me laugh. I don’t disagree with you, mind you — but your 9:45 comment put a smile on my face. So, thanks for that!
jim d
May 27th, 2009
10:12 am
John Dewey, known as “the father of modern education,” was an avowed socialist and the co-author of the “Humanist Manifesto.” The U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities discovered that he belonged to 15 Marxist front organizations. Dewey taught the professors who trained America’s teachers. Obsessed with “the group,” he said, “You can’t make socialists out of individualists. Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society, which is coming, where everyone is interdependent.”
dbow
May 27th, 2009
10:38 am
Mystery poster, you’re 100% correct. One of my closest friends has a special needs child, and he echoed those exact words. His daughter has the abilities of a second grader and she’s now in high school. The school put her in a regular class and she was aware enough to know she wasn’t supposed to be there. She felt terrible and she knew she didn’t belong. My friend found out and raised holey hell. She’s in a life skills clall and coudn’t be happier. When school administrators finally grow a pair and stand up to these misguided parents, maybe it’ll get better.
FultonTeacher
May 27th, 2009
10:57 am
Gwinnett Parent well said!
Evil Old English Teacher
May 27th, 2009
11:44 am
dbow–I’m surprised the SCHOOL misplaced the child w/out the parent’s knowledge. My experience has been just the opposite. That is, parents demanding little Cindy Loo be put into a regular classroom and just not be held accountable for any of the work. If I try to impose my silly educational ethics into the matter, they bring out the lawyers and accommodations and IEPs (oh my!) Sadly, all of the time I spend individualizing Cindy Loo’s educational plan, is time I’m not devoting to Sally Loo who is on level. Don’t even ASK how little is devoted to helping gifted kids in a regular classroom. Sad…
TW
May 27th, 2009
12:55 pm
I am so thankful I don’t live in an area where the public schools are as horrific as the ones mentioned on this blog! My kids public schools were great! And what about all the highly successful individuals out there who also attended public schools? I’m not doubting that the public schools in your neck of the woods are terrible. But maybe instead of whining on a blog, you ought to get a decent job so you can move to an area where the public education is much better? Maybe your sore about your inability to make a decent living and have decided to take it out on public schools? Or, maybe you got picked on when you were in school?
Don’t know – don’t care. I just know that there are great public schools out there. That’s a fact!
VOICE
May 27th, 2009
12:59 pm
Jim d, You’re tearing it up again! Now, back to my vacation. AHHHH!:)
Atlanta Journal Constitution » Blog Archive » New ideas for special education
May 27th, 2009
1:08 pm
[...] Get Schooled | ajc.com – [...]
rj
May 27th, 2009
1:20 pm
“Maybe your sore about your inablity to make a decent living and have decided to take it out on public schools?” Actually the first YOUR should’ve been you’re as in you are!
V for Vendetta
May 27th, 2009
1:36 pm
I’m sorry, Laura. I thought you said mainstream MORE SpEd students. Haha!
What? Oh, you DID say that? S#$t!
Feelings, feelings, feelings . . . who gives a flying fornication about feelings!? Does your boss care about your feelings or about the results you produce? Do other children–often the most ruthless people with which your child comes in contact–give a rat’s posterior about his or her feelings? Do colleges care about his or her feelings? This isn’t rocket science. Watch, I’ll solve the whole issue right now:
SpEd students who are capable of doing the work and acting in an appropriate manner within the context of a mainstream classroom may be placed there–e.g., many students with Asperger’s. The rest should be placed in a separate classroom focused on their particular needs–e.g., EBD (parents didn’t spank enough), ADHD (parents didn’t spank enough), Remedial Reading (parents didn’t read to them), or low-functioning Autistic (why are they in regular school to begin with?).
Erin
May 27th, 2009
1:52 pm
Mystery poster and dbow have it right … how can it possibly be helping the “self esteem” of special education students to know they’re nowhere near the same level of knowledge and ability as other students in the same class?
jim d
May 27th, 2009
2:28 pm
TW,
just because your kids got a great education is no indicator of what happened to others in the same system.
Wake up and smell the coffee–more oft than not some students get an education in spite of the system!!
ShoeShee
May 27th, 2009
2:38 pm
As a parent of a child with learning disabilities, as I read the crass and mean-spirited comments above, I am heartened that after several years attempting to use our local, highly-regarded public school, I chose to send my child to private school. We found a wonderful private school that specializes in LD (there are quite a few in the metro area) and finally – she blossomed. The public school teachers at the school she had attended through 3rd grade had no training in the brain-based teaching techniques or the Orton–Gillingham, Lindamood Bell or Fast ForWord reading methods along with several other very progressive teaching methods employed at all of the private specialty schools I interviewed. Public schools are not teaching children with special education correctly at all – they pretty much just babysit. I once witnessed the “interrelated” teacher allowing a child with autism to stretch out between a file cabinet and the wall and proceed to bang his head on the cabinet for several minutes. My child’s former “interrelated” teacher had a masters degree in special education from UGA and I learned more at the private schools about LD than that public school teacher ever knew. I attended several enlightening seminars on learning disabilities hosted by the dyslexia society or LDA or the National Assn’ for LD, which would feature university research scientists and new teaching techniques. And when they would take polls, out of the thousand plus parents and professionals in attendance, I probably saw less than 5 public school teachers total – ever. I have even offered to pay for their ticket to the conferences, which they have all declined.
My point is – we are comparing apples and kiwis! Public schools need to find out what private schools that specialize in LD, ADHD, CP, Autism, etc are doing and then try to replicate it. The difference right now is literally the difference between success (private) and failure (public).
For research and information you can count on, check out this group –
http://www.ncld.org/
ShoeShee
May 27th, 2009
2:39 pm
As a parent of a child with learning disabilities, as I read the crass and mean-spirited comments above, I am heartened that after several years attempting to use our local, highly-regarded public school, I chose to send my child to private school. We found a wonderful private school that specializes in LD (there are quite a few in the metro area) and finally – she blossomed. The public school teachers at the school she had attended through 3rd grade had no training in the brain-based teaching techniques or the Orton–Gillingham, Lindamood Bell or Fast ForWord reading methods along with several other very progressive teaching methods employed at all of the private specialty schools I interviewed. Public schools are not teaching children with special education correctly at all – they pretty much just babysit. I once witnessed the “interrelated” teacher allowing a child with autism to stretch out between a file cabinet and the wall and proceed to bang his head on the cabinet for several minutes. My child’s former “interrelated” teacher had a masters degree in special education from UGA and I learned more at the private schools about LD than that public school teacher ever knew. I attended several enlightening seminars on learning disabilities hosted by the dyslexia society or LDA or the National Assn’ for LD, which would feature university research scientists and new teaching techniques. And when they would take polls, out of the thousand plus parents and professionals in attendance, I probably saw less than 5 public school teachers total – ever. I have even offered to pay for their ticket to the conferences, which they have all declined.
My point is – we are comparing apples and kiwis! Public schools need to find out what private schools that specialize in LD, ADHD, CP, Autism, etc are doing and then try to replicate it. The difference right now is literally the difference between success (private) and failure (public).
Reality Check
May 27th, 2009
3:24 pm
“Public schools need to find out what private schools that specialize in LD, ADHD, CP, Autism, etc are doing and then try to replicate it. The difference right now is literally the difference between success (private) and failure (public).”
ShoeShee is a GENIUS and probably doesn’t even realize it! Forget the replication…take it one step further; revise the popular push for vouchers for regular education (all) students and pay for all of our special education students to go to the aforementioned wonderful private schools. I would show up at 5:00 AM to vote in favor of that! Then the continual disruptions that take place in the classroom due to the IDEA “great” idea would certainly be significantly diminished AND special education students could THRIVE in their new surroundings!
Yes, I am a public school teacher!!
V for Vendetta
May 27th, 2009
3:28 pm
ShoeShee,
It would be interesting to know some specifics: what type of LD are we talking about, why is your local public school so highly regarded yet unable to meet your needs, and does the private school whose virtues you extol mainstream students or teach them in a separate environment. You see, public school is required to be all things to all people, which is precisely why it fails. It’s not shocking to me that teachers turned down your invitations. The amount of inane garbage on our plates at any given time precludes us from partaking in many activities that would be far more beneficial. However, without knowing any specifics, it’s hard to comment on your particular case.
jim d
May 27th, 2009
3:34 pm
Shoe,
I understand your dilema but on the other hand it occurs to me that placing students with special needs into general education classes demonstrates reverse discrimination for general education students.
do you believe it could ever satisfy a cost-benefit test for one person to die a terrible and tortured death in order to alleviate the headaches of billions of others by one second?
To me the answer, is yes.
The clearest reason I think that we should trade a terrible and tortured death of one in order to alleviate the headaches of billions is that we do this everyday. Coal miners, for example, risk their lives to heat our homes and to generate the electricity that drives this blog. We know that some of them will die horrible deaths but few of us think that we are morally required to give up electricity.
I personally apply the same tenet to education. If you find that crass and mean-spirtited—so be it.
TeacherTeacher
May 27th, 2009
3:54 pm
To ShoeShee’s point – isn’t that the point of these private schools that cater to students with learning disabilities? They can spend the time because they have more time and resources to specialize? It’s not that public schools can’t do some form of special education instruction, it’s that there is a mixed bag in any given class of abilities, ranges, etc.
I would LOVE to be able to specialize, but we have this crazy thing called differentiated instruction so that we teachers can try to teach all levels in one class. That’s what public school is about. Public school also is mandated by “FAPE” – Free, Appropriate, Public, Education. You can’t tell them they have to serve everyone and then criticize them for not being able to specialize.
ShoeShee
May 27th, 2009
4:12 pm
You are correct, TeacherTeacher. I personally, don’t think that simply placing special education students in a regular education class is the answer. And yes, there are many vocal parents who are pushing that agenda. For my child, it did work in classes that were relatively small (20 or so) in public school and then there was a QUALIFIED interrelated teacher in the class, who would offer clarification later in the day in a small group environment. Also, there are small classes (8-10) available in our local high schools – staffed with teachers who are qualified to teach special education as well as their subject material. It’s expensive – but it works pretty well in high school. The big deal there is – students better have darn well learned the basics in elementary school in order to keep up. I am saying that they are not getting what they need in the early years which is intense, direct reading instruction. Reading and comprehension is key in middle and high school.
ShoeShee
May 27th, 2009
4:22 pm
Actually, the private schools don’t have more resources – the public schools do. However, the private schools utilize far different teaching techniques and styles. Also, the fact that they are all together, helps, IMO. I guess you could call it a self-esteem issue. At least they don’t feel heckled and stared at when they ask an off the wall question – and their questions get answered – which results in learning. I would advocate for replicating small learning environments (classes) within a regular school where crossover occurs in classes like art, music, PE, library media, etc. Heck – wouldn’t that be best for everyone? Sort of like the old SRA — that certainly worked back in the day. You should be educated at your speed with like-minded learners, IMO. I’m sure there are those who would call that politically incorrect or discriminatory – but I would almost guarantee it would be more effective – at least for my kids (one with LD, one gifted).
ShoeShee
May 27th, 2009
4:25 pm
I understand and appreciate your dilemma TeacherTeacher, but I’m not talking about what “is” – I’m talking about my opinion of what I’ve seen work – at least for my child. I basically agree with you – you can’t teach everyone the same thing in a different way at a different speed at the same time.
catlady
May 27th, 2009
4:51 pm
ALL kids should be eligible for a Free and Appropriate Education, not just sped kids. And frequently the needs of the two are not the same. There ARe some sped kids who can be a part of a regular class and no one is hurt. However, with the application of RTI only the most terribly severely handicapped kids get sped assistance. The rest, with real learning or behavior problems are dumped, undiagnosed, on the general classroom and its “regular” kids with a large array of problems/deficits.
To compound the problem, sped aids are given only to the most severely handicapped, for limited amounts of time. So the teachers and fellow students face the problems brought by the sped kids without any real assistance.
Regular ed kids’ education is being sacrificed to save money, to make folks feel good, and to be pc. NONE of those are reasons to allow it to continue. 10% is not worth sacrificing the other 90%.
I notice that, in my county at least, the only students pulled out for special instruction are the GIFTED. To h3ll with the rest.
tracy
May 27th, 2009
4:52 pm
i work in the school system and i see it every year special needs parents demanding that their child be placed in regular class and principle to afraid to speak up a child who wears a diaper in 3rd grade and teacher have to make sure the child stays dry all at the same time getting 3rd graders ready for crct so they can move on to 4th grade and not have to go to summer school
tracy
May 27th, 2009
5:17 pm
i have another example of why it is not a good idea an ebd student put into regular class he chokes another student until that child blacks out the ebd student mother says he has rights what about the rights of the regular students who have to sit through his tantrums and have the learning time taken away so the teacher can deal with him and make sure he meet his iep goals and guess who got blamed for the choking incident the teacher for not reacting faster give me a break i got tons of stories
be realistic
May 27th, 2009
5:44 pm
Special needs can differ. Some high functioning students may benefit from mainstreaming, but lets face it: for some students, success is not going college, success is living independently and perhaps holding down a job ( there was a great article in the AJC a few weeks ago on how Public and other companies employed special needs individuals in positions such as grocery baggers after they completed a job training program). For students who realistically will not succeed in a college prep program due to their special needs, why are we forcing them to sit in a chemistry class? It makes more sense to focus on life skills – I’ve worked with an individual who had great pride in their success at moving from bagger to cashier at Wal Mart! This took just as much effort for this person as others may find in moving from analyst to a supervisor position. There is no shame in that, and if the schools would help special needs students succeed at a job that lets them strive to maximize their ability, it seems like everyone benefits.
W Copeland
May 27th, 2009
6:12 pm
I have written my comments several times and erased them. My only comment is that everyone be aware that the term special education is very broad. You can be talking about a kid with an IQ over 100 or a kid of the same age with the IQ of a three-month old.
Be specific when you talk about special ed kids.
W Copeland
May 27th, 2009
6:14 pm
be realistic…..your comments are exactly right! The state of Georgia also needs to quit counting a student who GRADUATES with a special education diploma as a DROP OUT!
flipper
May 27th, 2009
6:43 pm
Can we get some vouchers around here for regular ed and gifted kids so that schools will finally be forced to teach the kids who will actually grow up and create jobs? If we had universal vouchers we wouldn’t have to deal with this garbage.
Lee
May 27th, 2009
7:36 pm
Well, you can forget about any meaningful reforms or revocation (better yet) of the hideous Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). All the SPED proponents have to do is wheel a disabled kid in front of a Congressional panel and they will get whatever they want. No politician in his right mind would risk the adverse publicity of voting against that constituency.
You want to improve public schools? Group by ability and deal with the troublemakers.
It’s really that simple.
… and that’s precisely why it will never happen in today’s hyper-sensitive, politically correct public schools.
Lee
May 27th, 2009
7:44 pm
Oh yeah, yesterday we blogged about the explosion in the number of Catholic schools. Today we blog about mainstreaming even more SPED students in public schools.
Coincidence?
Slight of hand
May 27th, 2009
8:24 pm
The AJC wants to pretend it’s interested special eduaction at APS all the while ignoring the story that has been featured multiple times on 11 Alive News about the lawsuit against APS in regard to a special ed student?
Yet another example of the slanted agenda at the AJC, and why people are flocking to other sources for their news coverage.
ZachsMom
May 27th, 2009
8:30 pm
Just because a child has ADHD does not mean that they were not spanked enough. All children learn differently and public school has a problem when your child can’t sit still in a desk all day and do paper work and then they label them a trouble maker.
dbow
May 27th, 2009
9:00 pm
No offense to the parents on this blog, and if you are insulted, too bad, but unless you are in the classroom you have no idea what it’s like. I know you want the best for your child, but what you perceive as the best and what the reality is are two different things. You may think that your child’s disability is a reflection on you or your parenting skills, I don’t know, but forcing them into a regular class when they are clearly unable to keep up is cruel to everyone involved. Taking advantage of the spineless administrators is not going to help anyone. Public schools have to take all comers regardless of any mitigating factors, so to extol the virtues of private schools when they are in the position to refuse students entry is a dishonest comparison.
irisheyes
May 27th, 2009
9:09 pm
Gwinnett Parent, please don’t blame RTI on the teachers. It comes to us from “on high”. I know for a fact because I had a student who I KNEW was LD after only three weeks in my class, but I had to go through the 16 – 20 week RTI process before I could even get him tested. That took a month, then another month for our SPED teacher to actually write a decent IEP (one I had to correct since she had written really bad goals) before he could start getting specialized help. Trust me, if it had been up to me, he would have been receiving help by October.
BTW, my son has ADHD, and it’s certainly not because he hasn’t been spanked enough. I just administered yet another spanking because he refused to go to bed. I gotta get that child his own room!
ScienceTeacher671
May 27th, 2009
10:58 pm
Who in the state decided that misusing RTI for older students was a good idea? Whoever it was obviously never read any of the actual research on RTI.
V for Vendetta
May 27th, 2009
11:32 pm
ZachsMom and irisheyes,
Maybe you’re just not spanking right.
See, when my dad spanked me, I tended to stop whatever it was that I was doing. Oh, and having to sit still for extended periods of time is not an excuse for acting out or disrupting a class. If anything, it’s evidence of YOU coming up with excuses for your kid and enabling him or her to act like a 5hithead in class. The days of old school discipline are long gone, aren’t they?
Mom3Thugs
May 28th, 2009
2:28 am
I live in DeKalb County. That Crawford Lewis is on the run now. That MACE teachers union is kicking his _ss!
jim d
May 28th, 2009
6:50 am
W,
Correct you are.
Mainstreaming became a “bad thing” when it started being applied to EVERY child with needs regardless of their need. That being said–mainstreaming has been a complete failure for many of those students as well as having an adverse effect on every other student in the class.
ShoeShee
May 28th, 2009
10:29 am
Do you hear yourselves? I’m frightened that some of you who claim to be teachers are so outwardly hostile in your remarks about children! I would encourage you all to look for new jobs – asap.
“OMG, let’s not do anything to hurt their little feelings…”
“parents demanding little Cindy Loo be put into a regular classroom and just not be held accountable for any of the work.”
“The amount of inane garbage on our plates at any given time precludes us from partaking in many activities that would be far more beneficial.”
“All the SPED proponents have to do is wheel a disabled kid in front of a Congressional panel and they will get whatever they want.”
“If we had universal vouchers we wouldn’t have to deal with this garbage.”
“No offense to the parents on this blog, and if you are insulted, too bad, …”
irisheyes
May 28th, 2009
11:05 am
Actually, V, my son has NO behavior problems in school because of the structure. It’s only at home where he struggles, and often in the morning before he’s had his meds or in the evening when they’ve worn off. I have no idea about anyone else’s kid, but please don’t group mine with everyone else. Plus, he’s got two brothers (one older and one younger) who don’t have any of the same problems he does, so it can’t just be discipline since they’re all disciplined similarly. (Well, not the 18 month old so much.
)
yoco
May 28th, 2009
12:45 pm
jim d:
I’m usually a lurker and usually don’t agree with anything you post; however, I must concede that your comment “Mainstreaming became a “bad thing” when it started being applied to EVERY child with needs regardless of their need,” is reasonable. However, the problem lies with a child that would benefit from mainstreaming but has special needs issues as well.. My son has been diagnosed alternatively with PDD-NOS, High -Functioning Autism, and now Asperger’s. He is mainstreamed and receives assistance via special ed resources. My son has performed well in 2nd grade, earning “A” and “B’s” and he passed the dreaded CRCT. His “regular ed” teacher has been the best, and was willing to do all she could to ensure that my son had a successful 2nd grade year. My son also thrives in structure, something that is provided in the regular ed setting. I found the “special ed” resource class to be too unstructured and disruptive for my son to fully thrive, so I opted to have an aid in the regular ed class or have the aid pull my son out for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon for one on one instruction as needed. The one saving grace is that my son has never displayed behavioral (i.e. meltdowns) at school and is a stickler for rules. That said each child is different and special ed is not one size fits all.
ScienceTeacher671
May 28th, 2009
5:24 pm
“Special needs children” have, well, special needs. Some need more assistance than others do. If the child’s needs can be met in the regular classroom, without detracting from the needs of the other children, that’s well and good, but sometimes the child’s needs are better met in a smaller setting where s/he can receive more personal attention or has fewer distractions.
It needs to be about how the child’s needs can best be met, and not about some politically correct idea of all children being in the same room all the time.
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