How does Georgia treat special education students?

Because of the current push toward inclusive education, coupled with the fact that under NCLB many very good SpEd teachers aren’t considered “highly qualified” anymore, a number of students with IEPs who would be better served in smaller classrooms with fewer distractions and more personalized attention are being forced into overcrowded regular classrooms with teachers who don’t have the time or training to give those students the assistance they need. As a result, the students with disabilities are left behind, and if they act out, the other students aren’t well-served either.

As an aside, with the state supposedly in dire financial straits, GPB reports this morning that Sonny Perdue is off on a junket to Canada at taxpayer expense. There’s also this article from a Savannah paper that was posted in another blog: http://savannahnow.com/node/758019

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There’s also the question of students who should have IEPs but don’t, because the state is misapplying the research on RTI, and using it to delay testing students.

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So what, now we’re saying that GA mistreats its special education students? The AJC is something else. They hear about ONE SPED student who commits suicide and now the whole system must be defective, evil, and cruel. Guess what? Wrong!!!!

There is a definite need for these special psychoed centers. The students at these facilities CANNOT be in a regular school, much less a regular classroom. They would cause CONSTANT DISRUPTION, MAYHEM, AND ARE A DANGER TO OTHER STUDENTS AND TEACHERS. That’s why they were sent there in the first place. These students were already in SPED, were served in the “regular, mainstream” classroom, couldn’t make it there. Then they were placed in self-contained EBD classes. Raised too much havoc there. Finally, for the good of all, they were placed in the alternative school.

As my name states, I have seen it all. Long, long ago, I used to work at a psychoed center. Drove a school bus there. I know what the students are like there and why they are there. These kinds of students are VERY FEW and FAR BETWEEN. In fact of the 1,000,000 students in GA, only about 5,000 are in these centers. The boy was obviously disturbed. He committed suicide over nothing.

But here is the more insidious question- why is the AJC doing a story on this? Why is the AJC interested in the suicide of a boy that we all know is considered one of the “throwaway” people? The question now becomes why would you be interested in a story about an obviously emotional disturbed boy?

You see, the story gave the impression that, somehow our educational system is cruel, barbaric, and mistreats its students. Far from the case. The techniques used by the transitional centers are often the only way to safely deal with violent and out of control students. These are extremely violent students at these facilities. Otherwise they would have been in their “home” schools. This is another case of the AJC attempting to smear and destroy public education. They are simply playing on people’s emotions and not telling them the whole story. You know what this is called? PROPAGANDA.

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Okay, I’m learning that patience pays and miracles do happen. . . even in the ajc.

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I think the story focused on the fact that solitary confinement is being used on a regular basis for students at this facility, along with questionable restraint techniques (something a bus driver would not be aware of). The point is, some schools in the state are antiquated in their administration and that formal, written guidelines need to be created which evidently, Georgia does not have.

As for Seen It All’s perspective that the teacher’s essay was funny, all I can say is that there are those who will read that and understand the deep issues that need to be addressed and work to start from where the students really are to make things better and then there are those who will cruelly mock the students themselves in order to alleviate their own guilt for only helping themselves and allowing generations of poor, urban or poor rural youth to be essentially “left behind”.

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The SPED students at my school get more focus, attention, modifications, etc. than the other students because they form a subgroup that could affect AYP. I wish the gifted students were given the same attention…

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The article reminds me of ” yellow” journalism. Unfortunately, this form of inflammatory and misleading print is now the accepted norm. Ask yourself if you would approve of that type of assaultive, belligerent, dangerous, unstable student being in the same classroom with your motivated and well behaved child. Traditionally, the kind of behavior that the child exhibited results in jail if the behavior is not corrected by adulthood. A SPED student’s right to an education does not and should not be at the expense of other students.

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I didn’t get from the article that anyone is requesting that children with severe behavioral issues be mainstreamed. I understood it to say that there are no regulations at the state psycho-educational facilities, which are independent of traditional schools. There is much research on how to deal with behavioral issues, just ask the Bernie Marcus center or any well-trained occupational therapist. Sticking a kid in solitary confinement for 19 days out of 27 is draconian.

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There are many students at psycho ed centers who are not dangers to others. Many autistic children are there because no one in their home school knew how to effectively deal with them. This is not the first student to be injured and it is not yellow journalism to report when a child takes such extreme measures.
People need to know what is going on, and with little accountability that has not been the case.
How is the story misleading? It states the facts of this case.
WHen I said they could be taught in the school setting, I did not say every child should be in a general ed setting.

I did not hear anyone complain about the DFACS stories regarding children who died while in state care. This is the same type of situation. Schools claim en parentis loco (they want to act as a parent when they have our kids). Any parent who had a child committ suicide is going to face DFACS scrutiny to find out what was going on. Parents are held liable when they deny medical care to their children. What is so different about asking EVERY school to prove they are ensuring a safe environment to every child.

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concerned: you must live in an alternate reality. It takes an act of God to get a kid into a psychoed center. Meanwhile, the classmates of these students suffer for YEARS until the placment happens.

Science teacher 671: amen on RTI. The way it is applied in my system means unless the kid has a third eye or is so developmentally delayed that they do not speak, it is unlikely they will get sp ed services that they need.

We have been told we had “too many” sp ed kids (we are the dumping ground for the county, BTW) and now it comes out that because of problems with Powerschool, kids who have been exited from speech still show up as sp ed, inflating our numbers tremendously (and continuing to guarantee a job to our speech teacher, whose father is a bigwig with the system, BTW). What a farce! Meanwhile, kids 2-3-4 years behind (in elementary school!) are NOT served appropriately.

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I think RTI is a cause that teachers should take up. It seems like GA is using it so that in a couple of years they can say that their sp.ed. population has declined. The massive paperwork with no time or help to complete it is enough to discourage me from even participating in the SST process. Anyone have any ideas on how to advocate for ourselves and our students about the misuse of RTI?

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I live in reality believe like the attorney I have seen more than I care to see. I do not condone unsafe learning environments in any of these schools and in the metro area it is too easy to place kids in the psycho ed centers. It should be hard to get them placed, and schools should be made to show that everything that needs to be done has been done. Now, if a safety hazard is present, than that is a different issue altogether. The law says: SAFE FOR ALL. The problem I have it that once removed these kids need SPECIALIZED training and the funding is there to accomplish this; yet it is not occuring and with no oversights in place it probably never will. Many of these children get worse and require even more restrictive hosptilization as a direct result of the trauma they suffer in these facilities. That is not a good thing since it should be the drive to create productive citizens not adults that are more likely prone to criminal activity. Can these kids be saved: most of them can given the right theraputic interventions.

I also agree since GIFTED came out from under the special ed umbrella all those years ago that sometimes they don’t get the help they need in some systems, but there are systems where the focus is on them and no one else: so again a balance for all needs to be obtained, many special ed children are dualy gifted.

My belief is this: all children can learn, all children have a right to a safe learning environment, all children have the right to reach their potential (whatever that may be) and it breaks my heart when I see things like this occur because it means a lost potential. We will never know what that child was meant to be. There is another case at North Metro of abuse: again lost time in that child’s education. No child should ever suffer at the hands of educators. Do I condone no discipline: no, we need to use positive behavioral interventions to teach appropriate behavior to all students.

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I watched my ex gf work with severe autism students for years. The program was extremely expensive, with the parents giving up the rights to their children, the children living in a 10-15 person house with 24×7 staffing from multiple employees. The progress these children made, combined with the vehicle safety incidents of children having unstable behavioral incidents while there van transported students from the house to their specialized school left me with one sad, unfortunate conclusion:
– The progress these children will make and their quality of life as adults will be far lower regardless of how much time you spend with them, or what treatment you provide.
– They had a similar “time out” style room for behavioral incidents
– The best case scenario prospect would be for them to be a stock-person in a retail setting as an adult
– Realistically as an adult they would be confined to a group home because they would not have the capacity to independently function.

THE TAKE AWAY FROM THIS:
The real need for Special Education in GA needs to surface around AP classes and AP students. If the AP students are ignored, the potential for them to be leaders of industry and society will be retarded. While it may fee obligatory and humane to do everything you can in special education settings, the fact is some students will have certain limitations and won’t be able to function at a preferred level.

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Treatment of Special Ed Students?? I would Georgia an F+! I can not see where they are ready or even that knowledgeable to take care of or teach children with specal ed needs. I teach and what I have seen is just mind boggling to say the least. It was bad enough that kids made fun of the Spec. Ed students but teachers too??? Teachers set the tone, positive or negative for their students, some are so busy with their cell phones, they “unintentionally are also weighed in the balance and found wanting in the area of neglect

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Is there a way to banish the comments about “some teachers are just there to get a paycheck”? Whenever I hear this comment, all I can think about is that there are people in EVERY profession that can be labeled that way. All I can say is that if someone entered teaching “just to get a paycheck” . . . . they really need to evaluate their ability to make sound decisions . . . .

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Students in Special Education are still mistreated by teachers, principals and support staff. Why don’t you check with the state department to see how many compalints have been filed against different districts.

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So DeKalb GAE gets to crow about teachers not being furloughed. But at what cost? DeKalb won’t pay into the teachers retirement this year. Are DeKalb County GAE teachers happy with that? Before they answer, they may want to consider published reports that DeKalb spends $100 million a year more in administrative salaries than Fulton. That’s right, one hundred million dollars.

How can DeKalb County justify that, and how can DeKalb GAE justify not addressing that before supporting not paying into teachers retirement this year? Does the fact that DeKalb GAE also represents administrators mean they felt they had to be silent about that, even if it meant selling out DeKalb teachers and the retirement benefits that would have received this year?

If you’re a DeKalb County teacher, how do you feel?

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Sidelines, you sound jaded. My point is that the funding is there it is just not being used appropriately. If there was more accountability than maybe these kids would get what they need. The whole purpose for removal is to provide services that can not be provided within the 4 walls of a regular school building.

You asked if I would expect to be blamed if my neighbor’s dog attacks me: guess that depends on wether or not I am doing something to provoke an attack. I grew up with large dogs that could have been dangerous if mistreated. I would say anyone who mistreats animals would mistreat people and vice versa. I would do neither. If the dog attacked unprovoked then it would not be my fault.

Your logic is interesting.
As to would I teach in that environment: yes and I have and would again although once in the room behaviors often reduce because of the environment created. One of the posters made a valid point; teachers create the environment wether postive or negative.

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My thoughts.

A few years ago in Dacula a wheel chair bound student was placed in a lower class room setting because he couldn’t get into a trailer that housed his class. When volunteers offered to build a ramp to make the trailer accessable permission was denied basically because Alvin didn’t like the mother. After a great deal of crap–and threatened legal action the two class rooms were exchanged to accomodate this young man.

If we are to provide for these children, I believe that we must first treat them as human beings. But then that is JMHO.

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I’m the mom of a “throwaway” child. I am also the mom to three others — all honors graduates (two from AP classes that were freely given to my children) from our local public school. All three have completed or are currently in college. Our “throwaway” child was born to a mother who abandoned her at birth to an orphanage in a foreign country. There she was malnourished and neglected for 20 months and was likely abused as well. So first she was thrown away by her birth country.

We brought her home right before age 2 and over the next several years became aware of her severe neurological impairments along with the damage that was inflicted by her early traumas. We have sought help from many, many professionals and tried many, many interventions, medications, etc. Some have made a big difference – others no. We placed her in the same public school as our other children, believing it to be the best place for her to receive an education, trusting what educators told us, and believing that they too, would identify problems that kept our daughter (who has a “normal” IQ) from learning and put her in an environment that helped her to overcome them. Instead, her behaviors escalated.

When the school insisted our daughter go to the psycho-ed (GNETS), I began looking at what they were really offering. They were offering to warehouse my daughter from age 8 on, with long bus rides to and from the school and placing her in isolation rooms or classrooms where academics were not the focus. There were no therapies offered to her, but a complex point system designed to “teach her how to behave”. The staff there clearly told us through their actions and comments that these children are considered “throwaways”. Witnessing several restraints and children being dragged to the seclusion rooms myself, I knew (and her private doctors & therapists agreed) that my daughter would be significantly harmed in this place – so we refused to let her be thrown away by Georgia.

Perhaps, as some of you have suggested, we can’t afford to be humane and view these children as people worth providing their right to a free, appropriate education. But, my question to those who believe that these children (currently only 5400 according to the AJC article) are taking the funding from your AP students and therefore deserve to be warehoused and thrown away is, “where are you throwing them to?” What happens to uneducated children with disabilities who grow up with no basic education, no skills, no motivation, no abilities or belief that they are anything more than “throwaways”. The reason GNETS academic and graduation data are aggregated back into the schools the children are sent from is so it isn’t as obvious that the vast majority of these kids are going to jails or residential treatment/psych hospitals when they leave the warehouse.

Guess whose paying for these jails, treatment centers and hospitals?

My AP/honors children don’t believe for one second that their little sister is a “throwaway child”. They see clearly that your life matters and you have the right to be all you can be, even if that isn’t a doctor, lawyer, engineer or other high dollar professional.

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I’m the mom of a “throwaway” child. I am also the mom to three others — all honors graduates (two from AP classes that were freely given to my children) from our local public school. All three have completed or are currently in college. Our “throwaway” child was born to a mother who abandoned her at birth to an orphanage in a foreign country. There she was malnourished and neglected for 20 months and was likely abused as well. So first she was thrown away by her birth country.

We brought her home right before age 2 and over the next several years became aware of her severe neurological impairments along with the damage that was inflicted by her early traumas. We have sought help from many, many professionals and tried many, many interventions, medications, etc. Some have made a big difference – others no. We placed her in the same public school as our other children, believing it to be the best place for her to receive an education, trusting what educators told us, and believing that they too, would identify problems that kept our daughter (who has a “normal” IQ) from learning and put her in an environment that helped her to overcome them. Instead, her behaviors escalated.

When the school insisted our daughter go to the psycho-ed (GNETS), I began looking at what they were really offering. They were offering to warehouse my daughter from age 8 on, with long bus rides to and from the school and placing her in isolation rooms or classrooms where academics were not the focus. There were no therapies offered to her, but a complex point system designed to “teach her how to behave”. The staff there clearly told us through their actions and comments that these children are considered “throwaways”. Witnessing several restraints and children being dragged to the seclusion rooms myself, I knew (and her private doctors & therapists agreed) that my daughter would be significantly harmed in this place – so we refused to let her be thrown away by Georgia.

Perhaps, as some of you have suggested, we can’t afford to be humane and view these children as people worth providing their right to a free, appropriate education. But, my question to those who believe that these children (currently only 5400 according to the AJC article) are taking the funding from your AP students and therefore deserve to be warehoused and thrown away is, “where are you throwing them to?” What happens to uneducated children with disabilities who grow up with no basic education, no skills, no motivation, no abilities or belief that they are anything more than “throwaways”. The reason GNETS academic and graduation data are aggregated back into the schools the children are sent from is so it isn’t as obvious that the vast majority of these kids are going to jails or residential treatment/psych hospitals when they leave the warehouse.

Guess whose paying for these jails, treatment centers and hospitals?

My AP honors children don’t believe for one second that their little sister is a “throwaway child”. They see clearly that your life matters and you have the right to be all you can be, even if that isn’t a doctor, lawyer, engineer or other high dollar professional.

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Throw Away Children? I’ve heard it all from seen it all. I work night and day to help neurologically impaired children. This is not a severe emotional behavioral disorder, nor is it a choice children make. It is a neurological impairment and psycho ed centers from 1970 philosophy is harmful to these children provoking the very behavior described above. This is because this type placement with seclusion and restraint is the exact opposite and would provoke even typical children into this type behavior.

As a society we will be held accountable. Autism (neurological disorder) is now 1 in 94 (or if you go by CDC 1 in 150). The state of GA spends approximately $72,000 per year to put these children in, in my opinion, jails, creating worse behavior and irreparable harm. I have help many children now in private placement, at a fraction of the cost and they have none of these behaviors. Many of these children used to be in psycho ed centers and were a challenge to retrain and sadly some have been irreparably harmed, but we must do what we can because society will be responsible for their entire future.

Parents who believe these children get all the funding, taken away from their AP kids, or others, needs to understand that if the funds aren’t there for these children now, your AP child will be paying for care the rest of their lives- unless you have some plan to eliminate children with special needs before adulthood.

This is my opinion, but I don’t see the funds going to the children. I see the funds going to administrators. When these kids are placed privately at less expense, they change. Their potential to live as independently as possible rises significantly. But more importantly, the abuse stops and they begin to thrive. In my opinion the seclusion and restraint are child abuse and abuse cause severe regression in behavior. I also believe that if adults were treated this way, the perpetrator would be arrested and charged with assault.

I don’t understand how any human being can justify treating children like this. But more than that, when one is educated and realizes that these children are being educated in an safe, non abusive environment for a fraction of the cost, what is going on with Georgia wanting to spend this much money per child while they are failing miserably. We should be following the money. We should want to know how much individuals are being paid. Why are there no reading programs for children who can’t read and why are there no trainings for teachers to help them become reading specialists or learning specialists? Who is pocketing the money? I’ve paid privately for a child to learn to read, learn math, and addressed many fragile issues over the years with my private funds, not public school funds. As unfair as many believe it is to take their AP funds to teach children with special needs, I believe it unfair I had to spend a small fortune to educate my child. But I learned long ago life isn’t fair and so has my special needs child. She often felt it unfair that her peers could learn to read so easily while she struggled so. She felt it unfair when her brothers were blessed with IQ’s in the high 130’s (we paid for private school for them also). So blasting public school is not an agenda of mine, nor the AJC, in my opinion. Blasting an unregulated policy of what I believe to be daily child abuse is worthy of front page news and I have to question anyone who would turn their back on our most vulnerable citizens, going even farther to say it is not true or worse.Yet this was done in another part of history wasn’t it? So I suppose history does repeat itself.

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Throwaway Mom,
I empathize with your every word. I know your pain intimately and I can say is pray, love, and laugh.
I am the aunt and sister to a “throwaway child” as well. I think however, we are comparing apples to oranges here. there is a difference between Behavioral Disorders, Mildly Impaired, or Profoundly Impaired. Georgia gets bad press on all three accounts BUT I have to agree with others on several points.
1) I have NEVER seen abuse/ neglect at my school. As an educator I have a responsibility to report such abuse/neglect no matter what (even if it is at the hands of my colleagues)
2) I have NEVER been satisfied with the level of care that my sister received when she was in public school.
3) This article is poorly written and has subversive language that paints GA Sp Ed in a poor light– whether intentioned to or not.

In reference to number 1: if abuse was as widespread as this article implies, ALL teachers would be accountable for abuses taking place in their schools. I do not see how there would not be MORE cases.
In regards to number 2: this is in no way the fault of the state. It is hard coping with the fact that the person you love very much will never be able to do all the things you wanted them to do. Unfortunately, schools often have to be the messenger of this news. I know if I spent 24 hours a day with my sister, I could have helped her reach better goals than the school. Then again, at what cost? i would have had to quit school to do so. She would have needed 24/7 supervision and care to have advanced much more than she did when in school. That is an unfair burden for the state. I refuse to demand it of my fellow man. My sister is happy and healthy and knows love. That is all we need.

One final point– On the sidelines– I refer to my sister as a person with profound mental retardation. I know that is a mouthful and I’m sure most people cringe at it, but her mental capacity is slowed (at best). So that is what I say and hope that the Gods of Political Correctness do not smote me.

Actually, this goes back to JimDear’s school choice idea.Private schools do well with personalized care because they specifically hire experts to cater to the child’s needs and parents want their child to be there.

Hmmmmm….

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MCMM: Our SLP (mastered degreed) served 6 kids last year half time at our school. Pretty great job, huh? Sorry about the title. Our SLP only provides speech therapy. She says she feels “unqualified” to provide language therapy. Huh?

Jeff, in my county 98% of the developmentally delayed kids are white. The other 2% are Latino.

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Be careful Jeff – some people would consider people with Asperger’s Syndrome (like you) as “retarded”. So, you need to look in the mirror before you start talking about demographics of SPED students. In which demographic do you fall?

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Jeff,
My granddaugher is developmentally delayed. You can trace her lineage back to Alfred the Great. Is that demographically acceptable enough?

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My child (who has now graduated and attends college) has learning disabilities. She attended both public school (with an IEP), and private school (one that specialized in LDs.) The public school teachers and special education services administrators are light years behind in understanding treatments, teaching techniques and learning methods. They had never even heard of methods like Orton-Gillingham, Lindamood Bell or Fast ForWord. They relied almost entirely on worksheets! They knew nothing of sensory integration or brain-based learning. Most of them were masters level graduates of UGA, which begs the question, “What year do they think it is at UGA?”

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As an advocate for children with special needs who represented one of the children in this article, I would like to thank the AJC for the coverage. Why are these stories being covered now? Because here in GA we have had a tragic death of one of these students, and we had wise parents who sewed a tape recorder in their child’s clothing, and we had another parent who hired an attorney which they couldn’t afford, and because advocates and attorneys across the nation have banned together and reported these cases of restraint, seclusion and abuse to our congressmen. We are not going to be silent any longer. We are seeking accountability and responsibility.

Are all teachers or schools bad? No, of course not. However lately, you can certainly watch the news on any given night or any given news channel to see coverage of educators who have abused or neglected children, stolen money, changed test grades, etc…. In Cherokee, teachers turning in teachers for abuse! Finally.

For those of you who are educators and deny this is happening in your school, get real. Open your eyes. Those of us who represent these children get far too many cases and reports for this to not be happening right under your nose. It’s tragic, and it’s an epidemic.

What’s most important is what can we do about it? It’s time for accountability and action. It’s time for new legislation. Let’s put cameras in classrooms. Perhaps if there was more monitoring, there would be less opportunity for abuse. Let’s do away with Psychoed Centers and provide these children with true therapuetic and educational programs and environments. Not programs that promote seclusion, isolation, restraint, ridicule, abuse and neglect.

Until this happens, my best advice to parents would be to continue to sew those tape recorders in your child’s clothing, tape record, hire advocates and attorneys, fight for legislative change, file eithics complaints and keep exposing those who harm our children.

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It is interesting that Sharon Gudger, perhaps the most noted special education/disability law advocate in this state, and I are the only two to have named ourselves on this blog but no other individual has (I certainly understand parents not coming forward, but those who support a system of abuse should list their names, their educational degrees, their experience, their training, and their asserted knowledge).

I will not respond to the absurd, intentionally inflammatory, ill informed, and uneducated responses by some on this blog, yet to compare a child born with disabilities to a dog is intolerable and only perpetuates abuse of children. However, I am immediately aware trying to reason with such a person is an abject waste of time.

Opinions should only be based upon extensive knowledge, education, research, facts, evidence, and proof.

More than a decade of research, facts, evidence, and proof establishes that children in psychoed centers are being abused. If you do not believe it, contact me, unless of course, you are just one to argue for the sake of argument and not for the sake of truth.

My children attend a private school, one of the best in the Southeast, and they are very well educated and my husband and I do not mind paying for their education, but we still care very much about any child being abused. THIS IS THE ISSUE.

My husband and I pay for taxes on 2 houses in DeKalb, pay over $50,000 a year for our children to be appropriately educated, and we do NOT support DeKalb’s or any other psycyhoed center, and we want them closed, as we find they are harming children.

Go visit them. See children being dragged down the halls to lock down rooms where they injure themselves, with no improvement at all in functioning. Visit the many private schools where these same children are being appropriately educated without all the issues and abuse. Then call me. Then post an opinion.

Georgia ranks low, very low, for educational ability, even with regular education. Let’s not demonstrate such poor education with ignorance of the truth about psychoed centers. Let’s not attack each other arguing facts that are provable. Let’s change the system to work for all of us.

Chris Vance, M.Ed., J.D.

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Science Teacher,
You are always on target with your comments. I just wanted to encourage you to keep your voice.
Parent in Gwinnett

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Enter your comments here

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2nd mortgage on my house this year, because DEKALB CTY SCHOOLS are terrible and I have to send 2 special needs children to private schools. (I’ve heard that Gwinnett is better)….I’ve complained to Dekalb for five years, but was first ignored then treated terribly. They give aptitude test, but say the test was meaningless and never help the student. They just line their pockets with our tax money…then the schools are so bad, we can’t even send our kids to them. The Dekalb teacher are mean. The superintendent doesn’t respond to the parents. 1st hand experience here…with documentation to prove it.

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Judith, can you take advantage of the state’s voucher program for students with special needs?

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Here’s a bit of an editorial from the Savannah Morning News (http://savannahnow.com/node/756872) last week — perhaps when Sonny gets back from Canada, he could address this?

Teacher furloughs would save about $99 million. However, it means dumbing down schools…In a special session, the General Assembly could restore those funds to education in one simple move: Enacting a cigarette tax increase of $1 a pack. While Georgia’s cigarette tax is currently 37 cents per pack, the national average is about $1.25. A tobacco tax increase would bring in an additional $400 million in revenues…with the millions left over after restoring education funds, Mr. Perdue could reduce cuts to the state Department of Revenue. Keeping more tax collectors on the job will help bring in more of the funds actually owed the state.

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Our superintendent has invited us into her school system in the special education classes, and last year’s daily exposure with the children has proven very successful. We are in south Georgia, and I train facility dogs for support in the school classrooms. The dogs are initially Delta Society registered, and from there these dogs are task-trained to be a support for children doing flash card drills, reading, or increasing self esteem by walking and brushing the dog. http://www.dogshelpkids.org

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Parent, all the research I’ve read says that RTI is ONLY successful when implemented early in elementary school. Using it in upper elementary school, middle school, and high school is a misapplication of the research, totally inappropriate.

(If I’m wrong, I hope someone will correct me with journal cites.)

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In response to Old School,
“It is my opinion that many, many teachers and instructors do the very best they can to adapt to the learning styles and needs of their students- regular, gifted, special needs- and wind up doing an admirable job.”

I agree. One year when there was a not so great SpEd or resource teacher, my child’s regular ed teacher was awesome and made the difference. She was excellent at adjusting to different learning styles. There can be a learning exchange between gifted and students with disabilities (including regular and SpEd teachers); it can truly work both ways, especially with additional teacher training. http://www.pbis.org or Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports is a good way to manage behavior for all students. It’s very similar to the RTI pyramid. If PBIS was used appropriately, there would be less need for alternative schools.

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IEP stands for Individualized Education Plan. There is no I in the plan anymore. IEP’s are written to align with the state standards and not with the child’s weakness. Also, I agree with the comments about some of the great proven reading programs availalbe; however with the move to inclusion, where are these to be taught? Being able to pull students to another classroom to teach is ideal, but with inclusion we just pull them to the corner of the room while the rest of the group can look on, further damaging the self esteem of a child who has learning difficulties.

RTI would work if teachers were properly trained and afforded the time to implement the interventions, but unfortunately, they are just told to do it in addition to all the other requirements of teaching.

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Oh, and MCMM, I failed to mention that our SLP (who feels inadequate to teach language) says “has went” and “we seen” and “has did”. So maybe she has a valid point!

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Catlady, I don’t think you and I disagree at all and appreciate your insight. Many children who are not identified early, and even some those who are that are LD do not respond to school district’s typical hodge podge of remedial reading services, even with teachers with good intentions. They may need very specific interventon, which school districts don’t typically offer. These services need to be made available in Kind-2nd grade. We should not be waiting until 3rd-4th grade, when these students are now 3 years behind their peers, and that is typically what happens.

Scienceteacher, you are right. RTI should be implemented in “early” elementary school. However, when it is not working, these children should be tested and identified as quickly as possible for spec. ed. services and RTI should not be used to delay identification.

Research shows that chldren should be remediated by 3rd grade, or they have a life long disorder. They should be remediated by 4th grade, or it takes 4 times as long to remediate.

I’ve never been an advocate for full inclusion for all children. Having a child with severe dyslexia, I recognized she needed a remedial reading program, which could not be provided in the regular reading class in a corner of the classroom. However, I do believe these children also need exposure to the gen .ed. reading class by means of double dipping, else they just get further and further behind.

With that being said, there are also times when school districts, no matter what they try, are simply not able to remediate some children with severe LD’s like my daughter. Instead of harming these children by letting them get further and further behind, they should be more open to providing private remedial services like Lindamood-Bell. LMB taught my daughter to read in 12 weeks of intensive 1:1 services. She made 2-4 years progress in reading, writing, and math and caught up to grade level. She has maintained her skills and is now doing great in High School with a B average. It can be done.

To Seen It All – If you actually read the AJC, you would have seen their story was not based on ONE child that died, although that was certainly tragic enough. It was based on several stories which seemed to all accumlate and come together at once. However, if that ONE child had been your child, I’m sure you would be here advocating for change, as we are………..

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Carol Sadler, you said “Research shows that chldren should be remediated by 3rd grade, or they have a life long disorder.” That is what I remembered from the research I read.

In other words, RTI in middle and high school is a gross misapplication of the research, and serves only to delay or deny diagnosis and placement, correct?

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Actually, dyslexia can be corrected at any age. The literature means that it needs to be caught early so the student can have those skills to use during grade k-12 and use them to learn the curriculum.

If correction takes place after k-12 school, they have not been able to benefit from that education fully, but point is, post school aged learners can completely be caught up. The same thing has to take place that should have happened in k-12. Often that is difficult to do because there is no formal set up for this to take place. It also is understood to take longer if done later on, but that too is not definite. I have seen older students catch up at a rate of 2-3 years in 9 months to 2 years.

In regards to giftedness and learning disabled students (one category of Special Education population), many times students with dyslexia have high IQs as gifted students do. Unfortunately I find that the goal is not to close the achievement gap for these learners – inadvertently because I am sure that is not a purposeful intent. It appears that the main cause is because the ways to reach this goal are not fully known or not possible due to institutional constraints – time, space, specialized training, lack of support from administration and school boards, etc…

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Thank you, Carol. Unfortunately we have 200+ kids “come up” from primary each year, and nary ONE has an RTI going! Not one! Nada! So in third grade it hits us. I think it is criminal. Our county has made the most cumbersome interpretation of RTI process, and no one is willing to go through it only to have our psych tell us the child “just missed the cutoff” after spending an hour with the child. The psych then generates us a list of helpful suggestions, such as “Seat the child near you.” Ah-hem.

Chris, I appreciate your being willing and able to give your name. While I am not (I don’t want Siberia duty or a vendetta), I will tell you I started teaching in 1973, have a BS, 2 MS, and a PhD, none from a diploma mill. I have experience teaching K, 1, 2 (student teaching only), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, sp ed MOID 7-8th graders, and ESOL from K-high school. I also have a little experience teaching college level. I would never claim to have seen it all or know it all, but I have seen a LOT and know a few things.

I appreciate what others have said about RTI. Too bad counties are getting such leeway in implementing it. Our county has probably only tested a half dozen students in the last 2 years because of the way it has chosen to interpret it.

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First I am the PROUD mother of six wonderful children, three of whom are autistic. I have read all of the comments posted the Good, The Bad and The Ugly. For those of you who believe abuse in Georgia schools is not real it is all to real. In, 2003 I enrolled my NON-VIOLENT, NON-ABUSIVE autistic beautiful baby girl in a Richmond Cty school. During the two months that she was there I witnessed other children being struck, slapped, snatched off the floor so violently that their heads struck cinder block walls (one of these non-violent children suffered a skull fracture). On the occasion that I called 911 from the classroom I was threatened with arrest if I didn’t leave the class. The little girl who was the punching bag for these teachers now suffers from severe epilepsy. By filing complaints in the hope of protecting these children my own daughter was made a victim. My sweet baby came home with bruises to her face, chest and throat. As a parent you first go to the police who refuse to do a report, then you call DFACs who refuse to investigate the schools, then you get your childs pediatrician to file a report and they refuse to investigate the teacher and school even for a doctor. Then you have the option of running or filing papers. If you file a law suit you soon find out what “Sovereign Immunity” is. Their is nothing you can do to these teachers and the teachers know this. Then if like me you continue to fight only to have a school district continue to retaliate by refusing your children an education and to be so brazen about it as to tell a Congressman Quote “It will be a cold day in hell before they get an education” UNQUOTE
As for the comments about the AJC covering this story I APPLAUD YOU our children are not throwaways. For too long school districts have been able to frighten parents into backing off and mainstream media from hearing about the atrocities being done to our children. Georgia along with Florida are the two worst states when it comes down to how they treat spe-ed children. As for the pre-conceived notion that our children are dangerous to the average child in school as a parent of both sides of the coin I disagree. With the proper education and treatment ALL children can succeed. Unlike what one person wrote above that the most spe-ed children will accomplish is stocking shelves. Once again this is ignorance on the writers behalf, Albert Einstein who never spoke a word till seven yrs of age was AUTISTIC, Vice President Al Gore is Asperger (autistic), Bill Gates of Microsoft Learning Disabled and the list can go on and on. It is what our children are given that will decide what is in their future.

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KJF, I agree with you. I’ve worked with several teachers who moved from other parts of the country and were speechless when they saw how little training teachers were provided. They were also amazed at how many teachers were offered training and wouldn’t go. I worked with one teacher who recently moved to Georgia. She had been trained in Orton Guillingham, Language! Wilson, and more. Not one teacher in her entire district (large metro county) had recieved ANY of the training she did. Moreover, when she got to Georgia all training by school districts stopped.

I do know the poor education begins in the universities. Having gone through a special educational undergraduate program, until I changed my major, I am witness to the fact that the university education is more than lacking in preparing teachers to teach children, much less those with disabilities. It should be illegal to allow universities to do such, especially given the state of education in this country.

The main point I wanted to comment on is your reference to the above. There is proof of abuse and many speak out. There are school employees who do speak out, give testimony to the abuse, and yet Georgia does nothing. I can prove though multiple reports of the abuse a child went through, witnessed by, if memory serves me correctly, eleven school employees, yet no one seems to be interested. I would turn it all over to the media if they want, but things just seem to be stifled in Georgia. Is it the politics- I don’t know. But I do know the proof is there. It is no longer alleged, in my opinion, from the information I know. Yet it does not stop. I agree with you about speaking out. It seems no one is listening. How does the APS story get on TV, the one story above get written, when so many other tragedies and incidents of abuse get looked over. It’s hard for me to comprehend. I have no answer. If I were reading this in a book, or seeing it in a TV movie, I would think it unrealistic that children are being abused and no one is doing anything about it.

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Gwinnett Teacher: Students with special needs are placed in your regular education class because the law requires the school districts to provide them with a “Free Appropriate Public Education”. Parents simply desire that their children receive the best possible education. The method of isolation, functional curriculum placements currently used by the school districts to educate these students has been an open path to failure for most of them to achieve academic success. Furthermore, in addition to regular education placement of special students, the law require the support of a collaborative teacher or para-professional during the stint of each class period in each subject. While I feel your daily burdens and often times frustrating task, I certainly commend you for your unwavering commitment to the education of our future leaders.

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The abuse of special needs education children must stop. My son was one of these children. In fourth grade, he was in an EBD classroom and had his finger dislocated by the special ed teacher during her attempt to drag him to the office. I was not allowed to file a complaint with the campus police and the county told me to file with the campus officer. Yesterday, he was drug down a hallway and had bruises left on his wrist by a parapro. Once again, the campus officer refused to take a complaint and the county told me it is an issue for campus police. He was arrested for pushing the parapro away after being grabbed at least three times. The campus officer told me that he probably gave himself the bruises and told me I could file a statement as an addendum to the school’s complaint. This semester the school itself has been focused on pushing him to an alternative school. Suspension after suspension for things like bumping a student with his elbow in the hallway. Then they complain about his attendance and try to involve the school social worker when they have given him over 15 days OSS in the last three months. Any other adult that would injure a child to the point of leaving bruises would be investigated at least. But use the safety net of “county approved restraint techniques” and it is a free for all of uncontrollable behavior by the adults who are supposed to take care of him while in the school’s care.

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