Special Education and Education in general.

In My Humble Opinion
1

When I was in school, I was in Special Education, and it was a nightmare. I had special needs just like most of the other children in my class, but we were all so different from each other, and there were varying degrees of disabilities. I was in remedial Math and English courses, (except for 12th grade, where I finally got the balls to speak up, and insist that I try regular English class, where I ended up getting my grades up from mid-80’s to mid-90’s.)

I had some wonderful friends in Special Ed, but I also felt out-of-place with most of the kids that attended those classes. I believe my social life then, and now, was effected a great deal because I spent most of my time in a class that had kids with behavioral and social problems. Not all, but most.

Does anyone know if anything’s changed? Can anyone relate? Does anyone have children in Special Ed?

To those who know about Special Education, is there anything you would change? I have no idea what schools are like now… aside from the Common Core testing debate. Is there anything about education in general that you would change to cater to those who learn differently?

With technology changing, what effect might that have on children learning in their own individual ways? Online courses for example. It seems like there should be more options for students these days.

2

This will vary a bit from place to place, but this is my experience as a high school teacher:

The trend these days is inclusion–meaning kids with mild or moderate learning disabilities are usually enrolled in regular classrooms with everyone else. These students will usually have an IEP (Individual Education Plan) that describes any special needs the student has and modifications that the teacher must make for the student, such as extra time for assignments, shortened versions of tests, or a printed copy of the class notes.

These students may also spend part of the day in a special education classroom to provide extra support to them, like helping them with study strategies or aiding them as they work on their assignments for the regular classes (not doing the assignments for them, but helping them with reading and understanding the questions and organizing their work).

Students with more severe mental or physical handicaps that prevent them from being able to function in a regular classroom are often served by special programs in a separate classroom with teachers and paraprofessionals trained to work with them.

Students with persistent disruptive behavioral problems may be placed in a “behavior modification” classroom with an assigned teacher, and they may be sent classwork from the regular classroom teachers.

Change can happen slowly in education, and it is very uneven as to when and where it occurs, but overall I think there is progress toward more effective teaching techniques that benefit all students and hopefully help with some of the obstacles that students with learning disabilities face. In high schools, there seems to be a gradual move away from the traditional lecture/notes format and toward more engagement of students with the material and encouragement of critical thinking through inquiry-based learning. Using a variety of different strategies is encouraged (sort of a “shotgun” approach) since what works really well for some students may not work for others.

3

Not here. CT is “full inclusion” and there is basically no disability too severe to keep kids from being placed in algebra, history and language classes where they have no chance of learning anything useful or participating in any but the most vaguely “social” aspects.

There are special ed classrooms, but they are typically only a small part of such students’ day.

If kids are too disruptive, they are outplaced in extremely costly contract schools.
CT reminds me a lot of California in that they are trying the same experiments, only 25 years later, and somehow assume their results will be different. (Not just ed - we have the same bottle/can recycling program that CA started with around 1975 and quickly changed because it was such a hassle - returning whole, undamaged cans for individual credit, etc.) But you’d think they could look at the whole history of things like “full inclusion” and jump forward to the versions that work.

4

Master’s in Special Education and certified special education teacher.
The law mandates Least Restrictive Environment. Moreover the Rowley decision started that a student with a disability merely needs a basic floor of education, not the best possible education.

Also, IEP meetings and offers of a Free and Appropriate Public Education often take the path of least resistance. Either bowl over the parent with “Sign this and get the fuck out of my office.” or “How do we not get sued.” Both typically result in full inclusion or maybe a resource class in their schedule.

5

As is the Mrs. Not my field but I’ve aided her in almost 20 years of public and private service, and she has 10 before we met.

In small, town school districts there is often not enough flexibility or budget to implement this demand sensibly, so shuttling wheelchairs from regular class to regular class is how they comply.

But yes, IEPs are the product of school convenience, administration bullying or very well-informed and determined parents. Guess the proportions, kids.

6

IIRC, there was an article on the net about Finland or? That is having amazing success with a different/new approach but I fear that we are way too entrenched in the old ways to even keep from falling ever farther behind in the education world. Right now we have an abundance of kids which gives a big apparent number, but a really, a small %, are doing good in spite of the system ( the few can carry the many only so long ) but IMO, that is going to ultimately fail us just as the ‘by wrote’ methods of some Asian countries is showing major cracks with that approach.

7

If you are going to participate in this thread, you may want to think very carefully about how you phrase things. You just pretty much stated that children in wheelchairs don’t belong in regular education classes, which is extraordinarily offensive 1950s-era thinking- whether that’s what you MEANT to say or not.

8

“Lay off all the teachers who don’t actually teach children”. I know nothing of the inner workings of the educational system, but here in Oregon we have over half the people drawing a teacher’s salary who aren’t actually teaching children. Seems to me a tremendous overhead that could be cut back A LOT if not for the Union. Then we could …

… Double teachers’ salaries …

I’m sure Tangent and SaintCad would like that … you deserve it !!!

9

With the last group of parents you get a lot of “twice exceptional” kids. These are the kids that gifted and therefore don’t have any problem making Bs or even As off raw talent that overcomes whatever disability they have - but they often have Aspbergers or ADD or dyslexia or anxiety or something on top of it. They usually breeze through elementary school and often middle school and then sometime their parents realize that they aren’t growing out of having to bounce up and down to do math, or obsessing about the book they are reading in English to the detriment of other coursework. That situation is different that when I went to school back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and if you got Bs no one every worried about you.

10

Sincere apologies, and no, I meant nothing of the kind. I thought the context followed from discussion of kids so severely disabled that they had no way to meaningfully participate in regular classes, not even “Steven Hawking” style. We have a range of wheelchair-bound students in our small district, and while many are somewhere between *compos *and brilliant, there are some who are… way, way below that. So a para or two tend them and shuttle them from class to class for almost no sensible reason, because that’s the chosen mode for “compliance.”

I am fully for appropriate programs for these kids - care and stimulation and what therapy and education and social interaction makes sense, and walks outdoors… but simply rolling them from class to class is so meaningless for them and everyone else involved that it’s appalling. It’s just marginally cheaper than outplacement.

11

Every complex problem, and all that.

Functional IQ and competence tests would go much further, at least in the short run.

12

My son has Autism. For-real Autism, as in non-verbal 'till about 4, meltdowns over the frequency of fluorescent tubes - or the bookshelf being out of the “proper” order etc.

Inclusion meant that he was always in regular classes, with pull-outs (learning support clases) on certain subjects, and in-class assistance on others. Over time, the pull-outs were fewer and fewer, ending after 8th grade, and the in-class assistance ended after 6 th grade and switched to “inclusion” classes, which meant there were 2 teachers instead of one. He had this for English only, and throughout highschool.

It worked fantastically well for him. He just graduated, more than half his classes were honors, AP, or college-in-high school classes (obviously, English wasn’t one), his GPA was 3.91, his QPA was 4.64.

The IEP meetings were critical. Having a voice as a parent, and a school system willing to listen were a huge factor in getting him the right support. (Part of which was making sure he didn’t get too much support - the goal was him being able to function in the environment, and learn, not to have his stuff done for him or dumbed down).

The biggest factor however were teachers willing to put in the effort it took to help him succeed. We were very fortunate, in that almost all his teachers in grade and middle school were of that mindset, and by high school it didn’t matter so much any more.
The only exception was his second grade teacher, who felt that kids like him should be “in their own little class” Since he had in class assistance, and at times was allowed more time on tests, she felt his grades should be marked with an asterisk, as otherwise it wouldn’t be fair to the “real” students. This was the only year he didn’t progress.

13

But IQ testing is a priori racist, so you can’t do that. You can get away with calling it an SAT/ACT test, but those aren’t given until high school.

14

I meant for teachers.

Rebuilding a cadre of truly qualified, able, competent and at least passingly intelligent teachers would support reduction in the immense supervisory, administrative, rule-checking, form-filing, checklist-following superstructure we’ve had to saddle our education system with to try and make up for dismal classroom leaders.

ETA: Which is the nominal aim of the “pay teachers lots more” crowd, but simply increasing teacher pay without demanding corresponding ability and quality improvements would be worse than useless. Much worse.

15

My son is autistic, and we are currently battling the public school system.

Side note: my district, unbeknownst to me was the original basis of class action law suit for failure to provide appropriate spec Ed. The courts looked at the situation and the “class” now includes all public education with CA. That’s our base. Systemically, in districts throughout the State, the bare minimum is not being done to provide an appropriate education to disabled children.

My son is in a group called High-functioning Austism. He is more than capable of being mainstreamed, with some pull out support - on grade or ahead with his classwork, needs peer skills work, speech therapy. This year it fell apart because he’s in a district that supplies no Austism training and his teacher would not (as in flat out refused) learn any new skills.

Examples - my son takes medication that makes him very thirsty. He allowed per the IEP to drink water, as needed. Teacher thought the bottle was too loud and took it. This can cause kidney damage. We had to get a lawyer, involve the district and I still don’t think he ever got his water back. No consequences for her. He was suspended at least once for trying to get his water.

Teacher would say do 10 math problems before recess. Son would do 10 math problems. Time to go to recess. Teacher: no, everyone else is going, but you need to do 10 more. Son rips up paper and gets suspended. Autistic kiddos are literal. You can’t move the goal posts. And a suspension for ripped paper, really?

Anyway, after suspensions for too much pencil sharpening, and for doodling on his lap board, and all kinds of nonsense, we got the lawyer. 6 months later we got a settlement to move him to a school that specializes in HFA/etc.

And it’s all bullshit, because I’d rather have him with his peers, in the mainstream. But the district couldn’t work with one teacher, so they’re going to spend a moderate fortune on my kiddo.

And I often think where we would, where my son would be, without a basic understanding of our rights, and the ability to get a lawyer. I think about all those families who are told that they don’t need a 504 (us), or an (IEP), that the district doesn’t test or provide services (us and us). And meanwhile, their kid falls further and further behind.

It’s a crap system that “works” if the parent fights every step of the way.

16

I recently attended a high school graduation ceremony. The program listed the faculty and what they taught. I found it amazing that “special education” led the field - about 30% more special ed teachers than the next highest subject area. I had no idea that so many of our students, apparently, were in such need of that level of attention. This is a school sort of at the edge of the sprawl surrounding a major city.

17

Special education teachers generally have far fewer students per teacher, or at least that was the case at my school. I assume that’s because those students require more attention than typical students. It’s one reason schools weren’t so keen in having special education in the old days - less money/teachers/supplies etc. for the rest of the students given the same budget. Another reason being the notion that such students couldn’t learn anyway.

18

Redundant. :frowning:

That’s often the case because the schools will only settle if the settlement includes a gag order. All too often, the parents get what they asked for… and are not of a mind to fight further to get a gag excluded. So it becomes a secret trial system, won only by those parents persistent and educated enough to fight their way through it, and most assume they are alone or the next thing to it.

And woe to the child of any parents that don’t, or can’t, put that much of their lives into a specialized and rigged process.

And besides all individual and family issues, many on the spectrum can be raised to far less costly levels with effective early intervention - from institutions and group home outcomes, to family-based or assisted independent living, to independent living with some additional care, to fully mainstreamed, educated, employed, self-sufficient and even highly productive citizens. Not that any majority of SpEd teachers seem to realize this, and seem to think the job is elaborate babysitting and feel-good, which it may be with certain deficits, but NOT autism.

19

I am not sure being “mainstreamed” is the panacea to be looking for.

My son on the autistic spectrum. He is not non-verbal, but definitely has problems with language. He was “mainstreamed” in the best school district in the country. IEPs, pull-outs, extra tutoring, etc. Which was fine, until fifth grade.

In the fifth grade, kinds start forming cliques, and their tolerance toward the “other” increases. My son is very social (though he is not good at it) and after a year of NO birthday party invitations and no friends at school, we decided to move to a different place where there is a very good private school for kids on the spectrum. Yes, there are some negatives in him being in the school environment with no “neuronormal” kids, but the advantages I think beat the negatives.

20

What better goal could there be than getting a child from a special-needs setting to a mainstream life setting?

I do understand that you’re questioning putting a child who still has deficits and issues into mainstream classes, but that’s something different. The goal of a normal life setting, for school and adulthood, should always be on the table until it’s conclusively ruled out by the individual’s limits.