About.com Special Education

Is Inclusion a Civil Right?

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:55:26 +0000

I opened this month's electronic newsletter from the Southern Poverty Law Center, Teaching Tolerance, and found an article about inclusion at the top.� The article points out that although 57 percent of students receiving special education services are in a general classroom, only 19 percent of students diagnosed with cognitive disabitilities are in inclusive classrooms.� The author, Nirvi Shah, rightly bemoans the fact that schools are still slow to make inclusion happen, especially for children with more significant disabilities.

The article faults teacher education.� That, I know, is changing.� Still, we have a generation or two of teachers who still believe that special education is a place and not a service.� Special education is something you go to, not something you do with a teacher who offers you support.

We have to remember that inclusion is not multiple choice.� The legal underpinnings of inclusion is the� Equal Protection Clause of the U. S. Constitution, which means that public schools must provide all students a public education in an environment which is "least restrictive."

I recommend taking the time to read the article, if only to understand the experience of families seeking inclusion for their children.� Unfortunately, many of us teaching in special education have little leverage in effecting inclusion practice in our districts.� We have it, or we don't.� Often if we have it we don't have the support and resources we need to do it well, or the kids we work with continue to be marginalized by general education teachers who just don't get it

Is Inclusion a Civil Right? originally appeared on About.com Special Education on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 14:55:26.

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Whose Child Left Behind?

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:43:04 +0000

Time is soon approaching when the test prep will be over and the state high stakes state assessments will be rolled out.� Ready?

I will definitely be spending some time offering suggestions to help you diffuse some of the anxiety of your students.� And some sympathy for those who have to administer an alternative assessment.� Some of them are doozies (We see students from 5 states at my facility.) � Those that don't qualify for the alternate test end up "snatchin' their heads bald."� I've also heard the story of a local school district who tried, early on, to exceed their 3 percent in order to stack the deck in their favor.� They got caught.

So, has No Child Left Behind done it's job?� Are our schools better, or just our student's performance?� And what about all the states that have dumbed down their state tests to increase their success rate?

I know, after working in inner city schools, that the energy that goes into improving test scores, as opposed to real instruction, is significant.� In my second placement, we did not teach science until after the state test.� We were not allowed to teach science until after the state test. I know lots of strategies for improving student scores, and even some good strategies to teach content in ways that support the student's performance on the test.� But get out into some of the suburbs, and you find they don't need preparation.� My younger son never did test prep and received outstandings from 3rd through 8th grades.� Are we really closing the gap?

US News and World Report has an excellent feature on No Child Left Behind.� Margaret Spelling reflects her loyalty to the failed Bush administration, of course.� Randi Weingarten's loyalties are to teachers, especially to teachers in large cities where the AFT tends to dominate.� Their points of view are still important.� Michael Cohen and Andrew Rotherman share some really incisive observations.� What's your point of view?

Whose Child Left Behind? originally appeared on About.com Special Education on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 18:43:04.

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Inclusion Horror

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:19:40 +0000

Okay, okay, I'm finding it a bit hard to get anyone to give us some exclusion success stories.� (See Inclusion Co-Teaching Helps and Hints for the Rest of Us.)� So, I guess I have to start the ball rolling with an inclusion horror story of my own.

I believe in inclusion.� Really.� I think it's great for both students in special education and typically developing kids.� My own children benefited from being in an inclusive school, although their more severely disabled classmates (usually autism) left the room for instruction.� Both boys are very empathetic and kind with disabled students, and I am encouraging my older boy to come and work as a residential counselor at my school while he figures out the rest of his life.

I interviewed for a full inclusion job in the large metropolitan district where I was teaching.� The person who was to be my partner took a job at charter school, and my new partner took the job off a list in the district office.� Big mistake.� I doubt seriously she will ever read this, and also doubt that she would ever see herself in this blog.� She should have never left her safe suburban enclave or her safe spot behind the beauticians chair (Yeah, she cut hair.)

We had 33 students.� 15 were fourth and fifth grade special education students, one of whom just graduated from a behavioral program contracted by the district (the district didn't let you classify a child as ES because they couldn't provide the student to staff ratios.� They preferred to have a child assault someone so they could move them out of the school or get the county mental health agency pay for an alternate behavioral placement.)� The balance of the children were fourth graders who, believe it or not, were mostly reading at or above grade level.

At first I thought my partner was just inexperienced.� I started to believe she was evil.� One of the special ed kids was a survivor of lead poisoning.� He was pretty heavily medicated and would fall asleep when he arrived in the morning. � Besides cognitive differences, Jeremiah (not his real name) also had behavior problems that his medication helped with.� He was actually a real sweety, and the other special ed kids knew it.� She insisted on screaming at him first thing in the morning "You're not sleeping in my classroom.� Do I have to call your mother?"� I knew if you let him sleep, he woke up pleasant and compliant and had a lovely day.� She, however, succeeded in not only setting him off, but all the special ed kids, who had been together since kindergarten.

Children could not go to the restroom without adult supervision:� they clogged the urinals, peed on the floor, the walls, whatever, and fought.� She refused to help supervise, so I ended up dealing with behaviors that she instigated.

They finally pulled me out with the 15 special educations students after Christmas,� half 5^th grade, half 4^th grade.� By that time they were so mad at my partner, the system, the principal, the dean of students, that it took 6 weeks to start getting them under control.� By the end of the year the curriculum lead teachers were walking into my room and saying things like, "Oh, I didn't realize you had any students in here!"(They were working.)� In the meantime, a lot of people said, "I can't believe you show up for school every day."� In the end, I won that one.� And went on to another job in another school district.

So how about you?� Share your horror story here, or better yet, give the rest of us some encouragement by responding to the link above!

Inclusion Horror originally appeared on About.com Special Education on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 09:19:40.

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Social Skills for Valentines Day

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:10:29 +0000

As Valentines Day approaches, many teachers are preparing for the crafts, the party, the excitement of Valentines Day.� For many typically developing children it is their only foray into the exciting adult world of boy-girl relationships.

For many children with learning disabilities, especially those on the autistic spectrum, these sort of relationships are foreign.� It's true that for some children with Autism a relationship with someone of the opposite sex may have no real importance.� Or so says Temple Grandin, who I heard say in a National Public Radio interview� she was perfectly happy with her life the way it was.� But I know that among my boys, they have a real interest in the opposite sex--in fact female staff have to be careful that their seemingly innocent hugs are not in fact "copping a feel."

This last week was a great social success for my class.� We went to McDonalds.� We had been rehearsing all week how to ask for the food of their choice.� They went, they chose, they were appropriate, and even got a complimentary ice cream cone from the manager.� Onward and upward!!� I am now planning an excursion to Taco Bell, plus some educational time before hand on Mexico.

Still, I am scouring the resources I am reviewing this week with the hope of finding a road in to keep expanding the boys' horizons, as they improve their behavior out in the community.

Social Skills for Valentines Day originally appeared on About.com Special Education on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 21:10:29.

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Same Sex Schools?

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:36:16 +0000

Teaching Tolerance, an online newsletter of the Southern Poverty Center, addresses a growing trend in schools to segregate boys and girls into separate classrooms in an article, "Gender Segregation: Separate but Effective?" The practice is based on the work of �Dr. Leonard Sax, a child psychologist.� He cites significant differences between the learning styles of boys and girls as the reason to separate the sexes to optimize learning.

The number of public schools offering same sex classrooms grew from 11 in 2002 to over 550 in 2009.� Mobile, Alabama closed all 8 of its schools when confronted with a lawsuit on behalf of parents by the American Civil Liberties Union.� Parents questioned the efficacy of a program that withdraws children from real life environments, especially with Title 9 defining the rights of girls to receive and equal education.� At the same time, the article notes that there is little hard data to support the practice, beyond the collection of anecdotal feedback from teachers and parents, and the perception that same sex classrooms are working.

Is this the direction we need to be going?� Reviewing research online, I found that research shows the ration of boys to girls in special education is 2 to 1 or perhaps even 3 to 1.� Are more boys learning disabled than girls or are more female teachers identifying boys than girls because of behaviors?�� Would single sex classrooms be more effective?

In my own experience, I believe that more boys than girls have learning disabilities as reflected in disparity between intelligence and achievement.� Is this a reflection of the failure of female first grade teachers to teach boys?� Is this a reflection of a developmental difference between boys and girls, or do more boys have specific learning disabilities?� Do all of these boys have classic dyslexic issues around reading print, or is it just that they have not been taught to read effectively?

I also wonder about the failure of schools to encourage more men to go into teaching.� Certainly, in my part of the country, salaries are good, so it isn't necessarily economics. Of course, there is also the growing� disparity between men and women graduating from college.

Are we happy with the trend?� Women marrying down?� Fewer and fewer high paying skilled trades jobs and more and more men underemployed?� Do we want to make the investment in changing it by providing young boys the support they need, or are we looking at a New World Order that is a Matriarchy?

Same Sex Schools? originally appeared on About.com Special Education on Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 22:36:16.

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Co-teaching Pulling Out Ahead

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:38:09 +0000

Okay, the survey wasn't meant as a race, or a competition between teams.� At writing I had 229 responses, 14 percent who are still doing pull out, 15 percent whose students only go to specials with typical students, 31 percent who are doing push in, and 37% who are in co-teaching situations.

I also got a couple responses from outside the U.S. who said that they couldn't participate because I didn't offer the choices they offered in their situation.� I would love to hear more--feel free to email me by double clicking on the link near my picture.� About.com is a New York Times Company, and as a regular reader of the Times, I consider the New York Times to be the newspaper of record for the United States, just as the Chicago Tribune is the newspaper of record for Chicago and the Philadelphia Inquirer is the newspaper of record for Philadelphia.� I feel that it is my primary responsibility to write for teachers in the United States based on the laws of the United States.� I certainly believe that practice in Canada, New Zealand, Japan, even Sri Lanka, can inform our practice here, just as our practice will hopefully inform yours.� I hope I take the time to explain the educational and philosophical purposes of some of these laws.

Inclusion, like desegregation laws, are meant in part to remedy years of neglect and abuse.� Despite the clear intention of� PL94-152 enacted in 1975, children with disabilities have not been educated in their neighborhood schools with typically developing peers.� In Pennsylvania, the class action suit, Gaskins vs. Pennsylvania, has pushed school districts even harder to provide services and support so children stay in general education classrooms.

In an ideal world general education and special education teachers would work together to see that special education and general education students are able to thrive in classrooms that provide for all needs.� None of us live in an ideal world.� The challenge is to work together to create the kind of collaborative relationships that make it work.� I will be researching for resources to help teachers build effective co-teaching partnerships.� I will also be asking you to share some of your successes and suggestions as well.

I hope those of you from around the world will also tell us how you configure services for students, especially secondary students.

Co-teaching Pulling Out Ahead originally appeared on About.com Special Education on Sunday, January 17th, 2010 at 19:38:09.

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So What�s Up With Your Paradigm?

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:07:27 +0000

I'm mentoring a couple of new teachers at my facility.� It's kind of interesting to watch them move in--I was struck how furniture got moved to fill some pre-conceived notion of what a classroom should look like.� I was reminded of the first time I heard Hans Kung, the Swiss theologian, talk about "paradigm shift" or a change in the way we understand what our life looks like . . . where our meaning comes from.

At the same time I have been buying� Our Mother's House by Patricia Polacco for lesbian friends, who to a one are moved to tears.� It is a very cheerful, typical Polacco book.� It tells the story of two women who build a family and a home that is loving, nurturing, and open to the diversity of numerous friends and neighbors.� My boss just didn't get it.� I did.� I understand that we all have life narratives based on our lives, media and our reading.� Lesbians don't have many experiences and not many positive stories.

Inclusion has become a real challenge to a lot of people's paradigms about what happens in a class.� How many general ed teachers have you heard who say, "But I wasn't trained to deal with these students?"� Ironically, new teachers are.� IDEA is really pushing states to require some special education classes so that inclusion will happen.� In the mean time, special ed teachers have to deal with these teachers.� Concurrently, some special education teachers have a lot invested emotionally in the paradigm they have built over years of practice, and aren't ready to give up what they need to in order to collaborate in a co-teaching situation.

Another thing challenging our paradigms is the rise in really difficult behavior.� There are still a lot of� kids getting suspended without FBAs and BIPs, especially with the rise in Autism Spectrum Disorder.� Add inclusion, and a lot of kids are getting sent into classrooms that are pretty hostile and not very understanding of their need for structure or their tantrums when it isn't there.� I know.� Their parents are writing me.

So, consider carefully your paradigm.� How badly do you need to keep doing the thing you have done for years?� Is it time to gain some new skills?� Is it time to re-evaluate your commitment to teaching all children, not just the pleasant ones?� It's not a great time to go into Real Estate, but I'm hearing nursing is still wide open.

So What�s Up With Your Paradigm? originally appeared on About.com Special Education on Sunday, January 10th, 2010 at 18:07:27.

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Read It and Weep

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:57:42 +0000

Candace Cortiella, my new email friend over at the Advocacy Institute, has been shooting me lots of great stuff. I want to draw your attention to a URL (Article) she sent me publishing the results of a study done by Susan Etscheidt at the University of Northern Iowa.� Susan reviewed 800 due process cases between 1997 and 2005. The article notes that:

"A Positive Behavior Intervention Plan must be developed when a student's behavior interferes with learning. Seventeen of the reviewed cases concerned the failure of IEP teams to develop positive BIPs for students with a variety of significant behavior problems. In the majority of the cases, the school districts were aware of the needs but still did not take steps to address serious behaviors that could be dangerous or long standing issues with school attendance that interfered with educational success. Parents prevailed in sixteen of the seventeen cases."

16 of 17, or 95%. Certainly, 17 cases is not a huge number, but 95% is a fairly clear expression of how hearing officers are deciding cases.

So how are your Behavior Intervention Program writing skills? What kind of support are you getting from administrators? By this time of the year, the honeymoon with parents and students is long over, and any disciplinary action requiring a Manifestation Determination meeting may creep up on you unexpectedly. Zero tolerance is smacking a lot of kids on the back of the head, but over eager districts may find themselves in court for suspending kids for what they see as serious behavioral incidents. Better to be proactive.

So, for you out there who are struggling with difficult behaviors, better work on your FBA and BIP skills, or work on your administration to provide you with the support you need to get a BIP for a difficult student. Trust me, showing them this article might just put a little fear of due process into them. And for you parents who are trying to get a BIP for your student, load this pupper in your cannon and blow it over your district's gunnels.� Maybe you'll finally get the behavior support plan that will help your child succeed.

Read It and Weep originally appeared on About.com Special Education on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 12:57:42.

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So, How's Inclusion Working for You?

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:02:06 +0000

I've had some really lively responses lately, so I'm counting on you guys to keep it coming.� I got a really heated (not in a negative way, in a passionate way) response from Terri Mauro over at Specialchildren.about.com about inclusion, so I have put up a poll to find out what's happening where you're working.� Please respond, and I'll put up more polls to find out what your biggest pitfalls and joys are.

You'll see that I include pull out, though it's not really inclusion, as well as "specials only" (that's what they called part time in the urban district I worked in, although the children did not go to specials with typically developing peers.)

So, How's Inclusion Working for You? originally appeared on About.com Special Education on Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 19:02:06.

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Show Us the Money!

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:37:12 +0000

I got an interesting response from an organization called IDEA Money Watch--a project of the the Advocacy Institute, a non-profit and non-affiliated organization whose purpose is to advocate for people with disabilities.� They point out that a loop hole in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act permits states to redirect half of the money that is designated for support of the IDEA.

One of the things that majorly ticks me off is that states that attempt to fully fund special education and have already made sacrifices to see that programs and personnel are in place will see that funding goes to education, but states like Mississippi (home of Governor Haley Barbour, possible Republican candidate for president) will continue playing a shell game with Federal Funds.� Of course, I wouldn't want to live there, and I certainly wouldn't want to teach there (I would make less in a public school than I make in a private school on the east coast.)� I really wouldn't want my kids to go to school there. (Only 15% of their 8th grade students ranked proficient in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and only 18% in reading. No wonder they rank 50th in income!)� But boy, are their taxes low!!

I hope you'll keep an eye on the IDEAMoneywatch page, and see how your state is doing!

Show Us the Money! originally appeared on About.com Special Education on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 22:37:12.

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