When you have -- or teach -- children with disabilities, you enter a world with a language all its own.
Your educational existence revolves around the IEP, or individualized education program. Parents and educators often struggle to figure out the best mix of services and accommodations to help an individual student learn best.
A friend who's been through that drill forwarded a survey being done by Elizabeth Ireland, a graduate student in public policy and law at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy. Ireland is working with Advocates for Children's Services, a branch of Legal Aid, to look at ways to make the state IEP form easier for parents and educators to use.
Reading through her survey makes me glad I don't have to use or edit this form. But I'm not the expert; many of you are. So if you've got thoughts to share, Ireland invites you to take the survey by Feb. 20. She plans to share her results and recommendations with Advocates for Children's Services, Duke University and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Better plans for special-needs kids?
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36 comments:
Why teachers can't teach #231. Core teachers pulled from class to sit in hour+ IEP meeting for ADHD student whose parent(s) won't administer medication.
How about the Speacial Needs Teachers?
Never have I seen a more sad state of affairs than reading ALL of the "all reply" messages sent out in the employee emails today.
What a lack of communication and understanding by our highest administrators and teachers.
No teachers you are not going to be paid for 12 months, but rather you will have the opportunity to have your 10 month salary paid over 12 months. Even the few that understood this new undertaking and cheered with the hoopla dont understand fisical payroll procedures.
If you elect for CMS to pay you out over 12 months it is NOTHING to cheer about. All you have done is give CMS an interest free loan. It is no different than getting back a huge refund check from the Federal Government. This is your money and could be saved and invested with a greater return by YOU not the government agency. What a very sad day!
CU
CMS has destroyed the original true intent of the definition of special needs. They did this to extort more money from the feds. Now when they go to many of these families for these remedial services, they are not interested and worse, when the course of action comes to a conclusion, the family units loses some of its federal monthly slacker check. This is a group of kids that simply do not know how to behave and the family unit cares less to discipline.
There was a huge push to classify these kids this way so then they could hide behind the federal law that prevents CMS from disciplanary action and continue to punish the students who want an education.
Anonymous @4:55 does not know what he/she is talking about. The number of students identified as special ed. has fallen over the last several years as CMS has pushed to remediate students in the regular classroom.
LD (EC) IEP. TD (IAG) IEP. Been there, done that.
EC:
Thank God for competent and supportive CMS classroom teachers and administrative staff who didn't give up on my son. I'm immensely grateful for the teachers my son had at Smithfield and Endhaven who not only advocated and fought for ALL of their students but symbolically held my hand through many challenges and triumphs. I'm also grateful to the growing number of private schools in Charlotte that also offer LD/EC services.
10:41
I believe it is your responsibility and duty as a core classroom teacher to fully participate in IEP meetings be it for a kid with Asperger's syndrome, Tourette's syndrome, a reading disability, a hearing disability, a physical disability, a speech and language disability, a medical disability, ADD, ADHD, a mental health issue, blindness or a low vision disability, or a student with a brain injury. I'm not suggesting your job is easy but this is what you signed up for. You also signed up to teach kids who are intellectually advanced, of average intelligence, and those whose primary language isn't English which is why I don't support the stupidity of hiring a "diversity" expert to divert anymore of your time and attention away from what you're already required to do.
AD
I pulled my EC child with an IEP (who, by the way 10:41--he IS medicated), to private school. He could not be educated in a classroom of 30-35 kids in elementary school. He'd need twice as much medication, and I'm not making my kid a zombie so my suburban dollars can increase funding per child at other schools. I fully intend to take advantage of my NC tax CREDIT for educating my EC child elsewhere.
6:51, it does not change their classification whatever classroom they are in.
9:20
Unfortunately, we missed the tax credit.
For added fun - Types of "Diverse" Leaners!
In addition to the diversity of aforementioned students a public school teacher is expected to teach is the following list of "Multiple Intelligences" a public school teacher is expected to address:
Types of Multiple Intelligences or Modality Strengths -
1. Naturalist
2. Musical
3. Logical
4. Existential
5. Interpersonal
6. Intrapersonal
7. Kinesthetic
8. Verbal
9. Visual
I'm not sure what the primary Multiple Intelligence (or Modality Strength) is of the average minority student in CMS - according to race expert Glenn Singleton - but I scored 10's on Existential and Kinesthetic learning. I scored a 2 for my ability to learn Logically.
AD
Cont.
I think Bolyn would score a 10 on Logic. I'll give Shamash an 8 on Musical. I'm adding a "Multiple Intelligence/Modality Strength" Cartoon category for Wiley. Wiley's in a class all his own.
AD
AD,
I couldn't agree with you more on those truly with special needs. I've "been there, done that since the 70's. However, at some point parent participation either before, during planning, or after school would be appreciated or required. There doesn't seem to be anyone advocating for the thirty-five or more students per period that are losing another day of instruction while their teacher is pulled from class for an IEP meeting. So on that point we'll have to disagree. I'm humbled you recognized my responsibilities and duties while acknowledging diversity skills unknown to BOE and upper administration. 10:41
10:41
All of my IEP meetings were before school or after school. One meeting was held on a teacher workday and another before the school year started.
No teacher should be pulled out of their regular classroom during core instructional periods which negatively impacts every student in class. Sounds like this is a scheduling issue your administration needs to fix.
AD
Yes, my child's IEP meeting was scheduled during a Specials class, so the teacher was available to attend and did not miss any instructional time.
Personally, the meeting was a waste of time, they weren't prepared and seemed to want to push my child out of the program because he made too much progress the past 6 weeks. He is still way behind his peers and his father and I have to reteach him everything he has learned during the day. What a joke.
AD,
Sorry, but I took a quick test of multiple intelligences on a scale of 0-20 and here's what I got.
Roughly 10's (equal to a 5 on your scale):
<inesthetic
Naturalistic
Interpersonal
Musical
And roughly 20's on everything else.
Linguistic
Visual
Logical
Intrapersonal
My low scores in Musical, Kinesthetic, and Interpresonal intelligences probably explain why I wouldn't care to see anyone dance to Philip Glass.
I'm not sure what Singleton would have to say about these multiple intelligences.
But he's sure that if a black person scores low in any type of intelligence it is due to racism.
Asians, of course, will score high in all of them if that's what the white man expects.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is59-H8oGB0
Happy Valentine's Day, Shamash.
AD
My MI scores suggest possible career choices in dance and/or military psychiatry. Seriously.
Therefore, I've decided my first patient is going to be school board member, Eric Davis, so we can explore the Logical thought process that prompted him to vote in favor of standardized testing modern dance performed to music by Philip Glass. I can't remember if Eric Davis attended West Point or the Navel Academy?
AD
AD,
OK, made me look.
Hate to be a critic, especially since I'm such a moron when it comes to music and dance, but...
Seriously?
I guess I expect the dance to relate to the music somehow.
I see he also "collaborates" with John Cage.
Some people are just weird that way.
I only took one Music class my whole life.
It was Music Appreciation.
For the clueless.
My professor was a guy who sang for a composer named Kenneth Gaburo on Antiphony III and IV.
Dance to this, if you can.
Back at ya...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V3Ikn-1RN8
I believe John and Merce were partners - in a "diverse" way.
One of my college professors was arrested for dancing topless on the Iwo Jima memorial in protest of the Vietnam War. Rumor had it she also flipped an audience the bird. She's pushing 80-years-old and still teaches at a major $58,000 a year university.
AD
Oh, and she was a Mormon too. No kidding. Didn't drink or smoke. Didn't like to wear a bra either.
AD,
Davis was army and it showed. Naval personnel already know where and what navels are around the world.
Too funny!
The Doctor is IN. (for navel and naval watching personelle)
AD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CByoefokGrA
Shamash,
Kind of thing I lived and breathed for in college.
Lucida Childs/Philip Glass. Enjoy!
AD
and once again, the conversation turns from the EC child to any freaking thing else.
Kind of how CMS treats any child who isn't "normal."
9:42
EVERY parent with an EC child experiences a period of denial, depression, anger, and grief. Parents who have a child with a diagnosed learning disability or any other kind of disability go through a grieving process similar to death. This is perfectly normal. You are not alone. Although the conversation on this blog may take some lighthearted twists and turns, you are in the company of many who have walked your walk. Having a special-needs child is an ongoing journey filled with heartache and joy. It gets better, and then it doesn't, and then it does again. I always refer to the various EC stages as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride because this is what it feels like. I'm sorry you feel the conversation here veered off topic. It did, but please be assured this doesn't diminish the concerns you have which happen to be the very same concerns every parent with a special-needs child has.
AD
As someone who has sat through IEPs as a teacher and then as an administrator, taught Special Education children, had to discipline SpEd children as an administrator and most importantly had to explain to my child why he doesn’t get a full education from his teacher and has to put up the with outrageous behavior of SpEd/EC (BED, ADHD, Turrets) classmate, I see all sides.
Since we live in a educational democratic (that’s small d folks) society, all children are afforded an education. However it is time for the parents of non-SpEd/EC children to make their unhappiness known. Sometimes, the least restrictive environment for a SpEd/EC child is not in any way best for them or the other children in the room.
Yes, there are some learning disabilities that should be addressed by the general ed teacher or a co-teacher in the general classroom, but when a child—whomever they are or whatever their SpEd/EC classification or non-classification—disrupts ANY other child’s education, that is a violation of that child’s F.A.P.E. rights.
And yes, the IEP system needs to be changed too.
Anon 9:42.
Hey, for all we know, I might be considered an "EC child" in today's world.
It wouldn't surprise me at all.
Fortunately I made it through public school before the pharmacists and social workers started running the place.
AD,
Now that is more like what I would expect dance to Philip Glass to look like.
Glad to see that someone agrees.
Now, I guess I'll stop disrupting "class"....
9:42 p.m., maybe this is what I get for spending yesterday in Asheville chasing the president instead of monitoring comments. It's a balancing act: I think it's great that regular readers have fun and feel like this is an online community, but I do try to keep the comments related to the topic at hand. Maybe Alicia and Shamash need to set up their own dance chat room :-)
TO: ANON on Feb. 12th
I just saw the comment about logic and me. Well, thanks.
I'll offer-up that today,Valentine Day, is an opportunity to think about the value of logic in education when so much of the planning is driven by the heart.
If I had to chose which is better, I couldn't. Two are always better than one.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville, NC
Were you hoping to ask His Highness how he intends to pay for all the new school buildings he wants and pre-K for all, without them costing taxpayers a dime?
I would have loved that answer.
Boyln, I would submit that what you are refering to is more like fear of another Watts riot or a Selma march that would tranish the image of Charlotte held only by those who are legends in their own minds. Their (state) motto is "to seem rather than to be".
That was beautiful, Bolyn.
This is all part of No Child Left Behind by our Federal Government.
The government action has an unintended consequence of the entire dumbing down of the USA public school system
Unintended?
What makes you so sure of that?
The only thing "sure" about any government program is waste, corruption and inefficient labor costs.
6:54
My LD child was the highly compliant and quite one who never liked to bring attention to himself. He won the Character Education award four years in a row at two different CMS elementary schools. I understand your point of view. My son could have easily fallen through the cracks in a class full of highly disruptive students who, I would argue, are just as likely to be labeled "gifted" as those who are assigned an "EC" label. My oldest son was in CMS' gifted program. Any teacher who ever worked with him would fall over in convulsions at the prospect of him being a contender for a CMS Character Education award. My "gifted" brother - a Yale physics major - received an out of school suspension in high school for "disruptive" behavior.
So, for those of us with EC children, I agree that we need to have our voices heard to limit the amount of disruptions caused by average and gifted students in class who violate our children's basic rights to a sound and appropriate education.
AD
Thank-you, AD. I agree.
Plenty of "neurotypical" children disrupt learning, too.
There is no place in CMS for children who aren't discipline problems, but have learning disabilities. My son is in the "gifted" range, yet has ADHD and a learning disorder in written expression. His teachers tell me what a polite child he is, where does he fit? Not in a large classroom, that's for sure.
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