school putting ages 3-8 togetther | Autism PDD
Ok, school starts Monday and they are already pulling a doozy-we jyst found out today that ds will be in a all autistic classroom and it will have ages 3 (ds in almost 4 ) to 3rd grade! so please let me know! THANKS!!!What??? What happened to being w/ your peers? That is bizarre, never
heard of that. I know that our spec ed program groups the children in age
ranges, as far as I can tell (grade 1-4, I think). But, to mix preschool
children w/ the older ones...not a good idea IMHO!
My main concerns would be seeing how many of the kids have major
behavioral issues. I'd be afraid that my 3 or 4 year old may be a target. I
also just don't see how a 3 or 4 year old could relate in any setting, let alone
school, with 8 year olds. Plus, what exactly will the curriculum be? I'm very
confused by this...I hope someone else can give you some insight. And, I
hope you can find a viable alternative. GOOD LUCK! Keep us posted on this. I have never heard of such a wide range of ages. At our school they often have 2 grades together - my son will be in a 1st/2nd grade classroom for 1st grade. It's nice to have 2 grades because it provides some nice peer modeling. However I too would be nervous about about 3 - 8 together.I've never heard of that! The class my son would have been in
(autistic students only) was ages 5 - 10 (could be older too) and I
thought that was bad enough.
Ok guys- Thank you and I am glad I am not crazy!!! Anyone know any LAWS I can use To try to sTOP this CRAZINESS????????? I cant pm tzoya, but if you are out thier please help!!!!!!!!hey how do you bump a topic????Check out:
Wrightslaw-LRE
"According to the IDEA's LRE or mainstreaming policy, school districts are
required to educate students with disabilities in regular classrooms with
their nondisabled peers, in the school they would attend if not disabled,
to the maximum extent appropriate."
I would argue that this would NOT be your child's LRE. He would not be
placed with such a wide age group in an NT preschool. Also, I'd argue
this also is not a FAPE for him according to the law...I can't see how or
why this would be considered "appropriate." Hopefully tzoya can offer
some more insight. I would start by making lists of all the reasons you
feel this is negative & inappropriate. Do you have "From Emotions to
Advocacy"?? tzoya recommends it a lot, it is the BEST book for dealing w/
the schools, I'm so glad she posted about it.
In New York State, there is a limit to 36 months in age for any given class. I don't know offhand if this is true under IDEA 2004. If I were you, I'd go to my state's education website and search "age range" or "continuum of services" to discover whether or not your state has a limit to the age range. What you can definitely do is get your child's current levels of performance tested so that you have a baseline of where he is at the beginning of the year. Then, test him mid-year and if he hasn't made progress, call an IEP meeting and ask that his placement be changed. Also, ask what sort of progress monitoring they plan on doing at least as often as other kids get report cards. The law REQUIRES that a classified child's progress be reported at least as often as the progress of typical kids is. One of the things schools try to do is make progress monitoring be subjective. Ask that they use standardized testing if you can. If you can't get them to do this, get the testing done on your own. The idea is to show that your child is or is not making progress. This is the absolute standard of IDEA. That a child make more than trivial progress.
BTW -- My pm has been broken here for years.
You just did. You just have to post to it and it bumps to the top.Seems like grade-wise age 3/4 is still preschool and should not be mixed with lower elementary. My daughter is currently in a combined class, but it is K-2....preschoolers should be seperated...how many kids are in the class ? Do they have a seperate PDD preschool class ?
I remember, both in NY and NJ, for elementary schools which were eather grade k-5 or k-6. I remember they divided all the grades in half, so half of the youngest spec ed kids in 1 class and half of the oldest spec ed kids in another. WHen I moved to NY, i was the youngest kid in my spec ed class, I was the only 3rd grader in mine, but they placed me in their because of my ability to do the work, as I have already done the work of a 3rd grader, in a previous year in NJ. I must say, this bairly worked, as i was often the target of the older kids, and mine was 4th-6th grade, I was doing 3rd and some 4th grade work, and was introduced for the first time in a mainstream 3rd grade class. It was a complex situation.To make 3-8 year olds in 1 class is the most rediculous thing I have ever heard, I see the younger ones always loosing out over the competitiveness of the older ones, I see the older ones being held back because of the younger kids, which may cause friction. I cant see this being good for the older and younger. I would try and get something done, its too bad u cant get a hold of some of the other parents of these kids (which probably feel the same way as u do) and organize them, so the school understands how they feel. I think, since your son is 4 years old he will be at a diss advantage in a class like this.Woodsman- I coudl not have said it better myself. It is a no win situation. Turtle- I am in Orlando in ORange co. They have done a lot of dumb things, but this takes the cake. I hope I can talk to some of the parents, woodsman. I just dont see how it can work. The teacher is new-and I ahve a feeling she will be realizing it is not a good situation soon. With this school district, I just get the feeling that the big wigs dont care.MY SON WHO IS 5 STARTS K IN SEPT. HE WILL BE IN THE SPECIAL ED CLASS WHICH IS K-2. WE LIVE IN OC CALIFORNIA. WE WILL SEE HOW IT GOES.
My youngest son has never been placed with an older group of children. However, when my older son participates in special programs, like Social Skills training, I believe they have kids from grades 1 - 5.
I found the following on this subject on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction web page:
http://dpi.wi.gov/ec/ecmxippg.html
Early Childhood Mixed Aged Pratices
Early Childhood: Implications for Practice
Grouping children in classes with a wide age range cannot by itself yield the benefits implied by the research on crossage interaction and multiage grouping. If these benefits are to be realized, the curriculum must be modified to provide a variety of activities in which children work together on projects and other activities, preferably in small multiage groups in which each individual can contribute in different ways to the total effort (Katz and Chard, 1989; Blumenfeld et al., 1991).
Teaching strategies likely to result in children's realizing the benefits of a wide age range include encouraging more knowledgeable and experienced children to assist less able ones, regardless of age, as needed; encouraging younger children to request assistance from more competent classmates; and encouraging older and more experienced children to take responsibility for helping the others.
Each grouping arrangement has its risks. A risk of homogeneous age grouping is that some children will become acutely aware of failing to live up to normative expectations for behavior and achievement for their age. Risks of mixedage grouping are those of younger children becoming burdens to older ones and being overwhelmed by more competent classmates. Teachers must keep in mind the risk of overlooking older and more experienced children's need for challenge, but this is the case in every class, even when student age is not a factor. Research on mixedage grouping suggests that in spite of its risks, its potential advantages outweigh its disadvantages (Katz et al.,1990).
This publication was funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. OER188 062012. Opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI. ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may be freely reproduced and disseminated
Ya, thats should be fine, any older kids admitted into that classroom tho would be bad.
indeed, it is the big wigs who obviously dont care. They r supposed to serve the public and do what is best for the kids with the funding avalible, i understand sometimes funds r hard to come by or even other resources, but mixing such a wide range of ages into 1 class, with a bran new teacher is definatly rough. I wonder, if since this new teacher is obviously trained to deal with special cases, is it that their is only 1 teacher, and she has to somehow keep order and teach all these kids each in a different level of learning. I know in my special ed class, their were 2 teachers, and I was the youngest, but was pretty smart, often, the teachers would be dealing with the older kids, helping them, and more often then not, i would be roaming freely. It was nice, but u cant learn anything like that. I was borded, and have behavior problems as a result. A shortage of resources, or in this case teachers is probably to blaim, but none the less, they need to better accomodate these kids, its like they r giving up on them, and just need to stick them somewhere, i would be furious if i was you, and i would be advocating, their has to be something they can do. Make calls, go to the board meetings, talk to ppl.
Daniel's last class had k thru 8 th grade in it. Here k thru 6 has one SE teacher/7th thru 12 th has another Se teacher. You can't look at the age of the se kids cause some don't act their ages. Many kids just are in Se for struggeling subjects and mainstream in other areas. Most of these were returned back to there assigned schools. This teacher now will only have k-3 where they moved this class to. I hear it will be 8 kids for her again.
How about 50% Se and 50% mainstream!
Where would I look to find the laws that would state what ages can be together in a classroom?I am in Orange co, FLorida, if anyone can help, I would really appreciate it. KNUCKLEDUSTER--what a great story! I am glad you were able to convey your feelings and get the changes made!! !TZOYA- Iam going to video him tonightand in the following days. His core deficits are speecha and behavior. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks again everyone! Today is Cs first day.....In our area, at least in elementary and middle school, the resource room/EC class can have all grade levels. So when Tony was in elem., the EC class had K through 5, and now middle has 6-8. I too disagree with the concept, and know for a fact it is a financial decision on the county school board's part.
We were VERY fortunate in elementary school in that the EC teacher worked very diligently in "farming out" her students very carefully and, for the most part, very successfully. This was well supported by the administration, as it was done very well. Middle school was a rude awakening here, as Tony went from mostly mainstreaming with lots of resource support, to a secluded class with VERY little exposure to the regular ed kids. This past school year was a big waste of time.
Honestly, I'm not sure what the guidelines are in NC. We are finally moving out of state, so at this moment in time, I am glad to be putting it behind us.
Mary
There is no way a teacher can accomodate such an age range. I wouldn't feel comfortable letting my child do that.I have no doubt that this situation is financially driven, given the rubber stamp by people who have authority but no concept of what the students and teachers really need.
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