Mainstream exclusion- what to do?they are doing a good job with him. It took a while but they finally have a really good social skills group going, he does very well in speech and OT and has caught up in reading. His special ed teacher is using a behavior plan with him that has helped him stay tantrum and hitting free. So far so good. The big problem remains his time in general ed. He has a 1:1 and as soon as he seems not to cooperate or behaves in an unexpected way the teacher complelty ignores him and sents him and the 1:1 to work on stuff in the hallway. He has made no connection with classmates. Not my idea of facilitated inclusion. The class is working on a number of reading and writing projects all of which my ds could do with some assistance but none of which he is included in. The 1:1 tells me that the classroom teacher does not talk to her and I have reached out several times and not gotten a response or even question from her. She is not talking to anyone on the IEP team. I'd be sympathetic if she'd at least tried to problem solve this but she seems to have no interest. From where I am sitting ds is not getting an appropriate education from her. So - we will have an IEP meeting next week. Last meeting we came up with several ideas that would help with his inclusion. Nothing happend from her side. What do I do? The principal is not known to support special ed students, so no help there. Special ed is doing all they can and should do. The teacher clearly is the weak link. I'd like to give her a piece of my mind but then we still have to work together. Do I contact the district and ask for a mentor for her? Is it even legal or my ds to spent the majority of his mainstream time sitting in a hallway working with an aide? Does that meet qualified teacher standards? What to do? Ask for a mentor or you if you don't get any cooperation, you can legally end your meeting and ask for mediation. there are layers who will be willing to protect your rights as a parent and still be able to get along with the school. check with your state laws. Check with www.Wright'sLaws.com on the internet. Your son in entitled by law to a Free And Proper Education (FAPE) and the IEP is supposed to ensure him of that. Our experience with general ed teachers is that they vary wildly.One said "I've never taught a kid like him before." That was good since we brain stormed in what to do, and she learned. Another never talked with us, and our son just had to survive on his own. The current seems willing to talk but refuses to say to any supervisory staff that he has issues. I think that she wants to do this on her own w/o outside interference. Or else had been told to. For our other son the current teacher first got really annoyed with all the commotion that my SpEd son caused, and she seemed the last to know he was coming. Don't blame her much, the SpEd office did not warn her. It just about reached a head when the aide and so on got squared away. Now she's asking for information whereas before she was just annoyed. So maybe it will come around for us. One thing to think about, if you teacher has been out on the workforce for a while, what she was taught about autism might have been in the era of "refridgerator mothers" and so she may not know anything about inclusion, and may not know what she does not know. Only thing I can think to do is hope that she eventually realizes that inclusion is very difficult to do right, and a she might need help. Where I come from the teacher teachs and the aide is only there to help the child learn (staying focused etc). Otherwise the aide cannot "fade". If you child is outside in the hall, this is not inclusion and fading the aide will never happen. You might ask about this in the IEP. Although I'd make it a question like "I'm just a mom, but how do we ever cut back on the aide if my son is in the hall and the aide is his teacher?" Be glad that SpEd is willing to help. Not all do. we had the IEP meeting.The classroom teacher did come and I think someone had a talk with her because she did no longer say stuff like"he is not my student, he is with special ed". I still think she is the weak link but we did agree that she would find a few students who do well with my ds and try a buddy approach to get him more included. She (at least claims) to work more closely with the aide and has her use a timer to increase my ds willingness to stay with tasks. The asd advisor will observe the class- room more and give the teacher advise on how to handle special challenges. I wish it was not all such an uphill struggle. Not just having to struggle with asd but with getting staff educated and advocating for an appropriate education. I do go to district meetings and last time the assistant superintendend said without batting an eye that IEPs are what the parents want them to be. We all know it is true but I am just so discouraged that even the district resigns themselves to that - where does that leave the kids whose parents can't/don't advocate for them? Anyway- things are going a bit better for my ds but he still only spends about 15% of his day in mainstream which is not enough for being at a mainstream school. If I did not think his resource room teacher was doing a fine job I'd pull him out yesterday. So they will keep working on it and I will tour a few more asd programs. If it is included in your DS's IEP that he will be included in the general education setting and curriculum, then he must be included. *If there are specific goals, supplements, and modifications that are specific to this setting, then the REGULAR EDUCATION teacher is LEGALLY responsible for carrying out and working to achieve these things. Request an IEP meeting with the ENTIRE team, and discuss with the entire team how these modifications and goals are going to be implemented. Request that specific data is collected in the regular education setting to prove that his modifications are being used, and that his goals are being worked on. Remind everyone at the meeting in a non-threatening way that this is a legal document, and you are well aware of your rights (I'm so glad that up until now most things in the IEP have been implemeted the way that they're written in the IEP, since it is a legal document.) *If there are NOT specific goals, supplements, and modifications that are specific to the general education setting, request an IEP meeting to add these into the IEP. In particular, ask that social skills and attending goals are set for the regular education setting, with specific strategies as to how these goals are going to be worked on. Unfortunately, when cooperation isnt happening, we have to go a bit further and start bringing in those that are further up the school-food chain--the head of sped. Is this teacher involved during IEP meetings? Is she hearing what is supposed to be done? I ask this because, I just helped a friend in NC that had IEP issues with her daughter, and found out that, the ones involved directly with IEP enforcement weren't even invited to meetings and heard only parts of it, second hand through principal. I would start a paper trail, asking for meetings as well as discussing, in writing ahead of time, the problems that are occuring and what should be happening that is written in IEP, but not followed. This can be emails as well, and copy in the heads of SPED in the administration office if the principal doesn't start initiating some concern of this. This just gives proof that you started working on the issues, and that they either acknowledged or didn't acknowledge them. If the emails start going unanswered, then start replying to them, only copying them in to the head of SPED services. You have the right to call an IEP team meeting, and invite whomever you want to it, at any time during the year. You can ensure that teacher is there as well as bringing your own person (I bring my case manager from dev. supports with me to every one) in with you. I really feel bad for your son because, as he gets older and the exclusions from classrooms start being apparent to the other kids, it becomes a call of attention to him more than should be. I feel horrible that he is being sent out to the hall to do his work. Here, that is punishment and they put you out there so everyone walks by sees the kid isn't behaving in class. I would hate to see that happen to your child. Please keep us updated. There are a lot of good things written here by others. Sometimes, we have to fight hard in order to ensure our kids have the correct services. It sometimes also involves our stepping on toes, which isn't pleasant but..sometimes, the nicer you are, the easier it is to have these issues slip through the cracks. As they get older, those cracks get larger and eventually they fall into them completely. It is best to start early to avoid it getting that far in the future. ((hugs)) Is there a district supervisor or dept head for special educ that you could request at your son's IEP meeting? They can be great advocates for our kids and help to bridge the gap between regular classroom time and special ed services. My oldest son has always been included for gym, music, etc, but has trouble in the regular classroom, especially with his English teacher of all things. He speaks fluent English, so it wasn't that it was too hard, and not too boring either. The problem was the teacher's teaching style. She had a very fast pace that was also difficult for some of the other kids to follow. She also had a low tolerance for disruptions, which made the assistant feel like she was being accused of not doing her job when she couldn't make my son be 100% silent and attentive. We ended up saying forget English, it's not worth the hassle. I wonder if your son's teacher has a teaching style that's a bad match for him, and if you can get him switched to another teacher? http://learningdisabilities.about.com/od/disabilitylaws/qt/t eacherchoice.htm - what you can do when you want to request a change of teacher. I also wonder if she's under pressure to produce results, like exceptional scores on standardized testing, so she feels she can't spare a moment to actively include your son. It's tough to do something about school culture, when administration wishes your special child wasn't there. You can force them to follow the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law. Good luck. Let us know how the meeting goes. I've thought about this too, dd is almost 5 yrs old, though, so I'm in a different position. Right now I am skippying over everyone and putting letters to the parents of some kids to have playdates but I know your child is 9 so might be more difficult for sure. That's hard. I myself remember when I invited my entire 5th grade class to my bday party (I just moved) and only 1 person came and one person sent a present. And then I invited several people to the mall that same yr and one person came. I was a loner but I did make a couple great friends in school which was all I really wanted. Would it be possible for your child to invite a few kids to something they would really like and maybe even write the parents a letter saying how much this means to you. You could make something that is really fun for the kids and parents or just the kids. I could be totally off. I love the idea of a buddy at school. They teacher should be doing that and changing the buddy every week or so! That is such an awesome idea!! I would be emailing the teacher asap to ask her to please help and if she says no I would go go above her. Hoping she has some kind of heart in there.Did you put thatyou wanted him in more regular ed class activities in the IEP? If not, then add it at this meeting. Once you have it in the IEP, the teacher must do something so he can achieve that goal. Something to also keep in mind is that the regular ed teacher may also feel helpless in 'what to do.' Needless to say, having a principal that is not supportive of special needs kids only tells me that the school does not put forth the effort to educate their teachers or allow them to be educated in serving special needs kids. You might offer the teacher some assistance. Make it a team effort. Also get involved in encouraging the ESE teachers, therapists and the regular ed teachers to work together. With my teachers, I have both their email addresses and telephone numbers. I email them at least 2 times a week asking how things are going and if they need me do do anything that will help my children in their classes. I will even help the teacher make social stories to help w/ my daughter's comprehension of stories during reading time. Also get the school at assign some students (buddies) to your child in the regular ed class. You can ask the teacher if you can come in for about 20 mins to do an empathy training or education to the class about your child. This is where you can tell the class that your child has autism and highlight the things your child loves and is good at. You also let them know about certain behavior issues. For instance, my daughter may not always respond to a question the first time it is asked. So we told the students that if that happens, then to ask it again but make sure she is making eye contact. We also explain to them about her occasional echolalia too. So what was the result? My daugher has several buddies who she can role model after and the best part is that the teacher doesn'thave to be there 100% of the eime to encourage social interaction. The students will initiate the scoial interaction w/ my daughter if she forgets. Those are just some ideas. |
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