Wow. If you thought you heard fireworks last Thursday, they came from here! The elementary school yearbook came out, and none of the special needs classes were pictured. Instead, all the kids' photos were clustered in with their inclusion classes. Excellent, I thought...but I'm thinking of my own kids' perspective.
Somehow, there are some elementary kids who do not do any inclusion and thus weren't featured at all. The pre-school special ed kids did not have their classes put into the book either, but they're PREschoolers...to me, not a big deal. I have a preschooler who is in their gifted class and THEY didn't do pics either.
One of the parents was so ticked off, she about levitated and revolved her head around on its neck! She not only called our local advocacy group, but also called in the media! One angry mom.
The person who put the yearbook together is a volunteer mom who has never doen it before. Apparently, she didn't have a lot of oversight because there's never been big issues before. The school offered to pay 11grand to reprint every single yearbook out there. They offered to print another page with a sticky back to affix to the back "autographs" page (this has been done before when something was left out).
I actually told the school that they need an impartial, objective advisory group of special ed parents - maybe 2 or 3 - that can weigh in on things like open house, yearbooks, pageants, etc. Do any of ya'll have such advisory teams for your kids' schools?
Our elementary school has always done individual photos, not class photos, so it hasn't been an issue. For kids who transfer into the school during the course of the year, candid shot are taken and they are included on the "new student" page. If there isn't a photo, they are at least named in the year book. Everything is done by grade and every student is accounted for. hmmm, interesting. I am not a parent but I can see how parents of special needs kids would be upset that the special ed class as a group were not pictured in the book.I think it has to do with confidentiality. Schools have laws that govern them- kind of like medical records have HIPAA to guard student's confidentiality. My son's teacher this year tried to do a contact list for families so that the parents could set up playdates. There were at least two who declined to be on the list. The teacher had to get permission from each parent before she could put the list together.
This is the case at Head Start as well. It is a federally-funded program. The families need to meet certain income requirements (usually poverty level or below) or they reserve up to 10% of their slots for kids with special needs (which is how we got my son in). They are not allowed to give out any info or even let parents take pictures of the class. It makes it very difficult to set up playdates and/or invite kids to birthday parties! There are other things it makes difficult - but those are what come to mind right now as those were issues we were facing recently. So, it is not just for kids with special needs - it also applies to Head Start as well.
I'm not a fan of these new Hippo laws. My son's picture is in his yearbook, along with his class picture. And if it was excluded I would be rasiing hell. Granted its a classroom like any other and all that needs to be said is the teacher's name and the kids names. There is no need to list special ed, or grade levels IMO.I think because of confidentiality the schools just don't know how to handle this issue - so they just don't do anything. I think it would be wise to have a special needs advisory council - although our district has one and I don't think this issue has been addressed properly here either. I was supposed to be on it this year, but then I found out we would be moving so I took myself off. You need to have parents on it who are going to advocate well and it is also wise to have people who have different viewpoints - not just all the same. The problem is that often creates problems as well because no one can agree. But, if you don't have differing viewpoints - you miss out on a lot of opportunities to learn and grow and become a better organization! [QUOTE=AndrewsMommy]My son's home elementary school, where he was in the special needs pre-K program for 2 years, NEVER acknowledged the existence of these classes or children in print. The reason given was a "privacy" issue. [/quote]
Before I say anything else....I want to say that I think it is silly to have yearbooks in elementary school. To me it is once again making our children grow up way too fast. One for fifth graders ( Or whatever grade is graduating) with ONLY their grade in there seems sufficient. I think it is way overkill to have "yearbooks" for every grade of school.
Anyways......onto the REAL issue......
Our school doesn't seem to "recognize' the self-contained rooms in ANY way. We are not listed in the phone directory for the school and class photo of OUR class in NOT taken. Children in the class are included in the school directory in their "assigned" classes that they intergrate into. Now Erin NEVER intergrates, yet she is listed as a "member" of that class and her class photo would have been with that class. I complained during class photo time and said that I would have liked one of her slef-contained classmates and all her teacers and aides, but was told "no, they aren't doing one"
Not sure why......my guess at the time was that they wished to promote all intergratin and inclusion and not "promote or advertise" that they have self-contained" rooms....just my guess......hhhmmm......now I will pose a formal question to her teacher and inquire why they do that.
I have a pet peeve to express...
My son's home elementary school, where he was in the special needs pre-K program for 2 years, NEVER acknowledged the existence of these classes or children in print. The reason given was a "privacy" issue. Okay, that may sound reasonable...But...My son does not exist? His classroom does not exist???
Now these same people wanted my $$$ to join the PTA, donate for school projects, participate in fundraisers for the school, show up at Parents Open House, etc., etc.....But absolutely no acknowledgement that my son's class (one of 2 pre-K classes) existed?
On the school's website there was a list of teachers for "special education". My son's teacher was on the list. I understand why they would not want to publish which children were in the special needs pre-K class, but why wouldn't it be okay to acknowledge its existence? Perfect attendance awards and such in the printed newsletter never mentioned my son's class. Aren't we proud of our kids too?
Our current school is the regional school for SECEP which runs an autism program that is excellent. But although it is a part of the school, and these kids transition within the school to return to their own home schools when that goal is met...It is still considered separate.
How do we as parents handle this separate but equal system? I like the idea of having a special ed parents advisory committee. As a matter of fact, I'm going to suggest it! Thanks!
When my son was in elementary school, back in the 1990s, all kids were pictured with their class. Of course, that meant that EVERYONE knew not only that your child was in special education ("regular" classes had nearly 30 photos, "sped" classes had far less, of course). They could also tell how severely disabled your child was based on how many kids were in the class and how many adults were there (15 kids? 12? 8? 6?) None of us complained. But PRIVACY has become a much huger issue. I am certain that is why the yearbook was done the way it was in your school. However, that does NOT justify leaving out kids who could not have been included with larger classes. It seems the only solution would be to have the pictures be only individual by grade.
The real truth, though, is that there is caselaw (Owasso) that says that no one has a presumption of privacy just by showing up at school. The PRIVACY is about the RECORDS, not about the child being in a photo or being seen in a particular class. Since privacy has become such a hot button these days, schools bend over backwards to protect privacy. In this case, to the point of discriminating AGAINST the group it's purporting to protect. Their lawyers should do a better job of enlightening them. Kids can be shown photographed with their class, even if that photo does reveal that they are in a special sort of class. However, what I would do if I were the Principal of that school is send home permission slips to all parents asking for permission to have their child appear in his class' photo in the yearbook. That way, the school is off the hook. If parents don't want their child to appear with his class, they can refuse permission and only give permission for an individual photo appearing in some neutral way (like alphabetical order) in the book.
We have a special form we have to sign to have our child excluded from the yearbook. They don't tell you about this form unless you ask for it at least at ds' school. He went to ECSE the last 2 years and both years I signed the form. His name isn't even mentioned in the yearbook. He is also not included in the school directory - because he would have been put under special ed. I knew he would be mainstreamed when it came to kindergarten and he is very high-functioning - so I made sure that there wouldn't be a record accessible to the public of his attending special ed. Sounds paranoids I know - but having read woodsman25's response - I feel a little bit better about my decision. We also had neighbor girls who went to that school who didn't know that my ds was in ECSE because they were in a different part of the school and ds went at odd times. The school starts ECSE a few minutes earlier and ends it about 10 minutes before the rest of the school gets out. And, he only ever went two days a week. I didn't want the nieghbor girls treating him differently than they do now.
My attitude about being forthright about my ds' autism has changed somewhat since we started down this road and I have told more people. But, in the long run I think I'm happy that I protected my son's privacy for the very reasons stated above. My son may eventually be very proud of having autism - but just in case he isn't, I wanted the decision to tell people to be his and not because of something in a yearbook. We haven't told him yet (he's not quite 6) and until he is old enough to decide whether or not he wants to tell others, I've tried to make it so that if he chooses not to - then his decision will be respected. The last year I've told several people that he interacts with fairly regularly - but we are moving to a new town an hour and a half away this summer. I don't know what I will do then. I know I won't be telling most people (besides the school district and any potential caregiver) at first because it's a small town (5,000) and I know how rumors fly. Ds can still fly under the radar for the most part.
Thanks for a very interesting post!
Leanne - yor suggestion sounds like a good one - my son is too small for school so I have no personal expereince in this