The Supreme Court ruling in this Spec. Ed. case is interesting to me, because I taught in a private school in Montgomery County. I have very mixed feelings about this case in particular because it highlights a couple problems with public education and special ed. services provided by public schools. As a former teacher in a private school, I understand how ill-prepared private schools are for dealing with any kind of learning disability. In Montgomery County, very little if any attention is paid to students who are privately schooled but need special ed. services. On the one hand, the schools are overwhelmed as it is to provide testing, IEP's and services to the students who attend their schools. On another, it would be to their benefit to cooperate with the private schools who often invest many overtime hours in providing specialized services recommended by the county for students that they will not have to service. I guess the legal ramifications, however, of parents now suing schools for tuition to these private schools is what keeps them from cooperating.
The other interesting point that is not so apparent from this article is the decline in services offered to special ed. students once they are out of elementary schools and enter into middle school. I'm not as familiar with this transition, but from friends of mine who have gone through this, it is a very difficult adjustment. As a parent, you want what is best for your child but that is not always available. It is a shame, but schools will ultimately choose the "diagnosis" that works best for them, not necessarily the parents or even the student, at upper levels.
In an unrelated case, but one I am quite familiar with!, my sister-in-law was "diagnosed" with depression and severe ADHD in second grade. Throughout all her school years, the town included her in a special ed program that ended up basically treating her like she could not do anything on her own!! When she got to high school, she was in a "resource" program that basically did all her work for her. All the while, she was included in the numbers for which the school received special ed. funding. It wasn't until she decided she wanted to go to college that the party was over. All of a sudden, she didn't belong in that program anymore. She didn't get any help her senior year, she was smart enough to join the "normal" kids in regular classes and was no longer welcome in resource.
What happened??? Basically, she never really tested into the special ed. program, but they needed their numbers, so she was always welcome. It was quite a shock to her system to learn that she was actually normal, that she might be expected to actually read one of the novels on the English class reading list or do her own math homework and pass it in. I might be slightly exaggerating, but my parents literally sat down and taught her how to write term papers when she was a senior in high school. She went on to a wonderful! school in Virginia, Longwood College, that has an excellent program for students with learning issues and they were willing to accept her into that program based on the fact that she had always been treated like she did have a learning problem. Thank goodness for some brains at the college level!!
So, what am I trying to say here?? I don't really know, except that I side with the schools, that teachers need to spend more time in the classroom and less time in court, but I also agree with the parents, that getting special education services that truly meet the needs of your child can be so impossible when you feel like everyone is working against you. Educators need to listen to parents and parents need to respect the training of these professionals. Until that happens, we'll be seeing more and more cases just like this one! Especially dealing with special ed. at the middle and high school level.
The other interesting point that is not so apparent from this article is the decline in services offered to special ed. students once they are out of elementary schools and enter into middle school. I'm not as familiar with this transition, but from friends of mine who have gone through this, it is a very difficult adjustment. As a parent, you want what is best for your child but that is not always available. It is a shame, but schools will ultimately choose the "diagnosis" that works best for them, not necessarily the parents or even the student, at upper levels.
In an unrelated case, but one I am quite familiar with!, my sister-in-law was "diagnosed" with depression and severe ADHD in second grade. Throughout all her school years, the town included her in a special ed program that ended up basically treating her like she could not do anything on her own!! When she got to high school, she was in a "resource" program that basically did all her work for her. All the while, she was included in the numbers for which the school received special ed. funding. It wasn't until she decided she wanted to go to college that the party was over. All of a sudden, she didn't belong in that program anymore. She didn't get any help her senior year, she was smart enough to join the "normal" kids in regular classes and was no longer welcome in resource.
What happened??? Basically, she never really tested into the special ed. program, but they needed their numbers, so she was always welcome. It was quite a shock to her system to learn that she was actually normal, that she might be expected to actually read one of the novels on the English class reading list or do her own math homework and pass it in. I might be slightly exaggerating, but my parents literally sat down and taught her how to write term papers when she was a senior in high school. She went on to a wonderful! school in Virginia, Longwood College, that has an excellent program for students with learning issues and they were willing to accept her into that program based on the fact that she had always been treated like she did have a learning problem. Thank goodness for some brains at the college level!!
So, what am I trying to say here?? I don't really know, except that I side with the schools, that teachers need to spend more time in the classroom and less time in court, but I also agree with the parents, that getting special education services that truly meet the needs of your child can be so impossible when you feel like everyone is working against you. Educators need to listen to parents and parents need to respect the training of these professionals. Until that happens, we'll be seeing more and more cases just like this one! Especially dealing with special ed. at the middle and high school level.
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