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Adoption
CaptainSerious
member
X-post, because so often older child adoption goes hand in hand with special education
CaptainSerious
member
in Adoption
Blown away by class visit...in a bad way
My 3rd grade son has dyslexia and we are unhappy at how his IEP is currently being implemented. As one alternative, we were offered the opportunity to move him into a special program class that has 10 students with similar language learning disabilities, all 3rd-5th graders. I went today to check it out.
It was awful. There was a teacher and two paraprofessionals. The teacher talked in a derogatory way about the kids to the paras--in front of all the kids while she lead class! The three most outrageous were:
- When a student raised his hand hoping to give an answer to an exercise, she looked at the para and said, "Oh, no. I'm afraid. Did he have his hand up?"
- When a new student to the class, who was clearly learning English as a Second Language, gave the same unintelligible one-word answer to a question several times, she didn't ask her if she knew the word in English or to try to describe it in another way, she just rolled her eyes and said to us (who were observing her class), "I just can't understand her."
- When each child was asked for an example and she wrote their answers on the board, she realized she was one short. Rather than figuring out who hadn't given an answer and addressing them, she just shrugged and said, "Well, that's okay. I won't get every kid every time."
I mean if someone were writing a satire about the terrible state of special education, this would be the teacher/class. They didn't work with the kids until they understood a concept, they just coaxed the correct answer out of them and moved on. If a child didn't get the concept at the beginning of the lesson, they certainly didn't get it by the end. They never explained anything in more than one way, they didn't use manipulative's, they didn't break the kids up into groups based on their skill levels, and they talked at the children rather than explaining things to them.
The kicker is, this was all while I, and two child study team members, were there observing. If this is how they are when someone's watching, I can't imagine how bad it is when they are alone, especially at the end of the day when everyone's tired and cranky.
Clearly, my son will never attend that class. But this is really bothering me, and I'm wondering if I should make a point of telling them just how awful this class was. If I didn't have a vested interest, I'd probably say something just to feel like I did what I could, but I am fighting for changes in my older son's IEP implementation and, as soon as that's settled, about to fight the fact that they said my younger son's not eligible for services (the reason they gave simply isn't legal). I don't want to rock the boat any more than I have to, but those poor kids. Some of them clearly understand they are being picked on by their teacher, and none of them are getting any of the extra help they were promised. It just kills me....
This discussion has been closed.
Re: X-post, because so often older child adoption goes hand in hand with special education
I am also a little disturbed that they let a parent observe other children who are identified as receiving special services, as that is illegal. Unless it wasn't public school, then they make their own rules. But maybe I'm misunderstanding things or maybe my state is just more strict.
YES!!! You need to say something. As a teacher and licensed Reading Specialist, I am horrified by this. Simply horrified. It is not ok and shows a huge weakness in the principal as well, since this is taking place and is allowed by administration.
Also, if your child has been diagnosed with dyslexia, it is a very interesting reading disability. The interesting piece comes from it being a true reading disability as opposed to a cognitive learning disability. It requires a teacher who has a strong and specific literacy background, not just a special education background. Not all special education teachers are well versed on specific reading disabilities, so make sure you push your district for specific reading services from a licensed reading specialist not just general special education services. I love working with students with dyslexia because once appropriate, focused, and usually individualized, instruction is given, everything begins clicking for the student and learning becomes accessible and not frustrating. Push for specific reading services so your child can be included in a general educations setting because motivation and peer relationships are key as kids get older. It's not always the same learning environment and culture when they are in a sub-separate learning environment.
Donmitch, M is not only dyslexic, but also has low working memory and all the other issues that come with dyslexia, like lack of understanding of math and time concepts. We've done private Wilson training with him for a year, and at this point he's still only reading at a Kindergarten to 1st grade level.
As it is, his current placement is a mainstream classroom with resource room pull-outs for language arts and math (makes up about 4.5 hours a day) and mainstream everything else (social studies, science, Spanish, specials, gym). He's supposed to have one-on-one help for the time he's in the mainstream classroom, but they only have one paraprofessional (who's not a teacher and has no special ed background) to help all the classified kids (6 others) and anyone else who needs help. We complained that they aren't giving him the one-on-one help they promised in his IEP, and they agreed to let the resource room teacher sit with him in the mainstream classroom for science and social studies or let us move him to the program I observed today. The child study team member told me today, though, that the assistant superintendent is threatening to move the para out of the classroom if the special ed teacher moved in, and we are not okay with that, because that would still not be one-on-one help for M.
Given all this, I don't think we are going to get a reading specialist. They wouldn't even require Wilson Reading in his IEP, so we have to continue his tutoring on our own.
It's public school, but I don't think it's illegal in this case because several people told me I have the right to observe the class before we chose to move him. They didn't tell me anything about the children or why they were there. No personal information was shared. We literally just walked in and watched the class in action.
My fear is that we are in the middle of this battle, plus another one about J, and I need them to take me seriously and not just view me as the troublemaker. I've heard horror stories about how the district will just screw you over if you get off on the wrong foot. To be honest, I'm not entirely certain that's not what they did in denying J services.
That's crazy. I can't believe the inclusion model isn't a co-teaching model with the general ed and spec. ed teacher both in the classroom at the same time during the day.
Good thing you have a support team and you can always request an advocate whose main job is to ensure your child has the best possible learning environment to meet his diverse needs. My school system caters to parents and the child's needs so be loud, educated, and continue to advocate for what is best. Clearly it is not the classroom you observed. Makes me so sad to think of the children in the classroom.
Learning and school must be so frustrating for little guy
I don't think you can write a specific program into an IEP. I have quite a few ESOL students in my room (and our school has a HUGE population of ESOL kids) and I'm shocked your younger son has been tested already. I know our district won't even consider testing unless the child has been in the country for X amount of time and know they have trouble in their native language as well (can't read/speak fluently).
May I ask why your younger son was denied services?
First of all, please contact the principal, superintendent, director of special services about this class. No one should be treated poorly by someone whom is supposed to be teaching them.
Secondly, you are entitled to a special education advocate. Google it with the county in Jersey that you are in or region. They are free and provided for you if you need it.
I don't know how far you are from Fairleigh Dickenson in Teaneck, but they have an Orton Gillingham clinic that is little to no cost for the kids because they are training teachers who are truly interesting in helping children (and adults) learn to read in this specific program.
And I am a special education teacher in NJ and you can have wilson goals written into a child's IEP, but it does have to be implemented by a person certified in wilson. Preferably one on one, but in no more than a group of three to four.
You are able to observe a classroom if it is a placement for your child. You need to research some special ed magnet schools in your area and go in armed with alternative placements.
Please pm me if you want some more specific information from a special education teacher's point of view. Especially because I teach in NJ.
Good luck
J has a significant speech delay and although he has been receiving speech services for two years in Peru, he is still quite unintelligible in Spanish. He also has a condition called neurofibromatosis, which is linked to learning disabilities in 25-50% of children with the diagnosis. We've been told by our specialists to be very on top of this. Finally, he has low muscle tone which necessitates physical therapy.
The school board agreed that all this amounted to good reasoning to have him tested, and they tested him bilingually. The tests showed him scoring in the bottom 1st percentile and lower on almost all the tests.
He was denied services because they said that since he was only here for 6 months and was never formally educated in this country, they can't be sure of reliability of the test results. That's not a legal reason for denying him services, and they know it. They also would never have tested him if they had a policy like that, so I'm not buying it. I get not giving him educational help just yet, but what about PT? What if J was blind; would they deny services because he wasn't here long enough? It's ludicrous.
Thanks for all your advice, babygirl. Some of it is definitely new to me
I know about the Fairleigh Dickenson program, but to be honest, we settled on the Wilson program after interviewing several O-G tutors who were just too ridged for our family. They didn't understand why we can't be a single-language household. At least two argued with me, telling me I shouldn't take M to Peru with us when we adopted J, totally disregarding all the other reasons why it would be disastrous for us to leave him in the US without us. The Wilson tutor we've found is amazing, works well with him, understands our other issues, and is making progress with M. I know O-G is a more in-depth and possibly better program, but Wilson is what works for us.
I don't care if the person who uses Wilson at school is certified, I just want continuity between what works for him at home and how he's taught in school. The district refuses to do that.
As far as alternative placements, the district won't send him since I just moved him into the public schools. They say he has to be there at least a year before they'll even consider it.
Please tell me that they put this in writing, because it is so against the law. There is a thing called a least restrictive environment and it has to match the child's needs, not some bizarre rules that a school might have. (and federal/state law always trumps school policy, so even if that is the school's policy, they have to abide by federal or state law, in this case it's federal)
I get you about the Orton program. It is rigid. Which is how Wilson came into play. Barbara Wilson worked with the whole Orton program, but wanted to do something that was less "strict" than Orton. Wilson is a program that was developed for dyslexic adults and then adapted for children. So it really is a wonderful program.
I hope the school finally gives you what your son needs.
And I think the ELL students have to wait a year until they are out of what they call the "silent stage" This is when they are absorbing all the language and trying it out in their heads. I don't know specific ELL laws, but I do know that you can ask that the test be done in their native language for special education and related services. And the formal schooling thing is also not true. You are telling me that if your child was in a wheelchair here, but couldn't afford one in his native country, that he would not be allowed to use it in school because he had did not use it previously?**
My next step would be to write a letter. Everything in writing terrifies school districts. And make sure it is a letter and cc to everyone you can think of. If you are sending it to CST, cc the principal and super. Anyway, say how you feel that neither placement is working at this time and you really want further testing done or looking into alternative placement, etc. I really think you should contact SPAN and get some good advice from them on what to do and say. here's a good site with lots of links and info. on advocacy. https://www.arcnj.org/programs/education_advocacy.html
**I know that this in an exaggeration, but sometimes if you actually get the LDTC or Director of Special Services to truly hear what they are telling you by putting something like this out there, it truly makes sense.
I had a student that needed a scribe for our state testing due to some recent medical issues. Seriously could not form letters with a pencil due to some serious motor control problems from the medical problems. They refused to get him a scribe, said he never needed one before. But they got a scribe for a child without and IEP because that child had broken his wrist the week before. When we made this connection for CST, it actually hit home how ridiculous they were being about the whole scribe thing.
This is what I find so ridiculous: the testing was done bilingually, and mostly in Spanish. In reality, only the speech stuff was actually performed truly bilingually, because they wanted to see if he had the same articulation issues in English as he does in Spanish. All the other tests were given in Spanish, for all intents and purposes.
Now they are saying that the results can't be treated as reliable because the IQ test was not normed for Spanish speaking students. It was an English test that the examiner translated into Spanish, because there was no Spanish test available for children his age. Which is also ridiculous, because I'm pretty sure J took an IQ test in Peru, so what they really mean is they don't have a Spanish IQ test that they can administer for children his age.
ETA: And yes, we fully intend to fight it, at least as far as PT and more speech is concerned. It's a half-day Kindergarten program, and I think we're comfortable seeing how far he gets with it (and his Kindergarten wrap-around program which complements the school's curriculum) before we push the educational side right now.
(I'm a special ed teacher) I agree with getting an advocate and writing a detailed letter to the principal. CC it to the director of special ed, too. I am all for inclusion, but there's a time and place for pull-out, if the time is used well. Usually this will be very small groups (1:1 or 1:2-3 with a teacher) to work on things like Wilson or other reading programs. As you go along in this process, don't be afraid to call an IEP meeting any time you need it.
New here and (apparently) quite the lurker. I work as a school psychologist in a high school. I was wondering what disability category they suspected for your younger son. I was thinking that because of the PT and Speech issues, they could pursue a Speech Only identificaiton or an Other Health Impaired identification. Then, you could pursue other classifications during the three-year reevaluations.
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They did a speech only, but won't even talk about PT with us, because he's not eligible for an IEP, according to them. I keep telling them I don't give a hoot what they call it, as long as he gets the services he needs.
As for 3-year reavaluations, no way am I waiting that long. I will be all about reevaluating next year, since they keep saying these results are not valid.