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Elementary School-Aged Kids
I wasn’t. It just takes months to get an appropriate placement. |
That's right. My child was that child when he started Kindergarten. His class had 28 students. He would become overwhelmed and strip naked, dump all the toys off the shelves and climb into them curling into a fetal position. He hit anyone who tried to help him and had the classroom evacuated twice in the span of the first month of school. We were blindsided by this behavior (it was "mild" autism) and frantically started searching for providers. We payed thousands of dollars for private evaluations. We BEGGED the school to place him in a MORE restrictive classroom because he and the other children were suffering. The school said they were legally obligated to have him in the least restrictive environment while data was collected. He cried every night at home that the classroom was too loud. He banged his head in the lunchroom leaving himself bruised. We pleaded for a 1:1 aide while this data was collected (how much data do you need?!?) and first they said there was already a teacher and an aide assigned to the class. We begged more. They said they didn't have the money and since he didn't have an IEP yet they couldn't assign a 1:1 to him. We hired an advocate and spent thousands and thousands of dollars during the IEP process. We signed him up for private speech/OT/PT and when the insurance runs out on those services at the mid-way point of the year, we spend thousands out of pocket on those therapies. My child is doing well now but as a pp said, it's only because we have the means and education to provide for and advocate for not only our child, but frankly his classmates. The majority of parents are like my husband and I, we care not only about our child but the other children impacted. No one needs to be on "the lookout" for these parents to shame them. Trust and believe most are doing everything they possibly can and already feel horrible. No need to make them cry even more at night because chances are they are holding on by a thread and crying multiple times a week over their frustration/stress. |
They are ripe to be updated for new tools available. |
Getting an IEP is a very lengthy process. If a kid throws a chair today maybe an IEP will be in place by January even if every single law is followed. |
New tools available? Besides it not being clear what you mean, it’s irrelevant. The laws and regulations don’t specify the means. You just don’t like that the laws specify that schools must be inclusive. I’m guessing you’re the former principal that now wants to banish kids with disabilities to their homes, which would obviously impose significant limitations on the services and supports they could receive. |
You lost me at the bolded. More honest for you to acknowledge that you were in denial up to that point and had not started needed intervention. If parents are honest with their pediatrician, issues are identified early and parents guided through appropriate channels and therapies. |
They’ve got 60 days to do the evaluation, and then 30 days to then develop the IEP. |
dp. Laws are not set in stone. They change and will change, because while compassion is a core value of our society, it does not trump the basic needs of the many. There is a difference between being inclusive and accommodating vs. being consumed by the needs of the few. |
DP. Kindergarten is a very different environment from what many kids have experienced up until that point. I wouldn’t have said we were blindsided by problems in general, but there were definitely new and surprising behaviors that emerged from my child when he started kindergarten. |
+1 my child has mild-moderate autism. We have always had private therapies (and have paid up to $40,000 annually for them), and schools since we had the means and I knew the public schools were like this. Our kid has yet to disrupt a class, but when he started showing autistic behaviors as a toddler, even though he was friendly and smiley, I was flat out told by specialists and his doctor that he was “fine.” But I enrolled him in OT camps, therapeutic play sessions, etc- programs that would NOT have accepted him- special needs programs that would not have accepted him!- if he had gotten to the frustration point of throwing chairs. And even after allllll our therapy and effort? He still is constantly walking a thin line on emotional regulation AND, we still get “neurodivergent acceptance” people criticizing you for using ABA (it’s “abusive” even though it’s really the only thing that works for autistic children with behaviors). |
Honestly, I don’t think IDEA is driven by compassion. It’s driven by practicality. Children with disabilities still (usually) have decades of life ahead of them. They’re going to have to learn academic, social, and emotional skills in order to function in society. Ignoring their needs on basis that it is too hard, expensive, or uncomfortable for others will simply create bigger problems down the line. |
NP. Come ON. Why would you be such a b1tch? That's absurd. How are they supposed to know that their kid is going to react like that if he's never been in that environment before? What's wrong with you? |
So wouldn’t taking a year or two out of in-person school to focus on therapy and online classes be a reasonable solution? |
Nope it's not practical to spend 30% of your budget on 1% of the population, who will ultimately still end up being the lowest contributor to society, while significantly impacting the needs of the 99% who will have to slave away to keep this thing going. It sounds terrible and yet our government and society makes these types of decisions routinely, because unfortunately resources are limited. |
| ^^ There is a reason why ADA states "reasonable accommodation" |