Do all APS lower elem classes have Sped teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes they cluster the SPED kids and the class gets an aide. It doesn’t mean your kid is SPED.

+1 I'm a SPED TA and I'm also a former teacher. I'd like to think all the kids benefit from my presence but yes, I'm focused on the goals of specific kids. Coincidentally, my daughter who is neurotypical and gifted was in an inclusion classroom last year. The SPED teacher pulled in and pushed out throughout the day as did the TA who was a former SPED teacher turned TA much like myself. When the SPED teachers weren't helping specific students, they were helping others in the class and my daughter loved this. We were also able to have some really great conversations about brain differences, everyone having different strengths and needs, how to advocate for yourself if someone's quirks or behaviors are bothering you and kindness and empathy in general. Does my anecdote mean this is how your child's experience will be too? No, of course not, but don't panic just yet, this could be a great year for your child. If not, cross that bridge when you need to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes they cluster the SPED kids and the class gets an aide. It doesn’t mean your kid is SPED.

+1 I'm a SPED TA and I'm also a former teacher. I'd like to think all the kids benefit from my presence but yes, I'm focused on the goals of specific kids. Coincidentally, my daughter who is neurotypical and gifted was in an inclusion classroom last year. The SPED teacher pulled in and pushed out throughout the day as did the TA who was a former SPED teacher turned TA much like myself. When the SPED teachers weren't helping specific students, they were helping others in the class and my daughter loved this. We were also able to have some really great conversations about brain differences, everyone having different strengths and needs, how to advocate for yourself if someone's quirks or behaviors are bothering you and kindness and empathy in general. Does my anecdote mean this is how your child's experience will be too? No, of course not, but don't panic just yet, this could be a great year for your child. If not, cross that bridge when you need to.

my kid was in a class in 2nd grade with kids that needed extra help. was it distracting at times? yes. were there extra teachers in the room at least half the day? yes. was it useful to my kid who wasn't sped to have extra teachers around? yes. i think the SPED teachers are great at helping the specific student they are focused on, but they also aren't going to ignore if another kid is around in that classroom and needs some extra help. there are definitely different levels of disabilities, but it does provide experience for your child that they don't live in a bubble and there are people of all kinds and needs around them. my kid hasn't been in a class like that since then, but has had some grades where they were also in a class with an EL cluster. Also a great experience.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:No, but they do cluster SPED and EL students to make delivering services easier. In my experience as a parent and staff the SPED and gifted clusters are often together but sometimes SPED and EL can be clustered together too (or students belong to both groups)

My child is tagged as advanced/gifted and has usually been in the class with the co teaching model. I’m guessing it’s easier for teachers to combine those students with the SPED students (and I’m sure there are some who overlap). Benefits are that they rarely need a sub, get a lower teacher-to-student ratio (this is great when there is a large class—my child’s grade is big but but not big enough to add another class, so class size is usually close to the max allowed), etc.

You shouldn't assume those students aren't equally gifted. I have one of those. My kid helped teach class who math and history in middle and high school. The teachers relied upon my kid with disabilities to help. He's a talented teacher even though he's a student like everyone else. The mother of the girl he helped the most is one of the most vile humans I've ever met and complained openly at our back to school night about the sped kids being in her kids class. You sound like her pp.

God people suck.

JFC I said that I’m sure there’s overlap. And I like the co teaching model. I have zero issues. But please keep projecting what you want to see into my post.

You said you blamed the sped kids in your kid's class for making the teacher useless. We're not projecting anything.

Huh? I never said that. WTF are you talking about?

It's right in the OP: "My concern is that at a different elementary his older sibling’s teacher apparently had a lot of 504/IEP kids and it made her useless bc she was disorganized and constantly in meetings"