Child transferred from other class has completely changed the feeling of a classroom - wwyd?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this child bullying her? If not, she needs to toughen up.

Seems like the child is bullying the entire class. Also seems like the child isn't being served either.

If the child has some type of disability they are not bullying the class, they are unable to control themselves and that leads to disruptions to the class. I get that people are worried about all the students in the class but try not to be so callous as to not understand that most kids do not want to disrupt everything around them. Whatever is happening, it is likely that the child is struggling with dysregulation and needs help. It is scary for the other kids but it is not intentional.

The posters who are suggesting that the child was moved to a different class as part as the schools process to evaluate and record what is happening so that the school can move the child to a more appropriate environment are probably spot on. It is not as simple as noting some behaviors and moving a kid, there is an entire process. It is a pain in the butt for the student, the classmates, the Teachers, and the Administration.

And it sucks for the OPs kid. which is why the OP emailing the Teacher with a message about how her child's education is impacted is important. It gives the Teacher additional info to provide the Administration about the child's impact and can help the process along. But the email needs to focus on the experience of the OPs child, her responses to the disruptions, and stay neutral on the other child.

It sucks for all. It really does. OP should be focused on her kid and is doing the right thing but there is no reason for adults to be referring to a kid who is out of control for god knows what reason as a bully and assuming that the disruptive child wants to be behaving like this.

While I have a lot of sympathy for the child, I have a child who was a victim of one of these children regularly. My child goes to the nurse at least once/month for injuries from the child in his class. My child has been hit in the head by books, has been strangled because he checked out a book at the library that the other child wanted and the child strangled him to make him give up the book. My child has been bled from having a chair thrown at him that hit him in the head. My child has been kicked and has had black and blue bruises from this child.

While the school must serve them, I do expect the school to protect my child from this I spoke with the teacher on a number of occasions and the teachers have finally moved my child to the opposite side of the room from the disruptive child. At least now, he no longer comes home injured on a regular basis.

OP--you need to get your child's teacher involved and you need to explain the effect that the migrated student is having. While the teacher cannot move the child out of the class, they can and should do what they can to insulate the other children from the migrated student where possible. Perhaps just moving the children so that your child is sitting on the opposite side of class will help her if the disruptive child is not near by. But, you need to involve the teacher so they can do what is within their power to help as many children in the class as possible. But the parents need to communicate with the teacher so the teacher knows which children need more help.

I would have demanded a class change or kept my kid home.

[Anonymous]

Lots of assumptions on this thread for a kid whose “crime” is unspecified disruption and taking up too much of the teachers’ time. Talk to the teacher, op. You’ve no way of knowing what’s going on until you do, and neither do we.

[Anonymous]

As someone who worked in schools for many years, I will only tell you that nothing will happen. The teacher and even the principal can't do anything. They are probably collecting data and that takes years.

If you have time and don't mind wasting it, then talk to the teacher and/or your principal. They will have to give you canned responses because they can't talk about the other child. It's not their fault. I'm sure the teacher is trying her best. But she is not a magician. There is nothing they can do in this situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wanted to share that this child clearly has needs that the school isn't meeting. Be kind. That said, OP, complaining will let them know that this current placement is not int the best interest of that other child. She needs a special school, special program, significant learning supports; something.

Your teacher and child are suffering b/c the admin aren't giving the moved child what she needs and is entitled to by law. I do hate that phrase but it's one of our few entitlements. (public education)

For this you will need to push for more mental health funding. Mental health and MTSS teams in DCPS are overwhelmed. One disruptive child can tank a classroom. This is a larger societal issue that is affecting all other members of the classroom. It’s an awful situation but it can improve. Sometimes the child’s parents are the roadblock, whether by denying the problem or genuinely not recognizing it or caring to act responsibly. There is only so much schools and admin can do.

And sometimes it is the way the process works that slows things down. Counties don't want to pay the money for the specialized programs because they are expensive. Counties require a stupid amount of "proof" that a child belongs in a specialized program because of the expense. So you have parents who know that their kid needs help and wants the help and the Counties policies are getting in the way because the County doesn't want to pay the money.

If Public Schools are going to be required to provide services for all kids then we need to find a way to fund SPED programs so that there is not a waiting list for services that cause disruptions for the kids who need them and for the kids who are being hurt by the ridiculous process to get kids into them. We are asking schools to provide very specialized services to kids all over the spectrum but we do not provide them with the funds needed to accomplish this. Programs are limited for this reason. And it causes massive issues.

There are kids who could use a few years of specialized help and then return to a main stream classroom with a great deal of success but parents don't want to move to their kids to those programs because they have a reputation of being academically behind so kids end up not being on grade level. We need to fix this system and do it in a way where it is not drawing money away from kids who don't need services.

As badly as the US does in this area, it is one of the few countries that actually requires that schools provide services for all kids but we do a crappy job of making it work.

[Anonymous]

My child is not school-aged yet… is this how SPED works now? When I went to school in the 90s, the (very very few) kids with incontrollable behavioral issues were in a small class by themselves with dedicated teachers. Now it sounds like the (many many more) kids are let loose and the other children sacrificed? Like there’s this strict “6 more weeks” process they can’t deviate from and FU to the other kids’ well-being and education? Is this true everywhere or are OP and the other people on this thread in rare situations?

[Anonymous]

No help OP just my condolences. All these mainstreamed kids that really need extra support are part of the reason we switched to private this year. My kid kept having her day disrupted because the class had to leave the room while a kid who was going thru sensory overload threw chairs around. He also tried to choke her over a ball at recess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is not school-aged yet… is this how SPED works now? When I went to school in the 90s, the (very very few) kids with incontrollable behavioral issues were in a small class by themselves with dedicated teachers. Now it sounds like the (many many more) kids are let loose and the other children sacrificed? Like there’s this strict “6 more weeks” process they can’t deviate from and FU to the other kids’ well-being and education? Is this true everywhere or are OP and the other people on this thread in rare situations?

You sound like a very compassionate and empathetic person.

[Anonymous]

One of the issues is the large class sizes. I see far fewer issues in classes under 25. After that, the problems increase exponentially as the class size increases. I think because some children are fine with medium to smaller class sizes, but once the class size gets bigger, they get overwhelmed. So, now there are more children who need extra help. I would argue that larger class sizes increase the number of 504s and IEPs and end up being more expensive than the medium and smaller class sizes. My guess is 20-22 is the sweet spot - for ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No help OP just my condolences. All these mainstreamed kids that really need extra support are part of the reason we switched to private this year. My kid kept having her day disrupted because the class had to leave the room while a kid who was going thru sensory overload threw chairs around. He also tried to choke her over a ball at recess.

There are plenty of mainstreamed kids that you have no clue are mainstreamed. The number of kids who have issues that are extreme enough to require removal from the classroom is pretty small. There are kids that come into the classroom for specific classes because the socialization is good for them and because the classes in question are not ones that are likely to cause an issue for kids.

It sucks when there is an issue. It sucks that the process takes so long. It is not good for anyone but let's not paint every kid who is mainstreamed as if they are a problem because the vast majority of the kids who are mainstreamed are not an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this child bullying her? If not, she needs to toughen up.

Seems like the child is bullying the entire class. Also seems like the child isn't being served either.

If the child has some type of disability they are not bullying the class, they are unable to control themselves and that leads to disruptions to the class. I get that people are worried about all the students in the class but try not to be so callous as to not understand that most kids do not want to disrupt everything around them. Whatever is happening, it is likely that the child is struggling with dysregulation and needs help. It is scary for the other kids but it is not intentional.

The posters who are suggesting that the child was moved to a different class as part as the schools process to evaluate and record what is happening so that the school can move the child to a more appropriate environment are probably spot on. It is not as simple as noting some behaviors and moving a kid, there is an entire process. It is a pain in the butt for the student, the classmates, the Teachers, and the Administration.

And it sucks for the OPs kid. which is why the OP emailing the Teacher with a message about how her child's education is impacted is important. It gives the Teacher additional info to provide the Administration about the child's impact and can help the process along. But the email needs to focus on the experience of the OPs child, her responses to the disruptions, and stay neutral on the other child.

It sucks for all. It really does. OP should be focused on her kid and is doing the right thing but there is no reason for adults to be referring to a kid who is out of control for god knows what reason as a bully and assuming that the disruptive child wants to be behaving like this.

While I have a lot of sympathy for the child, I have a child who was a victim of one of these children regularly. My child goes to the nurse at least once/month for injuries from the child in his class. My child has been hit in the head by books, has been strangled because he checked out a book at the library that the other child wanted and the child strangled him to make him give up the book. My child has been bled from having a chair thrown at him that hit him in the head. My child has been kicked and has had black and blue bruises from this child.

While the school must serve them, I do expect the school to protect my child from this I spoke with the teacher on a number of occasions and the teachers have finally moved my child to the opposite side of the room from the disruptive child. At least now, he no longer comes home injured on a regular basis.

OP--you need to get your child's teacher involved and you need to explain the effect that the migrated student is having. While the teacher cannot move the child out of the class, they can and should do what they can to insulate the other children from the migrated student where possible. Perhaps just moving the children so that your child is sitting on the opposite side of class will help her if the disruptive child is not near by. But, you need to involve the teacher so they can do what is within their power to help as many children in the class as possible. But the parents need to communicate with the teacher so the teacher knows which children need more help.

I would have demanded a class change or kept my kid home.

My initial reaction was to give the classroom teacher a chance to address the issue. He did.
If that didn't help, I would have escalated to the principal.
If that didn't help, I would have kept my kid home and written to the school superintendant's office.
Fortunately, I didn't have to take either of the latter steps.

But the classroom teacher was able to address the issue by separating the problem child from my child. My son says that he doesn't interact much with that child any more and the classroom teacher has been good in addressing our issues. As long as they keep my son separate from this other child, I'm fine and I'm not going to go out of my way to make things harder for the school. Plus, my child is happy in his classroom (it is the advanced class and he would be unchallenged and bored if moved to one of the other classes).

[Anonymous]

OP. You could ask the teacher or the principal if your child can be moved to another class. Perhaps the class where the other child was moved from? If the other child was moved into your child's classroom, then the other class should have an opening for an additional student to move back. Explain to the school that your child is not doing well since the classroom dynamics changed and that she's having difficulties adjusting and no longer enjoying school and you would like to request a change to get her enjoying school and learning better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this child bullying her? If not, she needs to toughen up.

Seems like the child is bullying the entire class. Also seems like the child isn't being served either.

If the child has some type of disability they are not bullying the class, they are unable to control themselves and that leads to disruptions to the class. I get that people are worried about all the students in the class but try not to be so callous as to not understand that most kids do not want to disrupt everything around them. Whatever is happening, it is likely that the child is struggling with dysregulation and needs help. It is scary for the other kids but it is not intentional.

The posters who are suggesting that the child was moved to a different class as part as the schools process to evaluate and record what is happening so that the school can move the child to a more appropriate environment are probably spot on. It is not as simple as noting some behaviors and moving a kid, there is an entire process. It is a pain in the butt for the student, the classmates, the Teachers, and the Administration.

And it sucks for the OPs kid. which is why the OP emailing the Teacher with a message about how her child's education is impacted is important. It gives the Teacher additional info to provide the Administration about the child's impact and can help the process along. But the email needs to focus on the experience of the OPs child, her responses to the disruptions, and stay neutral on the other child.

It sucks for all. It really does. OP should be focused on her kid and is doing the right thing but there is no reason for adults to be referring to a kid who is out of control for god knows what reason as a bully and assuming that the disruptive child wants to be behaving like this.

While I have a lot of sympathy for the child, I have a child who was a victim of one of these children regularly. My child goes to the nurse at least once/month for injuries from the child in his class. My child has been hit in the head by books, has been strangled because he checked out a book at the library that the other child wanted and the child strangled him to make him give up the book. My child has been bled from having a chair thrown at him that hit him in the head. My child has been kicked and has had black and blue bruises from this child.

While the school must serve them, I do expect the school to protect my child from this I spoke with the teacher on a number of occasions and the teachers have finally moved my child to the opposite side of the room from the disruptive child. At least now, he no longer comes home injured on a regular basis.

OP--you need to get your child's teacher involved and you need to explain the effect that the migrated student is having. While the teacher cannot move the child out of the class, they can and should do what they can to insulate the other children from the migrated student where possible. Perhaps just moving the children so that your child is sitting on the opposite side of class will help her if the disruptive child is not near by. But, you need to involve the teacher so they can do what is within their power to help as many children in the class as possible. But the parents need to communicate with the teacher so the teacher knows which children need more help.

I would have demanded a class change or kept my kid home.

I would have filed a police report.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I want to say this gently but also sternly: please do not gossip about this child to other parents or make idle conversation about the child or speculate. If you're asked, you can say that you did speak to the principal because your daughter has had some upsetting days recently and you wanted to get more information and discuss it but do NOT verbally attack this other child. You do that, and I will never hear what you're saying. Children aren't born bad and they usually aren't bad on purpose. The other child needs as much love as yours does. So, sure, stick up for your daughter's right to be in a calm and stress-free, happy environment but don't pin the tail on the other kid. That isn't fair.

All children need and deserve love. But the other child likely needs another adult, not the teacher, in the room with with him or her so when these distressing behaviors happen, the classroom teacher doesn't need to stop all instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this child bullying her? If not, she needs to toughen up.

Seems like the child is bullying the entire class. Also seems like the child isn't being served either.

If the child has some type of disability they are not bullying the class, they are unable to control themselves and that leads to disruptions to the class. I get that people are worried about all the students in the class but try not to be so callous as to not understand that most kids do not want to disrupt everything around them. Whatever is happening, it is likely that the child is struggling with dysregulation and needs help. It is scary for the other kids but it is not intentional.

The posters who are suggesting that the child was moved to a different class as part as the schools process to evaluate and record what is happening so that the school can move the child to a more appropriate environment are probably spot on. It is not as simple as noting some behaviors and moving a kid, there is an entire process. It is a pain in the butt for the student, the classmates, the Teachers, and the Administration.

And it sucks for the OPs kid. which is why the OP emailing the Teacher with a message about how her child's education is impacted is important. It gives the Teacher additional info to provide the Administration about the child's impact and can help the process along. But the email needs to focus on the experience of the OPs child, her responses to the disruptions, and stay neutral on the other child.

It sucks for all. It really does. OP should be focused on her kid and is doing the right thing but there is no reason for adults to be referring to a kid who is out of control for god knows what reason as a bully and assuming that the disruptive child wants to be behaving like this.

While I have a lot of sympathy for the child, I have a child who was a victim of one of these children regularly. My child goes to the nurse at least once/month for injuries from the child in his class. My child has been hit in the head by books, has been strangled because he checked out a book at the library that the other child wanted and the child strangled him to make him give up the book. My child has been bled from having a chair thrown at him that hit him in the head. My child has been kicked and has had black and blue bruises from this child.

While the school must serve them, I do expect the school to protect my child from this I spoke with the teacher on a number of occasions and the teachers have finally moved my child to the opposite side of the room from the disruptive child. At least now, he no longer comes home injured on a regular basis.

OP--you need to get your child's teacher involved and you need to explain the effect that the migrated student is having. While the teacher cannot move the child out of the class, they can and should do what they can to insulate the other children from the migrated student where possible. Perhaps just moving the children so that your child is sitting on the opposite side of class will help her if the disruptive child is not near by. But, you need to involve the teacher so they can do what is within their power to help as many children in the class as possible. But the parents need to communicate with the teacher so the teacher knows which children need more help.

I would have demanded a class change or kept my kid home.

That PP is clearly a troll or exaggerating like crazy. No school district would allow that. No parent would allow it to get that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am sorry your child is experiencing this. This was my child's experience all of 2nd grade. The teacher could not manage the classroom and just gave up. It was horrible as no one in the class that year learned anything. I am serious - my child moved 1 reading level in all of 2nd grade and I know 2 other students who were similar.

Moving forward I put in my child's record that they were not to be in a class with this child. Of course I used nicer words than that. I said something like - given my child's documented learning disability, he needs a classroom that does have serious disruptions.
For your child- reach out to the teacher and the school counselor. Lead with the stress and anxiety that the classroom disruptions are causing. Do not say the child by name - just say - the last 4 weeks my daughter has been having serious challenges. She has days when she does not want to come to school, she is in tears talking about her day etc. You want the school to support your child's needs and ask what they can do to support her.

Your child not learning how to read is not the fault of the disruptive child. It's the fault of the teacher and due to your own child's learning disability. My child who has an LD has several such children in her class one year and she learned fine.
You need to stop blaming other people.