How to heal relationship between schools and families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fundamental problem is that IDEA has created a bottomless pit of unfunded entitlements. The federal government has imposed huge requirements on school systems while not covering even a fifth of the cost, and the percentage of students covered by the law has doubled and then tripled. The gap between what parents very reasonably feel they are legally entitled to for their child (since that's what IDEA says), and what the school system is actually physically capable of providing, and the tension of trying to magically make 1+1=3, is driving parents crazy and burning out staff. And then the problem snowballs because less staff makes it all worse. Everyone is in a no-win situation.

I think the system is fundamentally broken, possibly beyond repair, we just haven't realized it yet. Special education staffing shortages are going to keep getting worse and bring it to its knees. No other country on earth provides such a vast well of education entitlements, for the reason that it fundamentally can't be supported. There HAS to be a limit--all public systems have to ration care and have a cutoff point at which they say "no more, the costs outweigh the benefits." It's brutal, but what we have now isn't working anyway and at least this way there would be some honesty about it instead of a shell game. And nothing is stopping the private sector from filling in the gaps. Either you have to vastly increase the funding so that all these entitlements can actually be provided and staff actually want to do the job, or you have to limit the entitlements, or some combination of the two.

I'll probably get tomatoes thrown at me but I am really alarmed at how the staffing shortages just keep getting worse and worse in some of the local districts and how fast they burn through new staff. If you don't have anybody to do the job the law sets out, you have nothing. That is the first and biggest problem, and something drastic has to be done.

Do you even recognize that your advice that care has to be rationed and "no more the costs outweigh the benefits" is exactly the kind of discriminatory belief that disability laws like IDEA, 504 and the ADA were designed to prohibit. Long ago disabled kids couldn't even get past the stairs in buildings or up to the second floor.

And cost/benefit to whom? Frankly, the government via the legislation who is elected by the citizenry has decided that the perceived short term benefit of cost savings from under-educating disabled children is FAR outweighed by the long term cost of children who grow into adults who are not able to make a full contribution to society in terms of work productivity and tax contribution. Dependent adults also place a burden on family members diminishing their ability to work and contribute to society.

I pay taxes for education - why shouldn't my kid be educated as well as yours?

The idea you promote is the same old bigoted "but it costs too much", but I'll bet if your child got hit by a bus and became permanently disabled, you'd change your tune real quick.

People complained mightily about the ADA and the coat imposed on private business to put elevators in buildings, add ramps to entrances, designated parking spaces close to entrances, etc. But, I'm sure you certainly enjoyed getting in an elevator with a stroller when you had babies. Disability access helps us all.

And, I'll bet you certainly like all the accessibility features on your cell phone - want to talk to Siri? have a webpage read to you? see closed captioning on a movie or YouTube video? These are all accessibility features for disabled people.

Frankly, my consistent experience with school is the constant refusal of teachers and admin to do what was legally required (and easily done) made everything cost far more than it had to.

Schools refuse to serve kids in K-3 because they are not "2 grades behind" (which is not even a requirement for eligibility) and then by the time kids are 2 grades behind it is too late - all kinds of other academic, social and behavioral complications have arisen out of the failure to comply with Child Find.

[Anonymous]

This thread has cemented my belief that it can’t be healed. Special education is gonna change or just end within the next ten years at this rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:one thing that I think would help would be if parents under the concept of ranges and percentile ranks.
Just because your child is so smart and a genius at home, it doesn't mean they need to be in AAP and/or achieving "at the top of their potential".
25th percentile is average, and it's okay to be there.

That's...not what the law says though. Did your school not train you on Endrew?

There’s a lot more nuance here, but the law does not say that every child is entitled to any service they need to reach whatever their “potential” is (because potential is a nebulous thing that is not easily defined by any one score. I’ve had parents ask for IEP goals that would place their child above grade level because “that’s where they should be achieving based on their potential”. Maybe special Ed law does allow for that, but it’s a gross misuse of resources in my opinion.

The standard is now "meaningful progress" instead of "de minimis". Basically they need to make a substantial, significant jump every year in their instead of minimal progress. Hell I would've tried to give mom that goal. If the kid ends up performing above grade level, you could've exited them from Special Ed altogether so you wouldn't have to deal with her anymore lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:one thing that I think would help would be if parents under the concept of ranges and percentile ranks.
Just because your child is so smart and a genius at home, it doesn't mean they need to be in AAP and/or achieving "at the top of their potential".
25th percentile is average, and it's okay to be there.

That's...not what the law says though. Did your school not train you on Endrew?

There’s a lot more nuance here, but the law does not say that every child is entitled to any service they need to reach whatever their “potential” is (because potential is a nebulous thing that is not easily defined by any one score. I’ve had parents ask for IEP goals that would place their child above grade level because “that’s where they should be achieving based on their potential”. Maybe special Ed law does allow for that, but it’s a gross misuse of resources in my opinion.

The standard is now "meaningful progress" instead of "de minimis". Basically they need to make a substantial, significant jump every year in their instead of minimal progress. Hell I would've tried to give mom that goal. If the kid ends up performing above grade level, you could've exited them from Special Ed altogether so you wouldn't have to deal with her anymore lol

we tried. This child hasn’t been eligible in four years since she aged out of DD in 2nd grade, but parents refuse to exit. She’s so smart (even if it doesn’t show in IQ tests) and she’s not in aap only because her IEP isn’t adequate to address her “learning disabilities” (of which no proof was ever found).

[Anonymous]

My child's high school spends hours on sports. Hours. It's all they care about. Winning teams and being labeled a competitive sports school. They really just do not care about education. Anyone's. It's just that the special education kids feel the lack of interest the most. My non special ed kid is in a volunteer group where they can volunteer with special ed daily. How is it possible that all this time can be spent on athletes and fun activities with the kids every week but not much for learning?

[Anonymous]

The crisis in Special Education comes from the amount of legal paperwork and extra planning needed to create individualized content not being factored into the job. It takes about 60 hours to do good data collection and analysis, progress monitoring, creating great lessons, prepping for meetings, dealing with the random manifestation meeting, etc but we only get paid for 40. They either need to hire full time paperwork managers or cut the amount of time we spend in the classroom in half so we have time to adequately do all of our duties. When you raise your concerns with admin, they just breathe in and out.

[Anonymous]

And what paperwork? My kid gets one paper a year that they usually just carry forward to the next year. And then don't implement anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And what paperwork? My kid gets one paper a year that they usually just carry forward to the next year. And then don't implement anything.

It’s really lucky that the teacher doesn’t have to deal with any other kids or any other duties besides yours. What a cushy job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fundamental problem is that IDEA has created a bottomless pit of unfunded entitlements. The federal government has imposed huge requirements on school systems while not covering even a fifth of the cost, and the percentage of students covered by the law has doubled and then tripled. The gap between what parents very reasonably feel they are legally entitled to for their child (since that's what IDEA says), and what the school system is actually physically capable of providing, and the tension of trying to magically make 1+1=3, is driving parents crazy and burning out staff. And then the problem snowballs because less staff makes it all worse. Everyone is in a no-win situation.

I think the system is fundamentally broken, possibly beyond repair, we just haven't realized it yet. Special education staffing shortages are going to keep getting worse and bring it to its knees. No other country on earth provides such a vast well of education entitlements, for the reason that it fundamentally can't be supported. There HAS to be a limit--all public systems have to ration care and have a cutoff point at which they say "no more, the costs outweigh the benefits." It's brutal, but what we have now isn't working anyway and at least this way there would be some honesty about it instead of a shell game. And nothing is stopping the private sector from filling in the gaps. Either you have to vastly increase the funding so that all these entitlements can actually be provided and staff actually want to do the job, or you have to limit the entitlements, or some combination of the two.

I'll probably get tomatoes thrown at me but I am really alarmed at how the staffing shortages just keep getting worse and worse in some of the local districts and how fast they burn through new staff. If you don't have anybody to do the job the law sets out, you have nothing. That is the first and biggest problem, and something drastic has to be done.

I think you have articulated the issue perfectly. Wish there were easy solutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And what paperwork? My kid gets one paper a year that they usually just carry forward to the next year. And then don't implement anything.

It’s really lucky that the teacher doesn’t have to deal with any other kids or any other duties besides yours. What a cushy job.

Why even have a 504 if the teacher can't write one sentence a year and show up for one meeting once a year without a martyr complex? Even whatever tiny amount of federal money covers this. I'm so tired of being told that this minute amount of work is someone taking away from the class. Give the money directly to the student then. If my child had level 2 autism instead of level 1 they would be in a classroom of 3 to 10 students. The school can figure out how to spend a total of 60 extra minutes on a 504 child a year without a woe is me story. Give the parents the extra money they are supposedly spending if you can't get this done. Otherwise you are just taking in money and then distributing it somewhere else. I'm told my child gets about 1.5 times the average student but in reality there is maybe 1 extra hour a year they are spending.

[Anonymous]

The money including state and federal is clearly going to some other child.

[Anonymous]

And what is the 504 coordinator doing the entire year if their student takes them less than 1 hour a year? Maybe 2 hours since they also walk the halls some and say hi twice a year to check in if everything is OK and sign off and send the email with the fake list of stuff being done each year. They have a full time job. What the heck are they doing the rest of the time? They also coach and are really proud of their record. I guarantee there is more time spent on any student on their team even on one given day compared to the entire year for my child.

[Anonymous]

My friend's kid was just offered a D1 spot on a relatively unpopular sport and was told they will have full time staff planning out assignments for athletes along with tutors DAILY. Not to mention extra facilities, extra classes, money for traveling and for various events during the year. This must easily take half as long as any practice they are doing a day. Where there is a will there is a way.

Your response that I should feel guilty for some teacher's extra hour a year on my child all the while banking tax dollars going who knows where is why the system is broken.

[Anonymous]

And my child's processing disorder takes them more time than any athletic practice each day. It just all falls on the shoulders of the parents and we are treated like abusers for asking for anything of the school.

[Anonymous]

How many extra hours is the 504 coordinator supposed to spend on my child in middle and high school? They have a caseload and shouldn't 2/3 of rhe time be spent on students? Seems to me in a 7 hour day 180 day school year they should be spending more than 2 hours a year per student.