Why are there so many children with IEPs nowadays?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10% of the population historically has had ADHD. No idea what % has ASD. The diagnostic criteria are clearer now, there is no stigma and the way school is run today makes the learning disability noticeable. I think in the past with smaller classes, lots of recess and PE time and lower sit in your seat bored, kids with mild ADHD were fine until high school.

I agree with this as a former public school teachers. There is so much over emphasis on reading and Math scores instead on helping kids with self-regulation and building community.

Mild adhd? This post is funny.

What happened in the past was that any kid who was disruptive or too slow wasn't in class with the rest of the kids. Many school systems barely tried to educate kids who weren't on track with everyone else. It was a travesty and we are more aware now that having disabilities does not preclude one from learning. One of my kids has multiple disabilities and struggles to function in school. Despite this, kid is extremely intelligent and teachers let kid help other kids with math and history. Kid is a very good teacher.

[Anonymous]

I have one kid with ADHD, two without. All of them are very active and athletic. The ADHD kid would much rather be fishing or building something with nails, hammers, saws and fire than sitting on a screen.

What he does not like to do is sit still. School started getting hard for him when he had to concentrate on the same thing for over an hour while listening to 30 other kids in a classroom. He hits overload and can't concentrate.

Teachers that do a lot of projects, either group or powerpoint, get through to him. He can make you a GORGOUS poster about the solar system and hit everything you want covered. It will be fabulous. Make him fill out a worksheet about the planets and it will be crumpled in the bottom of his backpack half filled out and covered in peanut butter sandwich before you can put that 0 into the gradebook.

He will do great things if the education system doesn't beat him down first.

[Anonymous]

I think that if the school system(s) would adjust their teaching and standards to accommodate all kids/brains then there would be LESS IEPs.

We have an IEP for my ADHD kid because he needs breaks (among other things). The fact that I have put breaks into an IEP is astounding. But hey, here we are in 2024.

We know a lot more about ADHD, Autism, etc and doctors are getting better at diagnosing those things early. Less stigma these days.

Kids need more breaks during the school day, FCPS doesn't offer that without an IEP. Thus, voila, more IEPs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that if the school system(s) would adjust their teaching and standards to accommodate all kids/brains then there would be LESS IEPs.

We have an IEP for my ADHD kid because he needs breaks (among other things). The fact that I have put breaks into an IEP is astounding. But hey, here we are in 2024.

We know a lot more about ADHD, Autism, etc and doctors are getting better at diagnosing those things early. Less stigma these days.

Kids need more breaks during the school day, FCPS doesn't offer that without an IEP. Thus, voila, more IEPs.

Most elementary level teachers do incorporate a few breaks in class, but not long ones. They have to push curriculum hard, especially for reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10% of the population historically has had ADHD. No idea what % has ASD. The diagnostic criteria are clearer now, there is no stigma and the way school is run today makes the learning disability noticeable. I think in the past with smaller classes, lots of recess and PE time and lower sit in your seat bored, kids with mild ADHD were fine until high school.

I agree with this as a former public school teachers. There is so much over emphasis on reading and Math scores instead on helping kids with self-regulation and building community.

All of the IEP goals for my kid are non-academic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10% of the population historically has had ADHD. No idea what % has ASD. The diagnostic criteria are clearer now, there is no stigma and the way school is run today makes the learning disability noticeable. I think in the past with smaller classes, lots of recess and PE time and lower sit in your seat bored, kids with mild ADHD were fine until high school.

I agree with this as a former public school teachers. There is so much over emphasis on reading and Math scores instead on helping kids with self-regulation and building community.

Mild adhd? This post is funny.

What happened in the past was that any kid who was disruptive or too slow wasn't in class with the rest of the kids. Many school systems barely tried to educate kids who weren't on track with everyone else. It was a travesty and we are more aware now that having disabilities does not preclude one from learning. One of my kids has multiple disabilities and struggles to function in school. Despite this, kid is extremely intelligent and teachers let kid help other kids with math and history. Kid is a very good teacher.

Outcomes for children with special education needs/IEPs are atrocious.

[Anonymous]

There are many other types of IEPs than just behavioral, but agree that behavioral at least “seems” to be prominent. I have a child with dyslexia. It was identified late. Child was high performer but we had no idea how much he was overcompensating and he crashed. Had great support end of ES and MS. Fast forward to HS and the two team taught classes he’ was in were filled with majority behavioral IEP kids, who unfortunately are not motivated and distracting. We got him moved out of one. He is taking combo of Honors and regular classes. The team taught class is basically useless so won’t be in one next year. Our public ES and MS were great with his IEP. There isn’t enough man power in teachers in HS with all the other types of IEPs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mass-produced school is anti-human, so when school becomes normalized, humans become "abnormal".

This. I think public school needs to be one model and there needs to be at least one or two other models.
The one size fits all model is broken beyond repair and public school spend more time and money on fighting parents than it does helping children.

Public school does work for everyone and that’s why homeschooling is also an option…as well as private and virtual school.

You going to hand out the school vouchers to make sure it's actually an option for everyone who needs it? Or are people just supposed to homeschool around working 2 jobs to make ends meet?

What's really funny is that the vouchers are worthless because good private schools for kids with disabilities don't exist. Good luck finding one a reasonable distance from you. Also that voucher would probably cover less and 1/5 of the cost.

Yep. Anyone who thinks vouchers and “school choice” is the answer to the SPED puzzle has no idea how private schools work.