Is FCPS replacing specialized instruction with “inclusion”?

[Anonymous]

$141 MILLION dollars on ESOL in 2024…. Good luck to your kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is moving toward fully inclusive classrooms with fewer breakouts, putting special ed (including significant autism), non-English speakers, kids needing speech/OT, grade-level students, and advanced kids all in the same room.

How is one teacher supposed to meet all those needs at once? Doesn’t this just spread services thinner?

Feels like they have yet again fallen victim to nonsense.

This is false. Kids are pulled in and out all day long in my school for all different needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is moving toward fully inclusive classrooms with fewer breakouts, putting special ed (including significant autism), non-English speakers, kids needing speech/OT, grade-level students, and advanced kids all in the same room.

How is one teacher supposed to meet all those needs at once? Doesn’t this just spread services thinner?

Feels like they have yet again fallen victim to nonsense.

This is false. Kids are pulled in and out all day long in my school for all different needs.

Moving towards. This is what they have been increasing and doing. This is the future direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is moving toward fully inclusive classrooms with fewer breakouts, putting special ed (including significant autism), non-English speakers, kids needing speech/OT, grade-level students, and advanced kids all in the same room.

How is one teacher supposed to meet all those needs at once? Doesn’t this just spread services thinner?

Feels like they have yet again fallen victim to nonsense.

This is false. Kids are pulled in and out all day long in my school for all different needs.

Moving towards. This is what they have been increasing and doing. This is the future direction.

There is a difference between kids who need extra help and those who cannot follow basic directions.

[Anonymous]

Let's get rid of AAP before we get rid of autism classrooms, thanks.

[Anonymous]

Our school is a level 2 inclusion school. The big difference this year is kids are staying in for all of LA and math instead of getting their pull out time for these subjects. It has been a bit frustrating for sure.

[Anonymous]

For any parent whose child has an IEP- please remember that the service hours and location of hours CANNOT be changed without your consent. The IEP is a legal document. At your next IEP meeting, if they want to change some hours from the special education setting to the general education setting you can agree or disagree. If that’s the only part of the IEP you disagree with, then you can sign a “partial agreement “

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not nonsense, it’s due to lack of special ed teachers available to meet the much increased numbers of students with IEPs. Students with violent behaviors has increased and so teachers willing to put their bodies at risk for these students are becoming fewer and fewer. So each school has 1-2 special education teachers each with a demanding caseload and tons of IEP meetings and not enough time to teach.

To expect public school to meet the needs of every single student at every single level is what is nonsense.

That's not why spec ed teachers are quitting. It's because they have a ton of paperwork to do and a ton of IEP meetings to attend and absolutely no extra time to do that, plus prepare lessons and do all the things other teachers have to do. The workload is insane. That's the reason they leave.

The reason not enough come in is because it's more time consuming and expensive to get a spec ed endorsement than most other types. I think the next step the county (or maybe even state) is planning is to make that easier to get somehow. It's a good idea for addressing a shortage, but it's a terrible idea for teacher quality. It's the reason we now have teachers in subject areas from English to Algebra who have no legitimate qualifications to teach those subjects other than passing a relatively simple state test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For any parent whose child has an IEP- please remember that the service hours and location of hours CANNOT be changed without your consent. The IEP is a legal document. At your next IEP meeting, if they want to change some hours from the special education setting to the general education setting you can agree or disagree. If that’s the only part of the IEP you disagree with, then you can sign a “partial agreement “

+1. Also, pay attention to the wording and ask questions. "Special education support" might mean a para who joins the class for 15 minutes. That's not the same as a team taught class with a special education teacher in the room full time along with the general education teacher. The para situation might be okay for a class with a small handful of students with IEPs for mild needs but it's definitely not okay for a class where half the class has an IEP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think FCPS is actually trending in the other direction in my experience.

Ad hoc, separate small classes (approx 5 kids) have been amazing for my high schooler with an IEP this year. He’s a great kid who has zero behavior issues.

The model last year was to have regular classes with an aide or special education teacher in the room. It was a complete waste of time for the my kid and he barely passed his core subjects.

This year, they are taking that same staff member (that’s being paid irregardless, so let’s use them!) pulling the IEP kids out of the room and doing most of the teaching in a very small group. Nothing has changed with my child’s IEP hours and I think it’s technically supposed to still be an inclusion class. But no one is complaining and the kids are actually learning.
My kid loves the classes that are run like this.

If you think the school is breaking even on cost then you don’t know much.

So, are they doing this instead of the "team teaching" that has been done in the past. My DS who was in a team taught GenEd science class decided to do Honors the next year because the students were so disruptive. And, my DS was not expecially "into" school.

My DD too....we can't have her take any general education classes because the behaviors and attitudes in the classes create a horrible learning environment.

[Anonymous]

Yes, if you get your kid's HS schedule and they are in a "regular" class with two teachers assigned--switch them to honors. Better to get a C in honors then learn nothing all year. I had to hire a summer tutor to basically teach my kid Algebra 2 after a completely wasted year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, if you get your kid's HS schedule and they are in a "regular" class with two teachers assigned--switch them to honors. Better to get a C in honors then learn nothing all year. I had to hire a summer tutor to basically teach my kid Algebra 2 after a completely wasted year.

This is why special education and behavior students should be separated. It’s not fair to the general education OR the learning disabled kids to be stuck with behaviorally challenged students. Parents also need to be accountable for the behavior of their children. That’s the only way things will ever change.

[Anonymous]

Administrators are always going to rationalize what’s easiest and cheapest, and that means shoving all kinds of kids with different levels and needs into one classroom and making it seem like an ideological and pedagogical strategy rather than the complete absence of one. Personally, I lament the loss of tracking. Advanced students are being cheated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, if you get your kid's HS schedule and they are in a "regular" class with two teachers assigned--switch them to honors. Better to get a C in honors then learn nothing all year. I had to hire a summer tutor to basically teach my kid Algebra 2 after a completely wasted year.

Well, and that’s why honors classes are no longer advanced classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Administrators are always going to rationalize what’s easiest and cheapest, and that means shoving all kinds of kids with different levels and needs into one classroom and making it seem like an ideological and pedagogical strategy rather than the complete absence of one. Personally, I lament the loss of tracking. Advanced students are being cheated.

The advanced students are not the only ones losing out in this county. Everyone is losing out n FCPS-including the teachers.