Reply to Fighting school district re: FAPE and LRE for preschooler. Anyone experienced this?

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Reply to "Fighting school district re: FAPE and LRE for preschooler. Anyone experienced this?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Honestly, in my 5 years on this journey (sounds trite) the biggest bill of goods I've been sold is typical peer exposure.  It is the least important thing for my kid and in some circumstances, detrimental.  That being said, at that age I fought the school system for other things with an advocate.  You would then move to a lawyer.    [/quote]

I have a 12 yo and I tend to disagree. It is very hard to get some kids back into an inclusive classroom once they have been isolated in a Special ed only class.[/quote]
I agree 100%.
Schools, especially FCPS, does what is most convenient for them and not what's in the best interest of the child. Placement is something that can have lifelong implications. We are fighting for an inclusive setting as well.[/quote]

There is plenty of time for inclusion when the child gets to kindergarten and beyond.[/quote]
Sure, throw them in segregated preschools only with SN kids during a crucial development stage of 2+ years, and then deal with the consequences in elementary. Winning strategy.  :roll: [/quote]

Is you concern that a three year old won't be able to observe and copy the social behaviors of typically developing peers? Or is a concern about academic skills or academic precursors? I'm not being sarcastic. I'm really trying to understand the crux of your argument. We have so many different options for children 3-5 here that quite a few kids with or without SN enter K having never had academics or long term peer group interaction. Surely they don't all have terrible consequences upon entering a typical K classroom?[/quote]

The benefits of inclusion are more complex than simply "observing and copying" certain behaviors.

General ed classrooms are more like the real world, they move more quickly, the interactions between peers are more complex and more varied, the routines are more complicated, and kids often have significantly more choice.  For many kids with disabilities these things are challenging, but they're also exactly the things they need to be practicing.  It's not that they need to learn to behave like kids without disabilities, it's that they need to learn to interact with people who interact in the strange unpredictable ways that NT people interact, and to participate in the somewhat chaotic environments that NT people thrive in, because one day they'll be adults in a world that is built for NT people.  There is absolutely no way to teach those skills in a special education environment, even if that environment includes a couple of "peer models".

-- Special educator who has taught in both kinds of settings[/quote]

Thank you for saying this so well. I have a child who has been in self-contained and special ed only schools for years and the learning environment is so much less rich and complex than the general ed classroom. I think it is so important for kids to stay with their non-disabled peers as much as possible, because otherwise they get farther and farther behind every year they are isolated with other disabled kids. I have watched it happen. [/quote]

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