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Reply to "Is integration hurting our kids?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a self-contained teacher and I have to say it depends on the child. All of my kids go to specials (art, music, etc.) with a general education classroom and it's chaos. No differentiation and too many students.

The problem is not necessarily inclusion itself but systemic.

My students could be in gen ed given - 
A smaller class of no more than 12 students (up to 5 students with IEPs)
A gen ed teacher who is also a special educator. Or another sped teacher (co-teach model)
A minimum of 4-5 paras - that is 6 adults total for a 1:2 ratio 
Curriculum that is partially interest-based
Constant differentiation
Sensory room and/or breaks as needed

I have a class of 8 students and 4 adults and it's still a lot to manage. Some of them actually need a 1:1 aide but the district will not supply one.

The little list above is also not comprehensive and would never happen in a public general education classroom. The funding is absolutely not there and the staffing/training.

Self-contained is also quite stigmatized for a number of reasons. The principal surely promotes our specialized programs but not our self-contained program. No parent wants their child to be in it, despite the number of accolades I personally receive from my school and parents. Which I take no personal issue with, the goal is always to get kids the support they need and hopefully they can get out and go to gen ed.

All in all integration can hurt but it's not inclusion that is the issue. [/quote]

Thanks for your input. I feel like parents on here actually do often give accolades to the MCPS programs like ESESES, Bridge, RICA, GT/LD and the Aspbergers programs. Not universally but there’s often a lot of positive feedback. [/quote]

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