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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Another teacher here. I can tell you when parents start calling meeting with admin and making it clear a kid in class is having huge impact, that’s when they address it. Make clear the teacher is doing what they can but your son is still impacted negatively. I have seen this myself; we as teachers can’t do anything about their placement even if we say it’s impacting the other kids but when you get 3-4 parents getting loud about it, it moves the needle. [/quote]

OP here. This is possibly what got this child moved into a new classroom—parents in his original classroom going to admin. Did not consider that before. So what do they do: just move kids with extreme behavior disruptions from classroom to classroom as infinitum? Why doesn’t a child who needs this much help regulating impulses and emotions have an aide? This must be such drain on teachers and also no real help to the child.[/quote]

Why doesn't a child who needs this much help have an aide?  1) If a child is new to a school with no paperwork from an old school, new to the country or most often, new to school in general in kindergarten, a school cannot hold a domain meeting requesting an evaluation for 45 school days.  2) A crap ton of documentation and RTI has to happen before most evaluations will happen.  3) A 1:1 aide in a gen ed room, in my school at least, is considered the MOST restrictive environment, even more so than say being placed in an ED/BD room, that is possible.  So schools don't like to use that option.  4) Aides are expensive.  Districts don't like to pay for them  5) It is VERY difficult to find an aide to work with some of the kids who need them.  When that aide has to follow a detailed BIP or crisis plan, it takes tremendous patience.  It can also mean that aide putting themself in harm's way each day.  How many people are just dying to get paid $11 an hour and get spit on or kicked?    And then add in if you have a district that just doesn't want to deal with all this for one reason or the other?  It means the kid in question doesn't get the help they need, the other kids and the staff suffers and it is a lose-lose situation.

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This PP makes a lot of good points that parents who aren't part of the special education side of things may not know. As a parent of a gen ed kid who dealt with what sounds like some of the same kinds of classroom behavior issues in early elementary, as the parent of a younger child with special needs, and as a 1:1 aide in a special education classroom, I'd like to add a few more things to the list:

1. To parents who are disturbed by behaviors happening in your children's classrooms, document those concerns. Every time. Don't be afraid to ask for a meeting instead of just sending an email. Talk to the teacher, but reach out to the administrators as well - as others have said, many administrators will drag their feet on things as long as they can but noisy parents can help move the process along.

2. Know that sometimes "that kid" in your child's class has parents that are fighting your school district to get him or her the services they need. That was our experience with our younger child, and it was incredibly frustrating.

3. Agree that aides are expensive, and I will add that many positions like mine (at least within MCPS) are considered temporary and do not have benefits, which I think affects the quality of staff who are willing to take on these jobs. Anyone who is potentially going to be injured by a child at work ought to have insurance. We get paid more than $11, but still not nearly enough.

4. To the parents who say those of us with "problem kids" ought to just move them to private school, know that many of the special needs private schools can ONLY be accessed via the school system. Very few of the schools we've looked at for our child accept private placements - which means if your school district isn't willing to pay the considerable amount to send a child to a specialized school, there is nowhere else to go. Add to that the fact that the list of private placements shrinks when you're talking about early elementary school children and the lack of space in many of the special education programs our area school systems offer and...where do these kids go? Too many kids are trapped in this appropriate placement limbo and it's not good for anyone.[/quote]

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