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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No child left behind REALLY screwed so many kids. It hasn't helped kids avoid being academically left behind. And "least restrictive environment" isn't helpful when the kid is verbally disruptive.  [/quote]
+1 Very rarely will non-teachers admit this. But NCLB/IDEA/FAPE ruined public schools in the US. The Federal Government and Congress like the publicity of “helping everyone” but provided no funding. So then all children suffer.[/quote]

I’m so sick of people claiming there’s “no funding” or “not enough funding” in our schools. Schools in DC spend literally more than $22k per year per kid, average. Some are obviously a lot more. Schools in Florida spend $9k and that’s still high, relatively speaking. Other Western countries spend WAY less than we do in the US. People need to start acknowledging that if an average of $22k/year isn’t enough to get all students meeting a basic grade level standard then money is NOT the problem and more money is NOT the answer.

They can start by getting all the disruptive kids out of our classrooms and back into special facilities that are equipped (no scissors, yes metal detectors, yes guards) and trained (staff with personal defense training plus deescalation techniques etc plus aides floating around) to handle them.

The problem is the students and the parents. Not the schools. Schools don’t need more money or more anything. They need less of the thing that’s destroying them, which is disruptive students.[/quote]

I'm from Europe. Part of the reason why I stayed here for good (or until I retire, at least) is that my first child was born with special needs and I knew my home country's education system had nothing for him. NOTHING. Parents of autistic kids in my country often become indigent because they cannot go to work because their kids cannot go to school!!! Please let that sink in. OF COURSE PUBLIC EDUCATION COSTS ARE LOWER WHEN YOU DON'T ACCOMMODATE THE CHILDREN WHO NEED MORE CARE. European public school systems are narrowly focused on the middle range of achievers. There is no gifted education. No special needs education. Teachers are rigid and expect children to adapt to their teaching style. Here in America it's the opposite, where teachers are trained to adapt to children's learning styles. It's a completely different philosophy. If only we could have the best of both worlds: European educational rigor, with American child-centered focus and attention paid to both extremes of development.

Americans do not realize how economically-sound their public school system really is, thanks to IDEA. It allows parents of kids with special needs to place them safely where there is the least likelihood of abuse (institutions and special schools are notorious for that), harbor some hope they will progress and become independent one day, and it allows them to contribute to the economy and maintain a certain level of dignity. I am incredibly grateful for that federal law, its particular implementation in Montgomery County, and our professional ability to get visas to stay here. We pay all of our taxes in the US, thanks to an agreement between my home country and the USA, so we are stakeholders too, despite not being citizens. We pay into the system just like you.

Now does the current system always work? No. I have witnessed massive disruption to classes when one child has behaviors that stop instruction and bother other children. The push for LRE is misguided. I know many parents of kids with special needs WHO DO NOT WANT LEAST RESTRICTIVE EDUCATION. It is applied to the extreme in cases where a child could never hope to gain anything from a mainstream classroom, because it is the least expensive option. I personally know parents who have fought their public school system to place their kids in more restrictive environments, but there are limited in seats and some are very expensive for the County, if they need specialized private schools that the County pays for. Some reasonably well-off parents choose to homeschool instead.

The American philosophy of meeting each child where they are is in my mind the pinnacle of a civilized society. You should be proud of your country in that regard. No other country in the world has pushed as far as the USA to include every child in its public education effort. It has lifted many families out of poverty because they could finally go to work, and it has trained children who might otherwise never had received a degree to be functional and employable. PLEASE FACTOR THIS INTO YOUR FINANCIAL CALCULATIONS.

We just need to tweak it. Surely we can do that.

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It's very true that the US educational system is great compared to most others when it comes to significant disabilities, like autism.  However, that's a pretty small subset of children, and you need to understand that serving special needs populations as well as we do results in negative effects for the majority of other children.[/quote]

Surely you're intelligent enough to understand that the inclusion of all children benefits more than the autistic subset. We're talking about all sorts of developmental delays, the giant ADHD group, the dyslexics, dyscalculics, dysgraphics, the kids with impaired hearing or impaired sight, those in wheelchairs, the giant anxiety group, those with depression, bipolar disorders, and other psychiatric ailments. There are a kids with chronic physical diseases whose treatment needs perturb their education, there are kids with cancer, particularly around NIH, because their families have the right to enroll their kids in nearby MCPS schools while their child is being treated there. I knew of a child with a specific short-term memory issue. There are so many children with varying needs!!!

Please realize that special needs come in all sorts of future options: there are kids with mild special needs who will go on to be very traditionally successful; those with moderate needs that can be perfectly functional and independent as adults; and those that will never be independent but who can be socialized and taught to advocate for themselves in some measure to make their lives safer (always a critical issue with the latter cohort). The range of functionality and futures runs the gamut!

Educating these children is making sure they are not a burden, or as light a burden as possible, to YOUR children when they're all adults and paying taxes. You've got to stop being so short-sighted and selfish, PP.

I completely agree with you that the current system can be detrimental to certain kids if they're unlucky enough to be in the class with a habitual disrupter. My kids have been in those classes. But despite one of them having an IEP himself, my kids are both functional enough to power through and be successful no matter who is in their class. The burden they bear is NOTHING compared to the burden the disrupter bears.

I support efforts to change the system just enough that children and teachers can be protected and shielded from the worse behaviors of certain perturbed children - everyone in that situation deserves better, most of all, the perturbed child themselves!

But DO NOT imply that our society should stop including and helping the immense numbers of children with special needs. One of them might cure your cancer one day. They are not all cognitively impaired, you know. Some of them are very bright indeed. My husband has ADHD/Asperger's, he has an MD and a PhD and works in cancer research. I know what I'm talking about.

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