Reply to IEP impact / from Musk & DoE

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The federal government is supposed to pay 40% of the costs of special education but in actuality only funds between 13-14% of special ed costs.

What do local districts and states get for this 13-14%? A mountain of needless paperwork and bureaucrats who are not directly teaching special education students or providing any services.

Here is one example - The federal gov't added a requirement that special ed students take the same assessments and their progress is tracked.  (It is laughable that this has accomplished anything, but that is another topic). So California said in order to track preschool special ed students ages 3-5 we will require teachers to fill out a 50+ question survey called the DRDP for each student just like public preschools have to do for general ed students. So that makes sense.

Well, now California has added grade for 4 -5 year olds called transitional kindergarten (TK) on elementary school campuses. None of the TK students in general ed are being rated, but since it was written down that the feds would receive this data for 4-5 year olds, CA said it has to still be completed for special ed. students. So special education teachers and speech therapists are having to spend hours and hours getting trained to complete this 50+ question rating scale that NO ONE is going to use - not parents and not teachers. It is just a box that is being checked for federal compliance. And the questions are all like this:

Keep in mind this is one of 50+ questions

ATL-REG 4: Curiosity and Initiative in Learning
Pick one option:

Responds to people, things, or sounds

Notices new or unexpected characteristics or actions of people or things

Explores people or things in the immediate environment

Explores new ways to use familiar things, including simple trial and error

Explores through simple observations, or manipulations, or asking simple questions

Explores by engaging in specific observations, manipulations, or by asking specific questions

Carries out simple investigations using familiar strategies, tools, or sources of information

Carries out multi-step investigations, using a variety of strategies, tools, or sources of information

This took a special education teacher 16 hours to get trained and to fill out this form for four TK students on her caseload. She has 19 other students on her caseload. Time she could have spent on direct instruction. So plenty of people are hoping some of the bureaucracy goes away while more direct services are provided.

[/quote]
This sounds like a great idea (I’m not sure your leader agreed, since these kinds of programs are also funded by some of the grants that have been frozen, by the way).

I don’t think anyone is against helpful reform in all of these agencies. You do understand that the money saved from this won’t go to direct services for our kids, right? You can reform a department without ending it.

And sending “enforcement” of IDEA across the street will lead to little or no enforcement of these civil rights’ laws passed and funded by CONGRESS.[/quote]

A pointless assessment forced on teachers by the department of education does NOT sound like a good idea. [/quote]

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