Reply to Serious Question - Special Ed Students in Gen Ed Classrooms

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Any teachers who have not seen the change are just lucky at this point. When you have a student that makes it impossible to teach, yet the county refuses to move them, EVERY child and adult in the classroom are affected.

OP- you are not imagining things. Students with severe disabilities are much more mainstream than they were even 2 years ago.[/quote]

That's not true.  My oldest kid (now nearly completing high school) had a blind child with cerebral palsy starting in their K class, so this is now over a decade ago. The child had a 1:1 aide--and the teacher said she loved that because that aide could lend a hand if needed as there were always 2 adults in the classroom, which is a gift.

Yes, some kids have special needs--but you're being very closed minded to think that it's always a bad thing to have those special needs kids in class.  The child I mention was a lovely kid--certainly better behaved than some of the neurotypical MCPS kids I've met.  My kid still remembers how they taught him a little Braille so that he could understand how he blind child was learning to read.  [/quote]

It’s very hard for students to get 1:1 support now.   This is happening. And believe me, if a teacher wants to call the police because of immediate safety concerns, they will be disciplined.  Ask me how I know.  [/quote]
I'm sure it was hard to get a 1:1 support 12 years ago too.  But it still happens today.  I've seen it in my kids' classroom where there are extra adults when there are kids with severe needs.  [/quote]

It’s very hard to get 1:1 now because no one wants to do this.  Your anecdotal experience is not the new normal.  [/quote]

Yet we’re supposed to believe that your anecdote is the new normal?  :roll: [/quote]

Just speaking the truth; not trying to argue.   It’s not anecdotal.   The funding is not there to pay people properly and it’s disappearing as fast as this administration can dismantle the Department of Education.

https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/how-dismantling-education-department-could-affect-disabled-students-across-us

Go to bed.  [/quote]

Did you even read what you posted? It’s an op-ed from Urban Wire that does not mention MCPS or 1:1 aides.  None of this bolsters your anecdotes, or makes your anecdotes superior to the other anecdotes posted on this thread.[/quote]

Please stop.  It’s odd how you are arguing about something that actual teachers are telling you is no longer in existence.   This is a huge issue.  And it’s getting worse.   No one is going to write a report just on MCPS.  This is not an op-ed piece.   This is an independently funded organization that provides actual data and analysis of policy changes that affect our most vulnerable populations.

Let the teachers talk please.  [/quote]

You're an anonymous person on the Internet--and not a particularly accurate one at that.  No one knows if you're truly a teacher, and if you were, you would recognize that you're not in every MCPS classroom in every school, and that [b]yes, there are classes with 1:1 aides[/b].[/quote]

1:1s aren’t assigned to a class, they are assigned to a specific student.

My school fought Central Office for 18 months to get a 1:1 for a student who elopes when dysregulated. We only got her Tuesday after the Washington Post article about the children who died in Maryland. She expressed yesterday that she might quit because being a regular para is much easier.[/quote]

What do you mean that a regular para is much easier? TIA.[/quote]
A 1:1 para is intended for the most needy SpEd students who may not be able to feed or toilet themselves, or whose behavior is the most challenging (i.e. elopement, aggression, self-harm). These students require intense support, but unfortunately the 1:1 positions often go unfilled or are filled by paras who are woefully unprepared. Until this year these critical staffing positions were considered temporary part-time and received no benefits, which  was another barrier to hiring. I believe that at least has been upgraded.[/quote]

Do 1:1 paras get paid more than general paras, given the specialized skill set they must have and frankly the much more difficult working conditions? If not, they should.[/quote]

lol, no, and there's no training for either.  Special Ed para who made $26k annually 2 years ago.  1:1 paras are TPT (temporary, part time employees), who are paid hourly, with no benefits, so they make even less.

There are many who have made some good points throughout, and many who are just ranting.  The Homeschool model, in place for a long time now, has been a disaster for most students, special ed and neurotypical.

There isn't enough space or money or teachers for more discrete special ed classrooms, so  special ed students, with a variety of needs from very little to a lot, are in the general ed classroom.  These days its difficult to get a 1:1 aide in your student's IEP, because it's expensive (even though it's hourly pay with no benefits), and, there aren't enough to be hired who want this job, so even if you are lucky enough to have this in your student's IEP, you may not actually have one.

There are so many students with behavioral problems in the gen ed classroom, who don't belong there now than there were 10-15 years ago.  Even in ES, they are violent, throw things, over turn desks and scream, causing teachers to need to evacuate the classroom, counselors and principals to come running to help, and, nothing changes.

Even when parents WANT appropriate, discrete special ed placement, and as an earlier parent posted, it took over 18 months of meetings, documentation, and lawyers to make it happen. Now imagine a less educated parent, or a less resourced parent, or, a parent who is in denial about their child's needs, and that is never going to happen.  The child remains in the gen ed classroom, to the detriment of the special ed student, and the other 25 students who are unable to learn because they are always on edge over when the special ed student, or students, in their classroom will become disregulated, and they will have to evacuate.  Again.  And the student with minor needs, who would be successful with just a few supports, can't get them at all because everyone is so focused on the one, or the few, who have disruptive, explosive behavior.

It is a not good.  And the solutions cost money we don't have, and teachers who don't exist.  [/quote]

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