Reply to When a grade has a lot of challenging kids

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am not a McPS staffer, just a parent, but have heard that in my kids’ elementary school, they tend to cluster a lot of the kids with IEPs in the same class rather than distributing them evenly because it’s easier to provide similar extra resources (like extra paras to deal with special needs or extra reading specialists for dyslexia or whatever) if more kids with those needs are in one class.

My kid (who doesn’t have an IEP) was in one of the classes that seemed to have a lot of special needs kids last year, but not this year.

I definitely get fewer reports of kid misbehavior/meltdowns this year.  But the paraprofessionals who helped my kid’s class last year (even the ones without special needs) don’t come to my kid’s class this year-it’s just the teacher.  So there are tradeoffs.  Kids with more needs bring more resources to the classroom that can benefit all the kids in that class.

Don’t judge your kids’ school by one class party.
[/quote]

The paras are doing nothing besides chasing or following around the most disruptive child and repeatedly telling people to sit down. My child doesn’t benefit from their presence in any way at all and it adds to the noise.

I should have mentioned in my OP that this is my 3rd time in this classroom and they have all been bad. One student only spends part of the day in the class (he is in a special program) and was not there for the first occasion and really added to the craziness today. I’m sure it was worse than usual because of the party but there’s no chance things are going well the rest of the time. I have heard reports teachers of older grades are already dreading this cohort. [/quote]

Have your other times been "fly on the wall" type observing of regular class time?  If not (and honestly even if so-- but certainly especially not if you're having it on special events) you can't assume that the paras are unhelpful.[/quote]

+1. I would doubt anyone who would say paras are doing nothing but helping with a single kid. My kid has no special needs but has told me about the time Ms so and so helped with XYZ.  That’s what adults do when they see a kid who needs a hand.

Any extra adult in the classroom is a help to the teacher.  [/quote]

Retired teacher here. There definitely are paras that do nothing but attend to one or two challenging children so that the teacher can instruct children who are better able to learn and who do not have significant challenges.[/quote]

That's still more than what OP claimed, which is that the paras' presence in the classroom is not beneficial at all and they are basically useless. [/quote]

OP here and that is not what I claimed. I was irritated that PP implied I should be grateful that my kid had these challenging kids in their class because it brought in all this extra help and I am 100 percent sure these paras are not adding to my child’s experience in any way. They are bodyguards. The only time my child has ever mentioned them is not even by name but just as “Larlos helper takes them to the other room sometimes”. I am sure the situation would be worse without them there and it is not my intention to bash anyone but the idea these paras are helping out is just not accurate. [/quote]

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