Special Education Sidelining ?

She should allow them to do some testing... it's really important to get to the bottom of the problem. In order to help her navigate the system, she should contact the Pacer Center. It's a wonderful and FREE program provided in the Cities that consults with parents about legal issues related to schooling and special education. They could help her understand her rights and limitations related to this situation.

Hmm, there is no easy answer to this question, but I can offer the teacher's opinion. First of all the goal shouldn't be "keeping him out of the special education program" but it should be "what can help this child succeed?"

I have been teaching for 10 years as an inclusion teacher with a master's degree in Diagnostic and Prescriptive Reading (Reading Specialist). I am a regular education teacher who team teaches with a special education teacher. She and I both service the needs of the students in my class with IEPs (Individual Education Programs). I don't know this young child's complete story, but I can tell you it is very evident from a young age when there is a real learning disability. Now this particular child may have a learning disability, but he may also be suffering from inadequate attendance or a combination of both. 4th grade is certainly late in the game in some respects for diagnosing some of his learning problems. Unfortunately by this age some students have learned insignificant coping ways that inhibit aquisition of language and higher level understanding in academic areas.

The school that your son and his friend attend cannot legally just pull his friend from regular education and put him into a self-contained special education classroom. There is a legal process that the school must follow along with parent consent. Teachers must provide data that the student has not been performing up to standards. Then an intervention needs to be administered in the areas of concern. After the intervention has been given 6-8 weeks the child's academic progress/performance is looked at again. At this point if there has been no significant change in his progress he should be recommended for testing by the school psychologist (or his mother may take him to a private psychologist and pay the bill herself). At that point the child's capacity to learn or IQ is measured against his performance. As a team of teachers and the parent a final decision is made about what would best fit the child's academic needs. And only after the parent has agreed the child can be placed into a self contained special education classroom.

Please do not assume a place like Sylvan can help with every child. I urge you to check into that program. It is not all that great. I'd prefer a private tutor that uses the school's curriculum and supports what the classroom teacher is already doing. And another poster said we're talking about math, reading, science and social studies-not calculus , chemistry, biology and physics-that's next year....be careful assuming that these basic skills are "easy" or "elementary" in any fashion. They are the building blocks that are needed for scaffolding as he learns the upper level academics.

This is exactly why I tell parents that they should never hold children back. A child who has issues early needs to enter school when it is time, so that their issues are not masked by their age. It usually catches up with themat just about this time, 4th grade when the focus moves from learning to read and write to writing and reading to learn.

First off, if your school system has a "program" that is totally wrong anyway. Kids in special education have evaluations that identify one of 13 categories that they can qualify for IDEA services, and then the evaluation data is what is used to determine what the child needs. Placement, meaning being "pulled out and put in a program" is decided after the child has been identified, an IEP has been written, and then, based on that IEP, the very last possible choice that is available to the IEP team (a group of designated individuals that includes the childs parents) may need to decide to put the child in a restrictive program that is not in the regular education program. It is very rare, and discouraged in IDEA for children to be pulled from regular education classes unless it there is no reasonable way to implement the child's IEP in a regular classroom. It is called Inclusion. I would find it extreemly questionable as an advocate if a client called me in on a case and said that their child went from a regualar classroom to a restrictive environment in the course of a year based on the recomendations of a teacher at a parent teacher conference. It would be a huge procedural violation that any good advocate could drive a truck through, and I can gaurentee you that there is something that you do not know about this situation.

Sylvan is not a first line choice here at at all. Any evaluation that a parent gets from this kind of establishment will not be helpful to them for anything other than purchasing services at sylvan. Maybe this will work, but, if the child needs something other than what they offer, then thousands of dollars are wasted.

First, your friend should seek out a private educational evaluation. Depending on what the "suspected" disalbity is, this could be done at many different places. If this is completley and toltally educational, meaning that there are no behavioral, social, developmental, speech/langauge, gross/fine motor, senosory, visual processing or psychological issues assoicated with the problem, then a neuropsychologist is the quickest way to identify learning issues. If there are any fo the issues I listed, the parents could start with a neuropsychologist, and move on to a psychiatrist, speech and langague therapist, occupational therapist, developmental optomitrist, cognative behavioral therapist, and the very best of all worlds, a developmental pediatrician (who will do all of the above in one evaluation, but will take many months to get in to see.) Private evaluations are essential for all parents whose children are not sailing through school without difficulty. You should never know less about your child than any school does, nor should you trust them to tell you what your child needs. You need to verify that your child is getting what they need to be sucessful.

These parents should document what happened at the parent teacher conference with an email right away. They should write down every detail of what the teacher said, then at the bottom say; "if you do not correct me within 10 school days, I will assume that I have summed up our conversation accurately." Then, if she has been told that her son needs special education, she should write to the special education director and request a meeting to give consent for a full educational evaluation within ten school days. She should ask for every area to be assessed that the teacher raised an issue for, and any are that the parents are worried about, and any area that he has not done well in. Additionally, the child should have all of his processing skills and his IQ assessed.

Labeling is not a problem with any child. No child is hurt by a lable. It just does not work that way at all. The lable this family needs to avoid is "illiterate" and "drop out." because those last for the child's whole life, being in special education is forgotton as soon as the child is able to be dismissed from these expensive services; that is the goal of most school districts.

These parents should log on to www.wrightslaw.com and learn what to do. If they are feeling overwhlemed, they should contacat an advocate to help them. They can find one on the wrightslaw web site, they just need to look under the yellow pages at the site for their state, and find one in their area. It is worth the money to have help navigating this system.

Let go of the lable fear, and don't spread it to the family. You are not doing the boy any favors, and that fork in the road leads to really bad things for the boy. It certainly won't help him. Guide the family to find someone who really knows what to do, and when the school district is not worth working with.

M.

After going through a similar experience and spending $10K on Sylvan, I would stay as far away from them as you can. It is a money pit, pure and simple. Have the parents talk to the teachers and special ed counselors at the school about their concerns with going special ed full-time and see if a compromise can be made. The bottom line has to be what's best for the child and if they can learn better in a special ed classroom, then that's what is best.

I don't think they are wanting to put him into special education to make their job easier. Of course Special Education varies from state to state, but I am from NE and a Senior at the University majoring in Sped. I have been taught a lot about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that mandates special education services. According to IDEA to be eligible for Sped one must have 3 criterion: have a specified disability, the disability must have an adverse impact on educational performance, and must require special education services. Another part of IDEA is that a student must be educated in the least restrictive environment. This can vary from student to student. For example, some students are in a self contained classroom with only special education students. My son is verified in Sped and has been so since he was 9 months old. He is now in Kindergarten and he is in the general education classroom with some pull out and support being offered. Another part of IDEA is that a student must have a Free And Appropriate Education (FAPE) which mandates that the school must prove how the services would give education benefit, it mandates specialized instruction, and related services. With being verified in Sped, the student can get related services for support such as working w/a speech language pathologist, Occupational therapist, and there are many other support services offered. The support services are identified through the identified through the evaluation procedures. Before the school can put him in special education they have to do 2 things. First and foremost, the they CAN NOT verify him w/out parental consent. They must also evaluate him to determine if he has a specified disability. So, I guess what I am saying is that the school may want to look in to special education to verify if he has something like LD (the criteria for a student w/LD is that they have an average IQ, but are peforming at a deficit for some reason). The school most likely wants to evaluate him to determine that if he has something like LD, then they can come up with and Individualized Educational Program (IEP) to find goals and accommodations to help the student reach their full potential. I know there was a lot of jargon in this explanation, but I think the school is really trying to help the student and not simply make their job easier. W/out identification, no supplemental services can be given through the school. I hope this helps and GOOD LUCK!!!!

Without knowing the situation, it's hard to offer much advice... but if the mother doesn't want him getting special education services, she can just decline services... however, that doesn't mean she get's to decide that he gets DIFFERENT special education services than the ones the team has deemed appropriate.

You mention that the school would like to label him to make their job easier... honestly, the opposite is generally true... schools try to keep kids OUT of special ed programs... they would rather have as few kids be "officially" special ed as possible... so if the school says he qualifies, then he does.

Sylvan won't diagnose anything. They will tell you WHERE the gaps are academically, but they can't do any of the psychological tests for processing or anything, so I'd say save your money on that.

something else is wrong. if hes there one day and gone the next, its something else.

first of all, i recommend Mayim Bialik. her kids were "developmentally delayed" according to the world, but she just instinctively did what most parents wouldnt. i recommend looking into the things shes written - i guess she has some blog via the today show? anyway, look into that.

check into allergies; track food patterns/behavior patters.

sylvan would be a good resource.

schools loooove labels. from the freaks to the geeks to the athletes and whatnot, the kids do it and so do the adults. homeschooling might be a good option, but single parent family it is really hard. :( she could make it work, i mean, i dont know all the options and rules and stuff, but as long as the work gets done, there arent restrictions/rules on the number of days they have to be "in session". but its still pretty tough.

anyway. just try to work it by instinct and by ear. do whats best for the child. schools SHOULD be changing their curriculum so that all kids can excel, talk to your school about this as well. i dont know what kind of curriculum it is called or anything, but with our new school they are planning on a curriculum that includes ALL students, at their level, in their interests. its VERY cool. pressure your school, your PTO, and etc to change curriculum to one that includes all students.

The child needs to be seen and tested by a good child pyschologist who can administer a full battery of pyschological and educational tests. There are a number of issues that could be causing problems for him (ADD, ADHD, Bi-polar, Autism, LD (Learning Disabilities).

We are raising our 9 yr. old grandson who has some of these issues. He has LD (Learning Disabilities) that affect his short term memory. After diligently working with him for an entire week on 20 spelling words, and him finally seeming to be ready for the weekly test, he will usually get 100% correct on the test. However, if you were to randomly give him the same spelling test a week later, he would probably only get 50% correct. I see this short term memory issue in many other area's of school and home life.

There are special learning programs (and special education) that can help improve his organizational skills so that he doesn't have to rely so much on memory, however, there is no cure.

If your friend's child has a learning disability or memory deficit, no amount of schooling, private or otherwise, will help him. He needs testing in order to narrow down the particular learning issues and seek specialized assistance in that area.

Has he been taken for a comprehensive eval to rule out any kind of biological or neurological issues? I would suggest finding an independent evaluator if they go this route.

Of course, it depends on your school/school district and what type of program they have when it comes to their Special Ed program. Some schools have wonderful--absolutely astoundingly great--programs (like ours), whereas others you wouldn't want to be caught dead in. So you need to assess your district's Special Ed classes, teachers, and if students are getting out of it what they should be getting. I'd talk to some parents whose children are actually part--or have been part--of the Special Ed program to see what they have to say.

My daughter has Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), which is on the high-end of the Autism Spectrum. She started Speech when she was 3, and was enrolled in the Early Childhood program when she was 4 (they further tested her, and she also rec'd OT/PT). However, other than the OT/PT and Speech, she needs no other help (she did receive help with reading in 1st grade; she now reads about 2 grade levels above her current grade). With her, the problem is more emotional and social, which we as her parents have had to help her with, as well as a very respected Childhood Specialist we couldn't live without; my daugher has been seeing her since she was 5 (she's almost 11).

Special Ed is not "Oh My God" the end of the world that so many people want to make it out to be. But, I do agree it makes a big difference in how the school district uses and handles their Special Ed classes/children. My daughter attends a suburb of Madison, WI, (Oregon School District), and many parents use Open Enrollment to get their children into our school district because of the excellent Special Ed system we have. In fact, we made the decision to keep our daughter in the elementary school where she's started speech and OT/PT before she ever started school, because she already knew the teachers and had a base of kids she knew (making it easier for her and her lack of social skills). Also, most of the kids she'd gone to daycare with were town kids, and the elementary school she was at was where they went to school (because we live in the country, technically, she should have gone to the other elementary school).

We've also done other things ourself "outside" to get our daugher the help she's needed, to include extra outside OT/PT help as well as taking her to a Children's Wellness and Fitness Center for help with food/nutrition/fitness (she struggles/d with issues with taste, texture, etc. with food). However, other than that, she hasn't needed any extra help on her classes/homework and has stayed with her class and is a solid "B" student as a 5th grader.

I think a more thorough evaluation, as in a doctor evaluation, is called for so that they know specifically what the child has and what they need to do to help him. When my daughter was 8 years old, I had her tested for heavy metals through an Integration Doctor (a naturopathic will also do it; allopathic doctors are terrible to get to help with this. They don't believe in toxins=vaccines=autism spectrum. But when you have a child with it, everything makes sooooooo much sense...). My daughter had severe heavy metal toxicity and had to chelate 3-4 times. I keep her on certain supplements so that her body always chelates now. We also discovered that both her and I have a genetic liver mutation that doesn't detoxify or metabolize correctly; that means that, most likely, not only do pharma drugs and over-the-counter medications profoundly affect our liver (and our brains), but that vaccines probably harmed both her and me/our health. Through continued testing we've also found that we have food allergies and intolerances. All of these medical "issues" are things the allopathic community doesn't test for and that we've had to pay for ourselves through seeing a naturopathic doctor. However, to know what the problems/issues are and to be able to take care of them naturally--well, we're eternally grateful to know what the trigger issues are and to be able to take care of them without pharma drugs, surgery, whatnot. Our daughter is so vastly, vastly improved over what she was like as a baby/toddler.

The best things the body's mom can do are 1) get him tested for heavy metals, and then chelated (his inability to focus and fuzzy/foggy brain strongly suggest he is toxic); 2) get the boy off all processed, commercial foods (and off all dyes, colorings, artificial flavorings, etc.)--it will make a tremendous difference (we noticed an almost overnight improvement in our daughter when we switched to organic three years ago); 3) get a filtration or reverse-osmosis system put on their drinking water, as that will get rid of the flouride and chlorine in the water, as well as anything else that's not good for the body; and 4) I guarantee she will start seeing remarkable results with just these few changes.

If you'd like to talk me, you're more than welcome to write me off-line.

My hurt goes out to the boy, and I hope he gets the help he so desperately needs.

A private tutor will be able to fill in the gaps in no time-but may be needed over the summer. I have always been hesitant to label a young child. Learning centers do work-they are able to identify the problem and fix it. The identification is critical-gathering the materials-doable-and finding the help-may be one honor student away from someone who would love to tutor him at a reduced rate to gain community service hours or compile information for a paper, or just be interested in childhood ed -or just want a little spending money. We're talking about math, reading, science and social studies-not calculus , chemistry, biology and physics-that's next year.

Hi there! I am wondering if the teacher/school have tried any other strategies. Usually there are steps the school goes through before making a determination that a child needs Special Education classes. I'm sure it is difficult for everyone involved to keep him on track with missed days of school. He could be missing some key points that leave holes in his understanding. You know, with young kids every day builds on the one before.
I would look at what learning strategies they could try for the rest of this year and see if he can make up some ground. If he really can't, it could eventually get pretty frustrating for him. His mom could check with the school and see if the classes are self contained or class within a class. Would he only need to be pulled for one or two core classes? There are ways to specifiy how many minutes a child will be pulled from regular classes, so how many minutes would he need to be pulled? With all of the information his mom will have to weigh out the pros and cons of Special Ed. classes. Remember, there are a lot of kids who truly benefit from these classes. It is okay if that is where he ends up if that is what he needs.
Good luck! It is very sweet of you to be so concerned for your friend!

Good morning, Sammy Jo,
You wrote "it seems as though he will completely comprehend everything one day, and the next it is like speaking a foreign language. Some days he reads and understands fine, the next it is completely like he isn't there."

I correct dyslexia and that's something I hear all of the time from parents that I work with about their dyslexic children.

This young boy needs to find someone who understands how a visual-spatial person learns.

You can check www.dyslexia.com and search for someone in your area who provides the tools this boy needs. Or you could get the books The Gift of Dyslexia by Ron Davis or When your child has Dyslexia by Abigail Marshall.

Hope this is helpful!
C.
www.onpointlearning.org