An IEP question for someone else...

[tiredmommy]

I know a mom whose daughter has an IEP due to a learning disability and she is working on a class placement for next year. She feels a looping classroom is in her child's best interest due to transition issues and that her daughter's reading disability doesn't present typically so having the same teacher for two years would be academically beneficial.

The district's Special Education director has told her that looping was unavailable to her child because those particular teacher's won't have students with IEPs. There will be four classes splitting 12 known students with IEPs and those classes will have classroom aides and push-ins from the Special Education resource teachers. The other grade level classrooms, apparently, will not have access to Special Education.

So... since Special Education is not a destination... are the rights of this child being denied?

 

[smallworld]

TM, can you define "push-ins" from the Special Education resource teachers? Do you mean the Special Education resource teachers come in to those classrooms for certain periods of the day to aide the general ed teacher?

 

[JJJ]

No, her rights are not being denied. The school cannot be expected to make every class in the school into a resource room (i.e. a class with extra support pushed in).

 

[LittleDudesMom]

No, her rights are not being denied, as JJJ has said. The school obviously has a program in place to handle the needs of any of their Special Education children. While some may say from the outside that the school has created an aura of eliteness in the looping classrooms, the school probably has found this is a great alternative as the "push in" issue, which I believe is really partially a collaborative method, works best when the "main" teacher is Learning Disability (LD) sensitive and aides and Special Education teachers work hand in hand. My difficult child's middle school does 100% collab rather than resource and it is very successful.

There are just some teachers that are better at accommodating the needs of Special Education students as well. I, as a parent, would be very confident knowing my child was going to be in a classroom with a teacher that had a history of working with other children who learn differently. And, as much as transitions are difficult for children with special needs, her daughter will adjust and the school has her reading scores so the new teacher will know the student's needs before school even opens in the fall. Not to mention that teachers very often discuss students that have "out of the norm" issues when they are moving up.

And, in some cases the parent's nervousness or protectiveness can cloud the issue. Not saying that is the case here, but from all you have said over the past few years, your school is defiantly one of the good ones. I would be confident with what they were offering.

Sharon