My son is in 8th grade…I met with his teacher and the high school teacher to do another IEP and plans for HS. I left there feeling they are going to push our child through HS with out really getting much of an education.
There were 2 other teachers that attended this meeting so that we could hear how our son was doing in their classes. Both teachers reported that he was doing very well. His grades were good…behavior good…does every thing that is asked and expected. I sat there and listened to these teacher’s talk and felt that our son is doing excatly what is expected of him. He is in special ed for most of his classes. He also does very well in Math and spelling. They have a hard time finding words hard enough for spelling. Right now he is maintaing between B’s and C’s in what they give him…but not all 8th grade level.
After sitting there I walked away very troubled. At one point our son was asked if he wanted to go for a HS diploma or just a paper that says completed. They want to pull him out of all classes and put him special ed classes. I was very upset with all this. He is maintianing in the regular classes with out any extra help. He can do more than they are expecting. I’m considering home schooling. I feel this is the time to research and see what I can do for our child. My question is where do I begin. He is not doing 8th grade assingments in most of his classes. How do I go about starting home schooling for high school when I know that he isn’t up to some of the work they expect. I can not expect him to do 9th grade english. How do I find a cirriculm that will work for our child.
Re: Also special education is NOT a location, but a service
My son will be going into 9th next year, he is special ed qualified but is in all regular classes doing all the same work as the other 8th graders, he gets in class support and accommodations. We have done his transition paperwork, IEP is already done for next year. He will be getting 230 minutes a week of classroom support in addition to opportunities to use the resource room for tests or to finish tests/assignments. He also is allowed to retake bombed tests. Those are the biggies, there are a few more accommodations.
Hope this helps, best wishes.
Amy
What is in class support?
I asked my son’s IEP team and no one answered. I was going to research but if you could get me going in the right direction it would really help….
Barb Bloom
Re: What is in class support?
A sped teacher comes into the regular ed class to help the child with just what he is struggling with.
They don’t offer this in our school. They consider the two teacher class to be a regular ed setting with extra help from the sped teacher. It just isn’t. I found that environment very restrictive. The other option is resource room for part of the day. Resource room in our school is for the kids who have serious learning issues.
ICS is the least restrictive environment.
They actually have more forms of less restrictive help in the regular ed environment. There is even some ICS but it isn’t a sped teacher.
I am done with sped. They just do not have their act together. I have had the experience of fighting for accomodations, getting them, and then being sorry that we got them because they were so poorly implememted. I can’t micromanage them.
My son is doing much better so all of this is becoming less and less an issue.
Re: What is in class support?
Basically what lindaf said, the sp.ed teacher or an aide is in the classroom to give help where needed. My son often needs directions clarified for him, help in understanding what he reads, right now he gets time with the science and social studies classes. HE’s holding onto a B in English which is amazing since lang.arts/reading is what started all the sp.ed stuff going in the first place.
For the second semester this year we substituted an elective class with resource room time every other day for extra math help but it was because there were no other choices for him as far as math teachers (his math teacher is really tough, no A students in any of his classes, even the high school staff mentioned that if my son is holding onto a C in this teacher’s class then he is actually doing pretty well). He shouldn’t need it for high school math, I am hoping to get him in an Algebra I class that is spread into two years (part A and part B).
Unlike lindaf, I have been pretty happy with sp.ed services, one because it has kept my son from falling in the cracks (he is a shy,quiet kid), two because the sp.ed teachers we have worked with have all been doing their best to help my son succeed. He has been included all through middle school, he was only pulled out in the last part of 4th (when he finally qualified) and all of 5th grades to help him with lang. arts/reading. Funny though, his first sp.ed teacher was a former DODDS sp.ed teacher and he has been in a DODDS school 6-8 grades in Germany. I am almost afraid to put him back in the reg. public school system. I may have been spoiled.
Hope this helps some. Best wishes.
Amy
Re: ADD
I always say that sped is not a place to live and not all students with ADD need special education services. Believe me, there are many students that have focusing issues in my regular education English that don’t focus on their work. I would just put him in regular ed classes, exit sped and work on the problems with him yourself. If special education worked, we would have more kids who come into the program in elementary school doing well and out of sped in high school. If it doesn’t work, exit him.
My son actually did worse on the easier work. I think he was living down to their expectations. He was miserable in sped. He kept asking why he needed to have people looking over his shoulder constantly.
I pulled him out of sped and put him in a regular class against their wishes and he is doing fine with a flexible regular ed teacher. I have done alot of things to remediate his deficits that has really helped. The schools are often not capable of real remediation.
If he does not get a good teacher next year I will just homeschool him. I am working on his teacher to make sure he gets a good teacher but you just never know. If sped doesn’t work it doesn’t work and I know that I don’t have the strength to fix the school’s problems and my son’s problems so I chose to focus on him.
The www.vegsource.com board homeschooling section has alot of very good info. Ask you questions over there and good luck.
PS. Sped is voluntary. You can just write a letter and refuse if you think the work is too low.