Resource Center vs regular classroom...

I have spent years fighting over this issue with the school district and I will be back in legal contention with them by the end of the year over this issue. My daughter’s main academic difficulty is writing. She reads 4- or more grade levels above her age, she does honors level thinking and work in most of her classes—but last year, in 7th grade honors, she wrote a total of three paragraphs!!!

The district proposed resource—the class was too low and she did need the rest of the lanuage arts curriculum at her level. They proposed having her work one on one with a para—I let them try for a year while we were fighting about it—it didn’t work, because to really teach writing—I think you need to be trained at a high level, not just someone who graduated from high school.After another year of due process mediation (it actually took 4 months) the district paid for a lindamood bell style one on one tutoring (80 hours) for this past summer. This is the first progress she has made on writing since 4th grade. The only method that will work with her is one on one tutoring with a structured program. She can’t pick it up in the classroom, but she needs to be with her peers who are discussing books at a high level, working on difficult literature, etc. She scored in the 90’s on tests of grammar and sentence structure. We had a report from the summer program that stated that my kid is unable to write essays independently. We just had an iep meeting, and the district’s idea to help her progress is to send home a “rubric:” or chart on how to get a good grade in Language arts and she will (magically) produce an essay every two weeks. So, knowing we will be back at due process, and that the district will fight every step, we stated that we will try their way for 45 days. My kid will produce 2-3 2 page essays in that time (mostly outside of class). I told them I was only able to teach my child math at home —which I did for the last two years—but I will not teach her writing and will only remind her two times a night of her assignment. Writing discussions at home produce chaos, anger and anxiety—i will not make home miserable. I know my daughter can’t do the work—I want them to pay for 4 hours of one on one tutoring every week.
so my advice is to document that their method does not produce results—that they give you a progress report on a writing goal every report period, then do what you must to get a trained, (maybe a teacher) one on one help for your child. My daughter has Asperger’s and is highly gifted—she is writing more this year—short responses—but no where near her grade level or the expected level of writing that she would do with no disability.
Good luck—writing help is much harder to deal with I think because they tend not to teach any writing—at a high level—at least in this large urban school district.

I do not understand why any child who has a 1:1 aide should be pulled from the general education class at all?! The whole purpose to having a 1:1 aide is to facilitate success in the general ed. classroom.

Since many youngsters with IEPs who are pulled out of class receive most of their instruction from paraprofessionals (who work under the direction of a special educator) anyway, I fail to see the difference here.

If this child attended the school where I teach, I would plan to stay in touch with the classroom teacher to learn what was expected, covered, etc. Then I would work with the 1:1 aide to make any necessary modifications and to provide her with the materials and skills needed to tailor the program to his specific needs. I would furnish some additional materials and I would keep tabs on what was happening, working with the child myself from time to time to determine first hand how things were going.

Pulling this child out seems to be redundant.

I just wanted to explain why it is difficult to pull a child just for writing when writing is integrated with the other language arts. If the regular classroom has integrated language arts from 8 am to 10:30 am, and your child is scheduled for resource from 9:45 to 10:30 for example…you do not know what he will miss when he is out of the classroom as the regular teacher may not be doing just writing at that time since her lessons are integrated. Same in reverse…from 8 to 9:45 he may have some writing in the regular class that he can’t do. So this is less than ideal and very difficult to manage.

I agree with Anitya…let the special teacher give the writing work to the aide to do with him in the regular classroom.

Janis

The Paraprofessionals in our district are not allowed to pre-teach or re-teach.It is the teachers job.Our Paras have no special qualifications. Their job is to support the student..keeping them focused on task & organized & getting together with the child’s case manager to discuss possible behavior mods & strategies to keep them focused & on task….nothing more. This will all change though in a few years, because here in NJ the districts have until Jan. 2003 to make sure any Para in a Title 1 position must have an AS Degree or 60 college credits,& pass a proficiency test in Reading,Writing,& Math. They have till 2006 to make sure the Paras now on staff have taken the proficiency test. I didn’t think about the tutoring idea….that would be great,especially if the District has to foot the bill. The thing is since LA is integrated,& he’s always gotten A’s because he’s so high in every other aspect,I don’t know how to argue the point that will force the District to supplement my sons Writing at their own expense. My son has AS,& he can’t see or think “outside the box” the world & it’s rules don’t make sense to him. He doesn’t see a need for formalized education.I’ve battled with him ever since Kindergarten. He’s had meltdowns in class because if lessons are presented to him to quickly,& he sees alot of words on papers in front of him he freaks out,& homework….Forget that! I have made them put in his IEP that I can modify assignments for home,& he’ll have one or two pages of written homework,& none on the weekend. Any other work I’ll do orally with him at home. His fine motor skills are poor,so writing at any length is tiring for him,& if the lesson or homework is too abstract,he has a meltdown. He doesn’t understand Idioms,Sarcasms,& figures of speech,& doesn’t have a “higher order of thinking. I can’t teach him at home,becuase he won’t have it. The Psychologist has told me AS kids need to be able to distuinguish between home & school. Home is their “safe haven” & mom as teacher…NOT.. Mom is supposed to be the protecter,& nurturer,& keep him safe form the “big bad school” :o) I had thought maybe a Teachers Associate(in our district a TA has the 60 college credits or AS degree,& can substitute teach…)but in a classroom with a teacher the TA’s role is to pre teach, or re teach. My son doesn’t qualify for them to justify using a TA since he’s high in every other aspect of LA. I have a meeting with his teacher,& the school Psychologist next week (who also is his Case Manager) to discuss my dilemna. We shall see !!

I agree with the comments about being your child’s nurturer and keeping home a safe place—away from the trials and tribulations at school. I found with my own child that teaching her structured math at home was the “safe” route. I could expand greatly on the lessons—I wouldn’t give up when it got tough, but on the other hand, I could stop stuff when it got too frustrating. I taught her 6th grade math in the summer before 7th grade—then got the honors math teacher to tutor her once a week—giving her the 7th grade honors math curriculum so she wouldn’t slip behind and would make progress. My daughter’s regular math class never went beyond 6th grade math in 7th grade and my daughter just warmed a seat in that class. My daughter was motivated to keep up—and that year I basically just assisted with homework. My daughter is attending iep meetings and realizes all that I do for her —she does see me as the shield against all the nonsense at school. I teach her a lot of stuff as part of the family (all my kids complain that I have taught them more history than they ever learn in school) and as her GS leader. We have a pretty good system worked out—I know how to adapt to her needs and she realizes that I respect her abilities and her intelligence. I do stay out of the emotionally difficult areas as much as possible, such as social skills and writing. Now that we have had the diagnosis for 4 years, and there has been lots of therapy and help—my daughter is starting to advocate for herself—which is what we need to have happen.

I agree that you cannot expect the aide to teach your son writing and higher level thinking skills. Accomodations can be made so that the regular curriculum in those areas are within his reach- but that will not necessarily remediate the deficits. He needs specialized instruction- and I agree that they should only be in the areas in which he is struggling. I would advocate that resource teachers either make changes in the delivery of services so that writing is addressed in particular sessions- that he could then attend- or that 1:1 tutoring be provided. They must provide specialized instruction (not just accomodations) if the IEP calls for it. Also, look into keyboard typing skills and computer writing programs- particularly if his handwriting (and his motivation!) is poor. There are also may be other services that can be helpful in addressing his needs. In our district, we often provide speech therapy services to address pragmatics and high level verbal thinking for kids on the spectrum. It is provided in a small group, which adds a nice peer aspect to it. In the classroom we have frequent cooperative learning activities and we also offer lunch groups and structured recess groups for kids who are struggling socially. It’s important that there be many opportunities for him to be social with other kids- and the aide can help him manage those situations. You might also investigate counseling services in the school (as well as outside school). As a school psychologist I have worked with many children on the spectrum and addressed issues such as cognitive rigidity, perspective taking, humor, empathy, selective interests, emotional regulation, making friends, self- awareness, etc. Good luck.