Monday, June 22, 2009
Educational Concern
I decided to blog about a more personal issue, and that is within my school instead of perhaps nationwide or statewide. Currently, as many of you know, I am teaching general education, but this does not mean that my heart isn't with the students with special needs (which is most in my urban school). This is the way my school handles referrals: You write up your referral and turn it into the SST (Student Support Team). After about 2 months they get back with you and you have a meeting to discuss accommodations and modifications for the child. After about 3 weeks, you are supposed to have another meeting and decide if these are working, if not, then the referral for CST (Child Study Team) is made. This is not technically how the procedure goes. You see, I had a student that was reading at about a 1st grade reading level- IN 5TH GRADE!! So I referred him in October. We finally had the meeting in February and discussed the different strategies that I was using (which were many, especially with my Special Ed background) and we never had another meeting for the rest of the year. I asked the SST if I could go ahead and test him, but they said that we would have to wait to find out about his glasses- that he rarely wore. Special Ed is not taken seriously and I'm not happy about it. Thankfully, me and the other classmates worked so much with this student that he is now reading at about a 3.5 grade level, which is an improvement; however, he is now going into 6th grade. I was even thinking about asking if I could be on the SST, because we actually only have 1 person right now, and he is the special educator for the 1st-4th grades. So I think I"m going to ask if I can perhaps represent the Middle School (we are a PreK-8 school).
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We have a very similar process for students to be tested for special education services. It is slow and not always productive. We have two meetings for one student this year to discuss modifications and techniques used only to be told with three months left of school that there would be no more special ed testing by our school psychologist - no reason given. Now the poor girl is going to high school and will most likely be lost in the sea. I am friends with two of our special ed teachers outside of school and hear the same from them...that they are not taken seriously and are often treated as the "step-child". Hang in there and hopefully they allow you to be on the SST.
ReplyDeleteI also have been frustrated with special education at my school. I teach high school so most of my students who need to be in special education are already there. However, even though they may be there, they do not tell the teachers what accommodations we should make and how we can help them. I think you should be really impressed that you helped this student get into a higher reading level. If you get to be the SST, I can tell that all of the students will be much better off!
ReplyDeleteI understand how frustrated you are. I think this is a common problem in schools everyone. Our process sounds a lot like that it takes months, usually almost the entire school year, to determine whether or not a child qualifies for services. If they have more severe disability and people from the district to observe it can take even longer. I have also thought about trying to join committees to better help these students. I feel like they are the kids who fall through the cracks. Good luck joining the SST and remember that you are making a huge difference for these children.
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ReplyDeleteI'm glad you bring up this issue. I think this problem occurs in many schools, and is equally frustrating for both general education and special education teachers alike. especially in schools with limited resources (people and time), not enough attention is given to screening and prevention. too often, schools are operating under a "wait-to-fail" model in which students who many be struggling are not "red-flagged" soon enough; therefore, they get to 4th or 5th grade before someone notices that they are not progressing as they should be. by this time, they are so far behind that it is almost impossible to close the achievement gap between he/she and his/her typically-developing peers. I think joining an SST would be wonderful for your school. the more people involved (and from diverse backgrounds), the more likely it is that the school will apply a problem-solving method for referring students for special education rather than waiting until it is too late to intervene.
ReplyDeleteAs a future school psych, your blog frustrates me to no end! That is not how the system is supposed to work! Something is holding your team back. What do you think is going on? Are they overwhelmed, low membership, lack of administrative support?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily, become involved with your SST, if you can. You'll find that you will learn strategies to help you with some of your students while you share ideas to help your colleagues.
Finally, is your school involved in MIBLSI or the ICT model? There is grant funding out there for these response to intervention in school models. The supports provided in being part of a region of participating schools may help your school in follow-through and trouble-shooting challenges within the student support team/collaborative model.
You should volunteer to be on the school's SST committee and think about recruiting a few more people also. You can make a difference in the way things are done. Just do it.
ReplyDeleteYour post is really interesting. You example sounds like the implementation of (or a version of) RTI (Response to Intervention): http://www.rti4success.org/. Designed to help reduce the high rate of referrals to special education, RTI puts the burden on general educators (primarily) to show that a kid can't receive services in the general education classroom. About 75% of kids who get referred to special education are placed in special education, and few of the kids who are placed ever get out of special education. So, one can see the advantages of reducing special education referrals. But, for kids who clearly need the assistance, the process of getting them specialized assistance can be long and quite frustrating! Is your school implementing RTI? Could technology help a child like the one you describe to be better served in gen ed?
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