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Mysterious Teaching

Insights behind the perils of being a teacher

Dumping Special Needs Children

That is what a school in our district is doing to us.  Yes, we have gone straight to the top and complained and nothing was done.  That is what kissing ass will do for you.

The new boy I wrote about in "Temper, Temper" was at it again today.  First of all, he does absolutely NOTHING in my class.  I give him easy assignments (1st grade level) and he refuses to do it.  Today I put my foot down and told him he HAD to do it.  He threw a temper tantrum and yelled and screamed and "Hated" me. (yawn) He refused to take off his hoodie like the other children.  He tried to run away.  I finally took him to the office and let him scream at the AP.  She called the counselor, he talked to him and brought him back to class.  I said, he could come in but he had to sit and do his work.  He could not watch the (educational) movie with the class.  His work came first.  He started screaming again.  So, they took him out again. 

This is ridiculous.  He didn't get his meds this morning.  I didn't know he was on meds.  I don't know what his disabilities are,  I don't know if he is ED (but I suspect he is) I can't evaluate him because he does nothing in my classroom.  I don't even have a piece of paper with his name on it.  No one has shared his IEP with me.  I am sitting out here in la la land waiting for someone to do their job and put me in the loop.

 I believe someone from the state department should investigate the elementary school that has been dumping their students on us.  There must be something they can do.  It is all just so unethical.  I know they failed to pass the state test last year and are on an improvement plan.  We passed.  I wonder if that has something to do with it.

Published Friday, December 14, 2007 11:50 AM by MysteryTeacher

Comments

 

Harold said:

Hi - I am a Special Education teacher from Maine...Welcome to my world, I understand your frustrations completely...have you spoken with the student's SPED case manager and asked if you could get some background on "Your" student.  I am not going to flame you, but you have a responsibility also to be proactive to get information about students in your room.  Have you stopped and found out if the student just moved into your school's area?  There are a lot of questions you have raised that if I were you, I would attempt to answer instead of just ranting here on your blog about how terrible this student was in your class and how disruptive he is.

What is the child's background?  Has he been abused, just because he is a disruption in your classroom, are you so inflexible that you can't accommodate or differentiate to meet his needs, or are you one of those teachers that wants only the "fluff" kids that don't have problems, or at least don't cause you extra work in your classroom.

Your ranting about a special education student here isn't where you should be ranting, talk to the administration again.  Have you talked with the student's parents, have you actually talked with the student, not to or at him.  Be aware of the his strengths and work towards using them in your class, instead of his glaring weaknesses which you have so vividly described.

Maybe I am ranting, but I get tired of regular education teachers that rant about how terrible special education students are.  It is just a fact that as more special education are mainstreamed (which is a federal law called educating a student in the Least Restrictive Environment) regular education teachers are going to have to work more collaboratively with their special education counterparts to improve services for all of your students and not just ship them off to the back room in the cellar or at the "other" end of the building.

Sorry if I got off on my own rant, but I have seen this too many times before, it is always the kids fault and never does the regular education have any part to play in the failure of the student to succeed in their classroom.  Think about it, are your obvious prejudices toward this student getting in the way of giving him a chance to succeed in the classroom.

And don't give me the I'm so busy...we are all overworked and underpaid teachers, so do what you need to give this student an chance to succeed.

December 15, 2007 4:36 PM
 

MysteryTeacher said:

Harold:  I have been teaching 21 years and I know the process.  I have done all those things you suggested several times.  That is how I found out he was dumped on our school.  I have many special needs students in my class.  I love having them.  They always try so hard.  But this child is not responding to anyone.  Even his special ed teacher is having problems.  He doesn't live in our school boundry, no one seems to have any paperwork on him (although they are trying to get it) I have talked and talked to the administration and they are trying to find out why he was sent to us without a placement meeting and are getting no further than me.  I am not complaining about being over-worked or under-paid.  No where in my "rant" did I say that.  Of course I am busy but everyone is.  This is a problem that we are having with some of the schools in our district.  They are just suddenly sending students to our school that they don't "want",  You need to NOT read between the lines and make those kinds of judgements.

December 17, 2007 8:24 AM
 

TalkingBooksLibrarian said:

Wow, sorry to hear of your struggles... it must be very frustrating!

December 17, 2007 10:39 AM
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About MysteryTeacher

I am a wild, whacky, weird, wonderful woman and teacher. I am venturing into a previous life by teaching ELL this fall. I use to teach ESL years ago. I am excited, empowered, and employed. I love life.

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