Nudging Schools to Help Students With Learning Disabilities

[elleng]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/health/27patient.html?pagewanted=1&hpw

[YvonneCa]

1. Great informational article. Thanks! n/t

[mzteris]

2. here's a good link

for obtaining parent advocacy help: http://wrightslaw.com/

oh and general info on LD's: ldonline.org


Ok - at the risk of being tarred and feathered - again - here's a selection from the article I'd like to address:

" “There can definitely be tension between the parent and the school,” said Ron Hager, senior staff lawyer at the National Disability Rights Network. “You as the parent know your child best, but the teachers and administrators see themselves as the experts.”

Your best defense? First, listen to the educators; they might know what they’re talking about. But parents should also become experts themselves. You’ll need to learn about your child’s specific disabilities and the treatments and therapies that work for his or her issues, Mr. Hager advised. Then you need to make a compelling case to your child’s individualized education plan team.

If you find that the school is not acknowledging problems that you know are interfering with his or her learning, you may have to ask to have your child re-evaluated. To expedite this process, parents often pay for a private evaluation themselves, costing $500 to $5,000, depending on the tests. "


"listen to the educations; they m ight know what they're talking about". - key word here - MIGHT. Maybe they do. and Maybe they don't. Maybe they DO and they can't/won't really DO anything about it. (Not necessarily the teachers, but the admin/principals, as well.)

PARENTS DO KNOW THEIR CHILD BEST!

"But parents should also become experts themselves." Exactly. You have to become a detective. Teasing out what is your child's problem. Read everything related. Talk to other parentns with similar issues (there are plenty of online groups devoted to LD kids). How is the problem manifesting itself? Is it related to other issues - like diet, environment, stress, vision, anxiety... Is more prevalent at certain times? Like at school but not at home? Are they symptoms sort of "all over the place" and inconsistent? or inconclusive? Working with your child daily. Checking his work. Talking to the teachers - the other parents. Seeing what's easy and what's a problem. Are there some "oddities" about your child that just don't make sense, but you never thought it was a "problem". . . just - quirky or weird...

Unfortunately, some "school officials" DON'T like to be told about things they know nothing about - and can get REALLY - uh, cranky - about that. (if not down right insulting and vicious.)

[elleng]

3. Thanks. Here's another:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/health/20patient.html?pagewanted=1&hpw

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. And the reality

I am an LD teacher. This article does a great job of explaining HOW the system is supposed to work but the reality is much different.

This boy in the article would be considered severely impaired and is not typical of 90% of LD kids. And his parents deserve high praise. He would not be as successful as he is today without the dedication of his parents. But sadly, that is also not typical. I spend an unbelievable amount of time documenting my attempts to involve parents. I am required by law to send out a notice of an IEP review 10 days in advance. Then when the parents don't show up (and they rarely do) I have to give them another 10 days notice. So I am constantly monitoring the calendar to make sure I am within timelines. It's a royal pain and takes away from teaching time. And of course if all parents were like the ones in the article the entire process would be much less complicated.

I was also surprised to see he gets OT. That is almost impossible. Yes of course it is very justified in this case and the article does note that Mom had to be creative to get it. More kudos to his parents.

Besides the amount of time I have to spend on paperwork to meet all these legal mandates, the article also leaves out the other kids. We no longer trains sped teachers to work with specific categories of disabled kids. I am old school and was trained to be an LD teacher. But because it is cheaper (I don't buy the argument that it's better for the kids) I now also have kids with many other disabilities on my caseload. So in reality I work with an LD kid and an ED kid and an MR kid at the same time. Actually my groups are much larger - but always 'cross-categorical'. That makes it tough to meet individual needs specific to particular disabilities.

Most districts are also moving away from the pullout model to a full inclusion model. So all services are provided in a general ed setting. That eliminates the ability to individualize and the use of special materials. Again, it's about money rather than meeting individual needs. The ironic part is the original full inclusion model requires MORE sped teachers, but most districts are implementing a watered down version of inclusion. They like it because they can serve more kids with fewer teachers.

But the best (I mean most outrageous) change in the way sped kids are educated is in testing. Before NCLB we were allowed to make a decision as an IEP team regarding testing our kids. If the team felt that the standardized tests administered to kids were not appropriate for the student, we could exclude them from taking the tests. I almost always excluded all but my mild LD kids, because we administered individual tests once a year to all of the kids on IEPs and those tests were better, more accurate measurements and gave me data I could use to plan instruction for the coming year.

Then it was decided that ALL of our kids needed to take the tests mandated by NCLB. So now we focus on which accommodations each kid needs to survive the test. I say survive because it is a grueling experience for a child with disabilities to take a fill in the bubble multiple choice standardized test. In many cases, it is downright cruel. It doesn't matter what the disabling condition is, they ALL have to be tested. And by 2014, they are all expected to score at a proficient level. Fun times await!

Good article. Thanks for sharing.

[elleng]

5. You're welcome.

P.S., My daughter, with learning differences (attended private schools, and after principal at parochial school recommended testing, attended high school with excellent program for such), is now a college junior studying Early Childhood/Special Ed FORTUNATELY we've escaped the nclb song and dance. I'll ask her whether she's receiving any info about what you've described, as she's in a large State university.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. ECSE is pretty different

So she's probably getting an entirely different program than what I had.