There is an unusual situation in Flint, Michigan. Most of us heard about the water crisis in Flint, but one side effect of this huge environmental issue is that children who drank the water that was tainted with lead are now in need of special education services. Symptoms of lead poisoning are: Behavior problems, low IQ, poor grades, problems with hearing, short- and long-term learning difficulties and growth delays. ( www.healthline.com/health/lead-poisoning#causes ) Many of the children are now entering school and parents are demanding help for their children. This has become such a major issue in town that the school district has received a four million dollar court settlement to provide health screenings for children in Flint. These health screenings are not mere eye and vision, but include a full-time pediatric neuropsychologist among other professionals. Instead of having a few students in a class with mild learning disabilities and and maybe one or two children with more severe needs, it's possible nearly half or more than half of each class in Flint's elementary schools are struggling with students poisoned by lead. Flint has a great need for special educators and probably will for some time. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/education/2019/01/21/universal-health-screenings-flint-children-underway/2368022002/ Below is a good article from an education perspective about Flint. You would need access from a database or a subscription to view it. It goes more in depth about the educational issues of lead poisoning. Bravender, M., & Walling, C. (2017). Man-Made Disaster Undermines Impoverished School District: The Flint Water Crisis. EJEP: EJournal of Education Policy.
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A parent I have known for many years has a son that is heading into the transition years (16+) in special education. She is running into issues she was not prepared for. I asked her some questions about what she is going through and she responded via email. To give perspective, her son has a moderate intellectual disability and is characterized as having a disposition of a 4-5 year old.
How old is your son and what grade is he in? He is 15 years old and will be in 9th grade next year. I understand that you are having issues with the high school he should be attending next year. Can you share what your expectations were and what you found out after you went to visit the school? I just found all this out right before our winter break so please forgive me. I am very raw and I am very, very upset for my son. When I hear that my son will be in a life skills class, I fully expect him to get some kind of life skills. I visited his high school hopeful that the needs that he has would be met. I was told that they had a kitchen, washer and dryer, etc. to help equip my son with the skills that he needs in life as well as meeting his academic needs. After all, isn’t that what comes to mind when they say life skills... that he would get skills needed for life? Otherwise, just refer to the program as academic accommodation or something similar. I was so disappointed with what I found. As of four years ago, they don’t use the facilities they have. Outside of two academic classes (math and language arts) he’s fully integrated. They tell me this as though it’s a good thing for my child. And he only gets an aid for the classes that are dangerous, such as biology, otherwise he gets a peer helper to escort him to class. This gives your child so much confidence to be with a peer, they tell me. I’m sorry but how on earth does having a peer escort give my child life skills? Maybe they stay in that class to help him. I’m not clear on this and probably won’t be until after school resumes again and I can face talking to the future team more. They tell me they have many integrated classes that would give him some possible life skills. Maybe he would get something out of their food and nutrition class. Maybe. But really? Will the teacher of a full classroom truly be able to meet him where he is at? Will he have an aid that will facilitate? Or will he just sit there and/or will a peer do all the work for him because it’s so much easier to just do the work for him rather than guide him into doing it for himself? This has been our past experience on some of these hands-on type classes. I feel that this “promised land” of integration is empty of factual or practical application to real life. It feels to me like it’s a cover for some other kind of lack. As a result, my son no longer has an IEP for him but instead his supposed individualized plan is based on some ideology that may be great for a child who is higher functioning than him. And everyone acts like they have everything set up so wonderful for my child. But I’m thinking, “Redeem the time rather than have it be wasted in a class he doesn’t truly understand. Stop pretending with us and take out the life skills title because that isn’t really what’s going on here. At least from this side looking in.” I understand many things. I understand that funding is always an issue. I understand that the resources needed for this kind of program are high. But I’m not the one who said that each child should get an appropriate education. That was a promise made to me by someone else. I can’t help but think that it would be nice to have that promise met – especially when it used to exist and no longer does. I remember meeting a mom at a local business when my child was young and she told me how much she loved the life skills program and how amazing it was for her child. I guess my son was born about seven years too late to experience something that could have been so wonderful for him. I understand some of the general philosophy of integration, that yes, it’s great to have a child be able to socially handle and be exposed to different peers. But that could be done in one or two periods since kids mostly just sit in class and listen anyway. Four or five periods of it aren’t needed. With overflowing classes, my son will probably be lost. Someone will have to do his work for him because he doesn’t have the fine motor skills or attention to do it himself if he even has someone to help him at all since the teacher will be busy with the full class he/she already has. I’m guessing most of his time will be spent warming up a seat. At least in his middle school years, he had an aid to help him and so he got something out of it. But doesn’t sound like that will be the case in high school. That would have been the beauty of the high school life skills program before they gutted it. He would have had a high aid/ student ratio who would have the time to facilitate my child to learn the true skills of his life. Under the banner of integration, my son has lost so much. He learned that if he sat down and didn’t make a stir, he’d be okay. I even asked a teacher one time if he thought my son was lost or paying attention and he honestly said, “I don’t know. He sits so quietly that I don’t really notice.” or something to that effect. So much time wasted because I’m just the dumb parent and they had to try it their way. Finally, in my son’s 5th grade year, he got his needs met. I originally met with this new team in 3rd grade. So ... much ... time ... wasted. What would be an ideal situation for him? I think that he should be in classes that are academically where he is at. This is a plus of the program at the high school. First and second period will be modified math and language arts in the life skills classroom. In his junior and senior years, he will have a job training kind of class. I’m not sure of everything that this class entails, but what I was told sounded good. I don’t even mind if he is in choir or a class that is similar that has peers in the mainstream classes to allow him typical interaction with all kinds of students. But the other periods that he has, and especially until he gets those job classes, should give my son the life skills that the program boasts. I would like him taught things that are practical as well have him in a modified academic curriculum. What alternative routes are you looking into? We are praying about what we should do. We don’t have all the answers and are only starting out researching other possibilities since we just found out about this right before the holidays. I searched private schools in our area, but couldn’t find one that seemed to be the right fit at this point. We could find something out of state but we’re, as of yet, unwilling to uproot our whole family to seek out those programs – not to mention a lot of the private programs can be very expensive. I will probably look into having him go to the school for his first two modified academic periods or having him do those classes online as well as any other academic classes that he may need online and then hiring a student from our local university to focus on giving him true life skills. We have to look into the cost and feasibility of such a plan. My perspective: While working as a para years ago in a science class there was a table of two students with intellectual disabilities behind me with a para. They never spoke in class and they were put in the back of the classroom. The teacher attempted to modify assignments for them and they were tested on materials, but the para was doing more of the work than they were. The class was 90% lecture. Were they integrated into a general education class? Yes. Were they participating? No. Did they understand even 50% of the class, I'm pretty sure not. Just like the parent above, her son learned to be quiet in class even though he wasn't learning. Is that the skill we want students to learn, to be quiet? Integration should not be the end goal, it should be a means to help a child do his best and succeed to his highest potential. |
AuthorSpecial Education major in a university teaching program. Substitute teacher, previous homeschool mom, wife. Archives
September 2019
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