Family's involvement in Inclusion?

[Briarprincess]

Hey everyone. Working on another project, only this is a bit easier. I just need a little help to boost up what I'm discussing in this one. The whole idea is Inclusion and my point is from the family perspective. I've covered a lot of topics but need to narrow it down, a lot. So this is where I need help.

Do you have any kids in an Inclusion classroom? Would you mind telling me what their disability is? And this could get long but- what are your expectations of the inclusion classroom in regards to you, your child, your whole family.

Thanks for any help anyone can give me!

 

[SueM in MN]

?did you get any responses?

 

[Briarprincess]

One through pm, and that was a big help. The project's due on Tuesday. So far it's going a lot better. We talked to the professor about the problems we were having within the group and he was completely understanding about it. He told us to put two portions together and have the other be seperate. -- Two of us agree about all the pros and cons of Inclusion, and the other person in the group REFUSES flat out to even agree that in ANY situation inclusion can work. She belittles us every chance she gets. So I feel a lot better about knowing that the professor understands the troubles.
On a brighter note, myself and the agreeable partner put the powerpoint together and we ended up being able to edit out half of the third portion and answer every remark she made with documentation proving her wrong. I understand the different opinions on Inclusion/mainstreaming/any other names for it, but she would not even listen to the entire class explain that Inclusion is not just (as she said it) "dumping those special kids into the regular kids class so they can disrupt them." I've never had to deal with someone who was so narrow-minded on a subject. What's scary is that she wants to be a teacher. I can't imagine what my professor thinks of the papers she's been writing....


SO in conclusion, yes I have gotten one response but anything anyone can add will be just wonderful. I'm getting excited about finally being able to have legitimate proof that Inclusion doesn't always fail.

 

[Mish]

I have a son in his second year of inclusion class. Really his 3 I forced them to leave him back in K. If you would like me to answer any questions or my thoughts I will be glad to answer any. My email address is Soa413@aol.com. Michelle

 

[bairdbeth]

As a Special education Teacher who takes self-contained students into the regular Kindergarten classroom for 1 and 1/2 hours, I can sat it works and is not dumping. Both my para pro and I go in. We start with Language Arts in whole group and then break into a 4 group Math rotation with the special needs students distributed among all four groups. I work with all the students as does the Kindergarten teacher, her para pro and mine. We found good gaines in ALL students. Being able to break up into 4 small groups (not ability based) allows more teacher student interaction. I would be more than happy to make any other comments you may need.
PS- Your other "partner" better change her tune about inclusion. Cerificates are going multi-catagorical and consultative. There is a big push to have most students spend some time in inclusion everyday.

 

[Briarprincess]

bairdbeth you may be able to help me out with something else. None of my text books cover IDEA enough to answer this question- Anywhere in IDEA, are students catagorized as Gifted and Talented mentioned? The partner is trying to argue with us that those students are being directly violated under IDEA, but since it's Individuals with DISABLITIES Education Act a number of our classmates, including myself, don't believe they are part of IDEA coverage. And if they are, I'm more than willing to admit I'm wrong to this woman.

 

[SandrainNC]

Here is a site that may help you.

www.wrightslaw.com

Sorry I can't be of anymore help. My son is only 4 and hasn't started regular school yet. However, I can say that I am for inclusion. My son is in an inclusion type daycare setting, and I think it has helped him tremendously to be around other children with and w/o special needs.

Sandra

 

[JulieWent]

Hi! How's it going!? You mentioned that one of your group members thought that IDEA made it possible to violate the rights of G&T individuals. Here's my response: I fail to see how demanding that our children with special needs receive a fair and appropriate public education could possibly violate a G&T individual's right to do so. Insuring that each individual child receives an education that is fair and appropriate should be our national goal, and pitting the G&T community against students with emotional or academic deficiencies is counterproductive. I hope your group member changes his / her mind or changes his / her career goal!

(On another note, though, G&T children in our state receive IEPs in the same way that students who are identified as LD, so they are covered under the same laws, regulations, etc., and protected by the same statutes.)

Sorry I don't have a lot of input for you on having a child in an inclusion class. My son was in an inclusion class for one year (as a typically developing child). I found it to be no different from any other class he has ever been in (except there were two teachers instead of one), and I had no idea who the special education students in the class were. (If you will remember from my previous email to you, that's how my class looks, too. It would be very difficult for anyone without school records to decide who receives services and who does not.) Good luck on this project!

Julie

 

[SueM in MN]

My younger DD is in a post High School setting now and in High School she was in a self contained Special Ed room except for some art classes and home ec cooking classes.
I'll PM you with some information.

One interesting thing with my DD is that she was disruptive when she was in the Special Ed room. She was pretty much always appropriate in the regular classes.

Another place to check for the IDEA question would be www.pacer.org

 

[bairdbeth]

I checked with another teacher and neither of us know of any mention of gifted and talented in IDEA. IDEA is specifically for children with disabilities. While some gifted programs are under the umbrella of some school systems special services, they are not considered disabled. I believe it is more of a funding issue. Our Gifted services are no longer under our Special services department head.

 

[SueM in MN]

I wondered how your project went?

I was planning to send you a PM with some information and never got to it last night (I had a talk to prepare).

 

[Briarprincess]

Thanks everyone! The project went great. We got an A+ on it, and the professor was really impressed. Since I was in charge of putting all the material into the powerpoint and making it sensible, I ended up editing a lot of the partner's portion. It got set up so that her portion was actually covered under Con's and some common misconceptions. She said it was fine in class this morning, and went with it. The professor was a bit offended by how outspoken she was about things, actually cutting us off while we were presenting individual portions. So I made a point of speaking up when she mention G&T under IDEA. Basically I said that IDEA by definition is for the disabled, and while being G&T can be considered a hinderence in a gen. ed. room, it's not limiting a life function (as we define a disability around here), so that IDEA won't cover them and if the school decides that, as Julie said, they deserve an IEP, that can be arranged.

The whole class got a huge laugh when the professor asked where we found our information: good partner- interviewing her brother (inclusion teacher) and class book, me- class book, Spe. ed. class books and Dis and then the bad partner- research from over 10 years ago..... does this woman think things haven't changed that much???? And to top it off, she tried to hide when it was from by not giving us copies of her info and when we found it online, I threw in dates and percents.


Needless to say, I could not have done nearly as well as an A+ without everyone's help. So thank you everyone!!


One quick question, has anyone ever seen the Nightline (or whatever news show it was that had Meredith Viera in like 1992) called "Sean's Story" about Sean Begg in Baltimore?? Just wondering because our final in Spe. Ed. class is an essay on it and I can't for the life of me remember the name of the man who said it was "morally, ethically and legally right to rush" inclusion enforcement.

 

[SueM in MN]

Glad to hear it went well (and that "bad partner" was found out).

I do remember watching that story. It was very interesting to me.
I don't remember who said that, but here's a link to a summary of the show that might help you to find out more:
http://www2.edc.org/urban/view.asp?247

 

[HaleyB]

Hey can I jump in here and ask a few questions? This is exactly the topic on my mind right now. We have an ARD meeting next month for my son. He has always spent most of his day in a regular classroom and some of it in a Special ed class.

What exactly is meant by the term inclusion? What are the pro's and con's?

 

[Briarprincess]

I don't know how much help I'll be able to give but I can do my best with what I've learned so far. I know for a fact that the definition of inclusion varies where ever you go. Around here there's:
Full Inclusion- the student is in the general education class all day recieving any supports in the classroom
Inclusion- the student is in the gen. ed. classroom for the whole day but may be pulled out for services
Mainstreaming- the student is in the gen. ed. classroom for some portion of the day and in a special ed. classroom for an almost equal amount of time in the day

The pro's and con's vary as much. Depending on the services in the school, district policy, the teachers and also your, the pro's and con's for one student can be completely different for other students in the same classroom. If you want some examples of common views of pro's and con's, let me know. We got a whole list in class of different Point of Views (parent, teacher, students). If you do, let me know and I'll get back to you tomorrow. Right now I have to go get sleep for my two finals tomorrow


Hope this helps a bit!

 

[tw1nsmom]

There is also another category in some school districts. That would be the integrated class. The difference being (at least in my area), that in inclusion, the identified child would be in a regular classroom with an aide, supports and possibly push-in/pull-out special ed. teacher services.

In an Integrated classroom, there are about 1/3 of the children identified and the remainder "typically developing" children. The classes are ussually smaller overall (atound 15). The class is team taught with a regular ed., and a special ed. teacher in the classroom at all times. There would be additional support staff as needed.

 

[HaleyB]

I don't know how much help I'll be able to give but I can do my best with what I've learned so far. I know for a fact that the definition of inclusion varies where ever you go. Around here there's:
Full Inclusion- the student is in the general education class all day recieving any supports in the classroom
Inclusion- the student is in the gen. ed. classroom for the whole day but may be pulled out for services
Mainstreaming- the student is in the gen. ed. classroom for some portion of the day and in a special ed. classroom for an almost equal amount of time in the day

The pro's and con's vary as much. Depending on the services in the school, district policy, the teachers and also your, the pro's and con's for one student can be completely different for other students in the same classroom. If you want some examples of common views of pro's and con's, let me know. We got a whole list in class of different Point of Views (parent, teacher, students). If you do, let me know and I'll get back to you tomorrow. Right now I have to go get sleep for my two finals tomorrow


Hope this helps a bit!

Thank you, that information helps. I would love to see different points of view. When you recover from your finals, no rush! I don't know if I am in time to wish you luck, but after reading your posts I doubt you need any luck. You seem so knowledgable and articulate.

I guess at my son's school they have always had the kids in the regular class room most of the day. They use the term inclusion to mean more in room support and less pull out services so I guess they are trying to move towards full inclusion. Last year we had a fantastic teacher. She worked hand in hand with the special ed teachers and we had a great year. This year is not going as well.

I guess it is hard because there are so many disabilites and they are all different. My son has some vision issues but his real problem is dyslexia and learning disabilities (disgraphia and a whole bunch of other dis somethings I can never remember them all).

Our school is also the auditory impairment magnet school and they do an intergrated class room like the above post by Tw1nsmom discribes. My daughter (who is typical/gifted) was in that room for Kinder and First grade and now she knows sign language! We felt that she got a huge benifit from being in that classroom due to the smaller numbers and extra teachers.

But it is hard to see these kids getting so much support, while my son gets so little. If he had a special ed teacher and an aide in the room with him at all times, and had a reduced numbers class, I am sure he would thrive too.