Kentucky Education Rights

"Advocating for Special Needs Children"

December, 2009                   Newsletter

Can you believe it? Seems like school just started and now some 5 months later, we're looking toward summer break again! Hopefully, all your kiddo's did well the first half of the school year. If not, now would be the time to get those problems corrected. What types of "problems" is your student having? Let me make a short generalized list of the problems I have dealt with this school year thus far:

My child has an IEP, but is still failing his classes.

My child has a medical diagnosis and as a result is doing poorly in school.

My child's school wants to send him to another school because of his behavior.

My child was rejected under special education, is there something else that would help?

My child has a "learning disability" in math and has an IEP, but she's having trouble in other subjects as well.

My child is reading at 4 grades below where he should be. 

My child needs an aide and the school won't let her have one.

My child is not getting enough Occupational Therapy.

My child is in too many resource classes.

My child isn't in enough resource classes.

How do I go about getting my child an IEP or 504 plan?

Any of these sound familiar? You might want to give me a call and I can answer your question!

                                                                                                Dennie Baldwin

The Gold Standard- Educating Kids with Developmental Delays

by: Karen Sheetz

    What do kids with developmental delays need in public schools? How do we teach kids that need so much support in the beginning to be independent learners? How do you develop ownership of one’s work in a child? The example below will illustrate that when the proper steps are taken in the beginning money is saved in the long run.

    The following is an excerpt adapted from Diane Twachtman-Cullen’s book, “How To Be a Para Pro”. The title of the article is Joyce Suffish: the Gold Standard of Paraprofessional Supports (assistants as we call them).

    Ms. Twachtman-Cullen was asked by Brandon’s parents to visit his kindergarten classroom to observe their son. At this point in time he didn’t have an assistant. A situation that left him ill-equipped to deal with the distractions and complexities of an inclusive classroom environment. She observed the child wandering from one group of children to another- his presence unfelt and unacknowledged. Ms. Joyce Suffish, a teacher by profession, was working in an interim position as a teacher’s assistant in the kindergarten classroom until she could bring her teacher certification up to date. Joyce commented to Diane, “He’s very smart, you know, he’s learning to read.” Her face lit up as she described the child. It was obvious to Diane that Joyce saw the strengths in the student, not the disability. Diane’s recommendation to the family: However you do it, get Joyce as Brandon’s assistant.

    The family again asked Diane to observe Brandon in his inclusive first grade setting. Despite Joyce’s best efforts, the pace of the classroom was too much. She stated that Brandon’s “best learning took place in the special education resource room, where she was able to slow down the pace of activities and devote time to repetition and practice.” Ms. Twachtman-Cullen called the parents with the unwelcome recommendation that Brandon needed to spend far more time in the resource room. While many parents would be appalled at the idea, Brandon’s parents trusted Joyce’s instincts and Diane’s advice. So for the next few years Brandon received most of his education in the resource room working with Ms. Suffish.

    Diane observed Brandon slowly change from a sweet, but somewhat tentative child, into one who exudes the quite confidence of a learner. In Brandon’s fourth year, Joyce was offered a plum of a position however, she turned it down, citing that fourth grade was “ a crucial swing year into the upper grades.” When asked what made the difference in Brandon’s education, Joyce said, “I always tried to teach him something everyday. Start small and keep building. Make every day count.”

    How does the story end? Joyce spent five years in her interim position as Brandon’s assistant. Brandon is now in fifth grade. He is fully included and doing grade-level work without an assistant. Not because Joyce is unavailable, but because for five years she laid the foundation for Brandon’s learning brick by brick, thus enabling him to learn independently.

    Wow! What a story! Now let’s analyze this: Brandon has the same person to serve not only as his assistant, but because she has a teaching certificate, his resource teacher as well. No transitioning among new people for this student! She had to have known him very well and he had to have felt very comfortable with her. He was basically tutored within the school environment. Contrast this with my experience with Fayette County: my son had two teachers and three assistants in one year! None of his assistants had any education past high school level.

    This story has haunted me since I read it. Mainly, because we mistakenly thought that since our child was “mainstreamed” it must mean he’s really like the other kids. Or at least, his disability is so mild that he doesn’t need more resource time. We couldn’t have been more wrong. I have seen one other child who was similar to my son receive more resource time as he moved up in elementary school. By third or fourth grade this kid was spending three or four hours in the resource room. I remember at the time feeling sorry for him! His mother is a special education teacher. Did she know something that we didn’t? Of course she did! In fact, she knew a whole lot more.

    We were totally unaware of what he really needed to succeed. When my son transferred to a new school, the resource facilitator asked me why he was in resource at all. I replied with something like, “I don’t know… I think the special education teacher at his old school really liked him.” At the time it sounded idiotic to me and I know the facilitator must have thought I was a total loser. (Thankfully, she didn’t respond to my uninformed statement.) I just hadn’t spent enough time learning about his disability to answer that question intelligently. Maybe someday when kids are diagnosed with a condition someone will actually educate the parents as to what the kid needs.

    Unlike children with other disabilities who start out with a lot of resource time and move to less resource time, children with developmental delays often start out in mainstreamed settings to “see how they do.” Then, once it’s been determined that they aren’t doing so well, usually an assistant is assigned to them. They are often left in the mainstreamed classroom and this in my opinion is a mistake. Children with autism, aspberger’s syndrome, and pervasive developmental delays need to have information broken down and presented in such a way that they can process the information. Often these students need more repetition and structure to their work, especially if it involves gathering information from stories or textbooks. While this process does take longer, when they “get it” it’s there. As a group, these kids usually have a very good memory. Because of time constraints, this cannot be done in the busy mainstream classroom. I once asked my son’s regular education teacher (a 13 year veteran) if she thought he was really “getting it.” Her response, “It’s really hard to tell.” Wow! That was a big heads up and a wake up call for me that he wasn’t in the right setting. How could she possibly know when there were 20 or so other kids in the classroom? As his homeshool teacher I have no problem knowing when he doesn’t “get it.” Not because I’m any smarter, but because it’s impossible not to know when you’re teaching someone one-on-one.

    Here’s a recent example: My son’s speech path tells me that she was reading a story to him (at a level she knew was appropriate) and he was supposed to answer questions when she was finished. She could tell he wasn’t listening, but she went on anyway. He answered the questions and got a 40%. She asked him, “What do you think about that?” His response, “I wasn’t listening.” So she tells him to listen this time and reads another story. He gets an 80%. What if this had happened in the mainstreamed classroom? The teacher may have thought (1) he didn’t know the answers, (2) he wasn’t listening, or (3) he has a disability and can’t be expected to know the answers. The point is, there is no way to know for sure without taking the time to tease out exactly what’s going on. Also, this little lesson taught him that if he wants to get his answers right, he’d better listen up.

    I call it the school of hard knocks. A lot like life. I actually asked his teacher in an ARC meeting to give him a bad grade on his worksheet and let him find out what happens when he doesn’t do his work. They all looked at me like I was the wicked witch from the West! They were horrified. Why aren’t kids with disabilities supposed to suffer the consequences of their actions? Do we have to take away all the incentive for these kids? Make sure that it is a task the child can do, then if he doesn’t do it, he gets the same consequence as the rest of the kids. Lets give these kids the tools they need to be successful and then expect them to do it! You might be surprised at what they can really do! I wish you all the best as you advocate for your special child.

As anyone who has contacted us will confirm, we take your calls and emails with no more than a few minutes delay, we listen intently for as long as you wish to talk, we provide some pretty doggone good answers and we stick with you for as long as we are needed. We receive questions from Boston to Los Angeles and have even gotten a few from Great Britain. As they say, "the only bad question is the one un-asked!" Give us a call or send us an email if you have a question or even if you have some advice for us.

Dennie Baldwin

Telephone                                                              859.983.9222                                                                                                                      

Email: kerc@edrights.com