Kris Wood, a high school special education teacher in Des Moines (IA, US), sometimes posts to her blog about her experiences in schools. In one recent post she gave us a glimpse behind the scenes into a scheduling problem for special education services at her school. It wasn’t a pretty portrait.
So we just conferenced between us, determining which students we DID see during the course of the day and which ones weren’t being seen by anyone. We divvied up the ones we saw, in order to make sure that the person monitoring their IEP progress was someone they actually SEE during the school day. There were quite a few who are being seen by NO-ONE — which is in direct violation of federal law.
Now realize what I say that we “see” a student, here’s what I mean. For example, let’s say I’m “collaborating” in a Conceptual Algebra class. Let’s say there are six Resource students in that class. Theoretically, those students are being “served” as Resource students because I’m IN their classroom with them.
Where this goes awry is that each individual student has individual goals. Four of those six students may not even have a math goal; they’re in Resource because of their low reading level. But they’re being “served” in a MATH class.
I may be misreading this, but it seems to me that Ms. Wood is describing a major impediment to providing effective services! If the students’ schedules are poorly coordinated and the provision of services is constrained in the way Ms. Wood describes, teachers are hamstrung. They do not get to see the students when they can help them and they can’t focus on the areas of concern.
Read her entry for yourself and see what you think.
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