Co-teaching and Inclusion

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This last week at the Special Education Advisory Committee we talked about the new plan to have more special education resources in our neighborhoods. This means they may want to move SensiGirl from the school she is successful in to one that isn't equipped to deal with her needs.
The plan is to expand services in each busing zone so they don't have to bus children across town to school. This makes sense when it is a language immersion school or an arts school, not when it is a special needs program. Their solution to the lack of appropriate placements in each busing zone is to expand the special education programs in each zone. This is a commendable goal, as most parents don't want to put their child on a bus for 45 minutes or more, or drive them every day to get to a school across town. I know that busing is a large expense for the school district and they need to cut costs.
I would encourage them to slow down a bit.  The teachers who are going to be providing the services in each zone need special training. It has to be more than adding additional teachers and putting a new label on a program and saying it is appropriate for all special education students in that area. If done right, it could attract more kids into the district, as there would be more classrooms available to special education students.
I asked some questions as to how they propose to provide the kind of education and services that I found in SensiGirl's school in the neighborhood zone special education school. The answer was to expand services to include co-teaching and inclusion.

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Co-teaching is when a special education teacher and a general education teacher team up to teach a class together. They share responsibility of running the classroom. They put the lesson plans together as a team, with the needs of the special education kids in mind. This is the preferred method of inclusion being practiced right now. Inclusion is thought to be the replacement for mainstreaming. The problem is what about he kids who can't handle being in a room with 20 other kids? That needs to be addressed before immersing a student into a general education classroom for the whole day. Mainstreaming has its place, we should think of classrooms meeting the needs of special ed. students like the spectrum we think of for autism. The reality is that there isn't a one size fits all solution to the need for expanded services.
There is more to co-teaching than just additional teachers in the room to get a successful program like SensiGirl's into the neighborhood school. They need to take the time to pair up and train the teachers to get good co-teaching relationships.
The problem is that inclusion with co-teaching is the ideal. The real world application is most likely co-instructing or co-working, with the worst outcome being co-existing. The benefit of co-teaching would be to expose children with special needs and children in the general education classroom to each other.  The cost might be to the expense of the special needs child's education. I hope they make the effort to get it right. It would be a great boon to our school district if they can make it work well.
This is an expansive topic, I am sure there will be more to share about inclusion and co-teaching. Let me know if you have had any experiences with this in your school and how it worked. What are the pitfalls? Let's talk about them, so we can reduce the learning curve for all of us.  Let's make sure we advocate to make it right for our kids.

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The ideal classroom

What I Learned From Our Tutor

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We have learned a lot from our Family Friend Grad Student. I am grateful every time she comes over to work with SensiGirl. She has been an eye opener to me about the current state of teacher education. She was told that she was wasting her time getting two degrees by her advisor. She is getting a degree in Early Childhood Education and one in Special Education. When she visits different educational settings, she is told a different story that makes her believe she is on the right track. She watched a boy come in the other day to Montessori school. She saw how he behaved and asked some questions about how he socializes and started to figure out that the boy might need some extra help. She wouldn't know what that boy needed help with or how to help if she hadn't been training in special education along with her early childhood training.
When I introduce and teach Random Guy's teachers about him each year I wish for one with some experience with autism or at the very least IEP's and special education.  It doesn't happen very often. Either it is the teachers weren't taught or they don't want to learn about special education and what kinds of things they can do to help Random Guy in class.

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I wish all general education teachers received some training in special education, mainstreaming and inclusion I know that teachers have to have continuing education credits to maintain their certification, my question is what are they doing to earn those credits? I am not seeing much in the way of understanding how to teach my child. When I looked at the professional development websites for credits for license renewal I saw very few containing topics that apply towards special education, even though most classrooms contain at least a few students with an IEP or a 504. In a quick check online at the offerings to certification credits in my area, only 10% are offered in the area of inclusion and teaching children with differing abilities. This is not to say that there is no progress in this area, it's just that I am failing to see as much progress as I would like.  I see a young teacher raring to go to work with children like mine and I am sad to see her discouraged by her advisers.  I am glad she is going to be a teacher, the kids need someone like her.

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resources: http://www.kdsi.org/Minnesota-ECSU.aspx

Inclusion and Mainstreaming: The Basics

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We didn't think that Random Guy needed a special education  preschool classroom. He was participating in his preschool ECFE classes and the neighborhood community education preschool with few problems. They suggested an ECSE inclusion classroom for his preschool year to work on some of his social delays and attention issues he was having in a regular classroom.  We found inclusion was the right balance for him.  By the time kindergarten came around we put him in a regular education classroom with supports. I don't even know if they knew what they were doing for us was a type of inclusion;  we decided for Random Guy to go to the neighborhood school and they had the support he needed at the time.
SensiGirl had too many issues  to be successful in an inclusion classroom in preschool, but she is mainstreaming into a regular kindergarten class that includes another kid with ASD.  Here is a handy visual to demonstrate the differences between the two concepts:

image from: http://www.unco.edu/ncssd/Presentations/jackson/pbs/ui/slidepic1.gif

Inclusive classrooms do more that integrate the children with disabilities into the classroom.  It focuses on the children's abilities, learning is improved by both general education and special education students, meaningful friendships develop, as well as developing a sense of empathy for others. Those and more reasons can be found here:http://inclusiveclass.blogspot.com/2012/02/10-reasons-for-inclusive-schools.html

Federal Laws don't require inclusion, but the IDEA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 say the a student must be placed in the least restrictive environment and the schools have to provide for the education of each student with a qualified disability.  What the laws don't say is how to provide this environment. Inclusion grew out of these and other laws and now we are finding ways for doing this effectively.
There are generally two methods of inclusion.  There is the Push In  method, where the special education teacher comes into the classroom bringing materials if needed and to provide instruction.
In the Full Inclusion method the regular education teacher and the special education teachers are partners in the classroom.  The special education student participates in the general education classroom with supports from the special education teacher.
Inclusion isn't for every student, or every school, but mainstreaming has its drawbacks too. One attitude that is prevalent in mainstreaming is the student has to earn their place in the general education classroom by being able to keep up with the pace of the other students.  To participate in inclusion, the student only has to show that they benefit from being in the general education classroom.
Inclusion is a teaching concept of growing importance and teachers need training to get it to work for them in their classrooms. Our  Family Friend Graduate Student  is a great advocate for inclusion classrooms and is getting training in both early childhood education and special education so she can put together an inclusion classroom of her own.

resources: http://www.weac.org/Issues_Advocacy/Resource_Pages_On_Issues_one/Special_Education/special_education_inclusion.aspx
http://specialed.about.com/od/integration/a/Inclusion-What-Is-Inclusion.htm

Magic words

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 I have some magic words to share with you: Proven Framework for Mainstreaming.

That is the phrase I used in my emails and when talking with administrators while we were choosing a placement for SensiGirl's kindergarten.  I knew from her last IEP meeting that they only thought she could handle up to a maximum of 20% of her day in a regular education classroom, (if that.)  I knew it was important for her to go to a school that knew how to make the transition from a special education classroom to a regular education/inclusion classroom sometime in the future when she was ready.
The words came to me and I knew I had the concept I was trying to articulate when I was feeling dismayed at the other school choices I had.

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Sometimes you can research the words into concepts, sometimes you have to sit with them and put them together yourself. The important thing is you find a way to convey what you want for your child.  When talking about extended school year be sure to mention regression and recoupment in the Fall, as well as "window of of opportunity" for educating your special needs child.

When discussing behavior issues involving your child with sensory processing disorder make sure to mention that what looks like bad behavior could be due to involuntary reactions to sensory overload.

When talking about classrooms or school, use the word appropriate, as in free appropriate public education (FAPE,) and a certain class room setting that is appropriate for a child with your child's disabilities.

It is helpful to be familiar with the terms already in use to be able to use them for your child's benefit.  Here is a handy glossary of the terms used in discussing special education.
http://www.disabilityrights.org/glossary.htm

Here is a link to Pennsylvania's Department of Education's pamphlet for understanding the language of special education. It has helpful sections on disabilities and behaviors, and educational terms.
Understanding the Language of Special Education: A Glossary for Parents and Educators

It can be tricky when you see or know of something you don't want for your child. You must find a way to frame or express what you DO want for your child. Many schools have policies about not reqesting a specific teacher by name for your child. I always make sure I express in Random Guy's IEP what kind of classroom and teaching style is helpful for him to make progress.
Use the magic words and you may find you get exactly what you want.

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