Special Education Age Guidelines?

Question

I am a special education teacher wondering about the guidelines for agrees in the self-contained classroom. I am originally from NY, where I was told that there was a limit on the age range in a class (I believe it was 2-3 years). I am now in my second year as a self-contained teacher. last year I had k-3, and thought that my 3rd grades would move on to a higher placement. However, I now have a k-4 class, which means my students range in age from 4 (turning 5 in a week) to 9 years of age. I feel this is doing serious harm to my older students who cannot get the attention they deserve since there are so many younger lower level students in the class. Does anyone know if there is a national guideline to the age range of students? I tried to look through the IDEA website, but didn't find anything useful.

Thank you

Answer 1

I am not aware of any guidelines.  I think school districts, specifically the Director of Special Education, look at the number of children in self-contained (also known as life skills or functional skills) classrooms district wide to make their decisions on who moves to another class.  It's a numbers game.  They have to take in account the number of students moving from an Early Childhood classroom (in Texas it's the Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities) to an elementary classroom, from elementary to middle school, from middle school to high school, and high school to transition (18-22).  If there aren't many "new" kids coming in, say 3 year-olds for example, then the powers that be think that the kids you have can stay another year.  If you have a lot of "new" kids coming in, then they make the determination of who moves to another classroom.  In other cases, they look at numbers to determine the need for more or less positions.  For example, in one of my middle schools, it was decided that the life skills class was not going to return to that particular school because only 1 child was left for the next school year (the rest of the group moved to the high school).  Instead of keeping the class open for one student, they closed that classroom and transferred the student to our other middle school.  This school year, we reopened the class because 7 students were moving up to middle school.  If your class size is increasing, then you should be able to get another teaching assistant or two to help you with your younger kids.  K-4 is tough whether it's general or special education.  That's a lot of different devlopmental levels in one classroom.  You need to express your concerns to your principal, special education coordinator/department head, and/or director of special education.  Try the National Association of Special Educators http://www.naset.org/799.0.html , Proposed Special Education Staffing Methodology http://doe.k12.hi.us/specialeducation/st... or search articles for student-teacher ratios for special education at http://eric.ed.gov/ .

Good luck to you.  I understand where you're coming from.  I just found out that between the high school (9-12) and intermediate school (5-6) alone, I have 80 students for speech/language therapy and I still have to serve 2 middle schools (another 35 students).  This includes 5 life skills classes that total to 35 students with significant disabilities.  I'll be speaking up as well.

Answer 2

in the school where i interned i was in a classroom that had children from 11-16...and it was based on their social and academic skills...the 16 year old had the social/academic skills of a 5 year old but the kids at that age level where she was placed accepted her and knew of her limitaions and because of that they were able to help her and they didnt think anything of it...it may just be a state/county law that states age limits

Answer 3

I don*t know what state you teach but inN.Y. there is the two year gap rule . More then that I think there is a harmful factor for the student and a difficult teaching job even with a para.

Answer 4

when I went to college--4 years was the maximum range---your 9 year olds will be turning 10 soon---this sounds more like a 5 year age range..

personally, i wouldn't want my kid in that class.........but in a small disctrict it may be the only way...

a 4 year age range generally works ourt with kids that are in a functional skiulls curriculum--not an academic track--such as severe developmental disabilities--that it works when they are grouped into primary, intermediate, secondary.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

No, it's quite common to have mixed age classrooms like you mentioned.

My first year teaching was in an extremely rural area.  They had two classrooms for the entire county's severe and profound students: pre-school to seventh grade (housed at an elementary school with a pre-school paid assistant) and eighth grade to 22 years old (at a high school).  For students moderate MR we had preschool to fourth, fifth to ninth and tenth to 22 years.

With more and more inclusion, I think the self-contained teachers will face more problems like this.  

Edit- Age ranges are controlled by the state or local guidelines, if they exist at all.  It's not a federal ruling.  I agree it's only going to really work with the most functional of kids.  However, I forsee it going on with the emotionally disturbed kids too.  How many elementary schools, for instance, only have the need for one classroom with forced inclusion going on?