Why is there so much for SAGE and so little for Learning Disabled?

Question

There is so much offered to help the children in the SAGE program advance, which is wonderful. There is a webpage designed by the lead teacher of SAGE that keeps parents informed and offers websights and other helpful information. My friend has a child attending an elementarty school here in town who is in SAGE and he has 2 hours everyday that he and a select few leave class to be provided special learning opprotunitys..very small teacher to child ratio. On the other end of the spectrum children with dyslexia or other LD have no website for their parents and my son barely gets thirty min a day exclusion time. It doen't seem fair...these children need so much more! They are pushed through school so"No child will be left behind"but when they graduate they can't even spell.My son has a B in 7th grade spelling yet he can't spell some of the most simple core words. When our school was no longer a school of excellence a letter went home blaming LD kids.What a slap in the face.

Answer 1

I agree. Schools need to provide more staff, more time, and more for our LD kids. They want the Special Ed staff to work miracles with large caseloads and control over how much time students should be in.  It is true, everyone is blaming Special Ed or the LD students for lowering test scores but not doing anything about it. If you want your son to have more time, call an IEP and demand it.  Also, if "No Child Left Behind" means that all students would be at or above grade level, we would not need special ed.

Answer 2

I will get back on later today.But in the meantime if you could e-mail me what the letter said I will be more than happy to help you . What state do you live in.

Answer 3

Actually, nationwide in the US, Special Ed. students get far more public dollars than gifted kids get.  Your school is a rare exception!!

Try joining groups like the Learning Disabilities Association. They have lots of excellent conferences & books & videos & materials, to help your child.

If the Special Ed. dept. made the school lose its "School of Excellence" status, talk to the head of the department about that. It wasn't the fault of the students!! Get other parents together & go to those parent meetings of the Community Action Council they have, and let the school administration know that you want a good education for your kids. Get active & it will help your children succeed!

Also, teach your child at home. Read to him every night before bed. Have him read aloud to you, as you cook dinner. Have him do homework--or make up homework, reading the Bible or whatever!-- for an hour a night. Make school work more important than TV or video games. Do spelling tests from the newspaper or magazines. One magazine will give you spelling words for the rest of his education!! Practice educational things in the car. Don't just rely on the school to teach your son, either!

Answer 4

Part of the problem is that there is a huge push in this country right now for special education students to be included in regular classrooms. This is defended by the "least restrictive environment" that is demanded by current regulations. On the surface, inclusion seems like a good idea.

However, principals end up messing it up by not hiring enough special educator co-teachers to make it work. They see inclusion as a way of getting rid of staff, but inclusion done right requires more teachers because it is harder to get services to students when they are in regular classes. Typically the resource teacher will have a huge caseload, which means not much time for kids.

Principals are highly motivated to use special education money on regular education kids because of NCLB. Their schools are judged on how well most of the students do on state tests. Sometimes special education money is not earmarked for special ed kids and this is when the abuse is most egregious.

Consequently we have students "dumped" into regular education with very little support. This makes regular educators mad and it kills off the special ed students. Soon you begin to see serious behavior issues cropping up because there is nothing like failure to cause a student to act out.

One of the biggest problems is that "LD" kids look and act just like other kids, so people have a tendency to overlook their problems. Also, in my experience parents with LD kids do not advocate for them like parents with more involved children. Because it is the flavor of the year, autism usually gets the most support. These parents are very vocal and demand what they want.

In your case I would look at the services page on the IEP and see how much time your child is supposed to be receiving. If you feel that the amount of time is inadequate or is not being given, call for a new IEP. They have ten days to schedule it.

At the new IEP, you need to find out why your son isn't receiving the services and you need to demand more time. If they say they don't have enough teachers, you can tell them that is not your problem. It is illegal for them to use that as an excuse.

At the meeting they will give you a "Procedural Safeguards" booklet which outlines what you need to do if you disagree with the school. Do follow those procedures. It is the best way to advocate for your son.