In the Detroit Public Schools students with special needs are being included in the regular education setting. As many as 5000 special needs high school students are going main stream this year. Is it the right move? The district seems to feel they were left with no choice. If they did not comply the district would lose about 5 million dollars in federal funding.
Special Education Questions
So back to the question – is it the right move? I guess it depends who you ask. Some the high school students with special needs seem to enjoy the idea of being with “regular” students. They feel the stigma is being lifted of having learning difficulties. The district is wrangling with how to meet everyone’s needs. Some teachers are team teaching which means there are two teachers in the classroom. One is the primary regular education teacher, and the other is a special education teacher charged with helping students in the class who have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
Individualized Education Plan (IEP)
In my experience with team teaching the special education teacher moves quickly from student to student not able to [pause long with any one student because there are so many needs and the primary teacher is moving at a fairly fast clip to keep the “regular ed” students engaged in the lesson. Eventually the primary teacher ends up slowing down and helping students catch up as well and the learning comes to a halt or at least the momentum is greatly slowed.
What’s the Answer?
So while I’m happy some student view school as “more fun” with this approach I’ve know of too many times when the teacher feels overwhelmed and unable to meet the needs of students. School is where we are suppose to be challenged, gain knowledge, and become socially conscience. It seems there should be a way to do this and keep everyone’s integrity in tact. I’m just not sure inclusion is always the way to go. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve seem it work. It’s just so rare and takes a lot of training, patience, teamwork, parent support, financial support, student buy-in… you get the picture!