| Utah's
special education programs must be refocused on kids'
needs, not government's
By Brooke Nelson
November 14, 2005 | Sam
is a blue eyed 9-year-old with blond hair. He loves
watching movies, building intricately balanced cities
with blocks and drawing on his Magna Doodle. When he
grows up, he wants to be an action hero. Sam likes to
tease; if you ask him a question he rarely gives you
a straight answer, his mouth pulling up in a mischievous
half-smile instead. He gives frequent hugs and unlike
most third grade boys, he is fluent in the words "I
love you."
But some people have missed all that.
All they see in Sam is the extra chromosome labeling
his developmental chart with the words Down syndrome.
Never mind that he can read short sentences, add numbers
and shoot a free throw. People still have a habit of
talking over him, as well as about him, as if he wasn't
there and writing him off as inept or incapable before
they've given him a chance.
One in 800 children will be born
with Down syndrome. That's 5,000 births a year. And
each year a group of these kids turns 5 years old and
enters the public education system -- a system not well
enough equipped to teach any child, disabled or not,
who has a unique way of processing information.
On the surface, it looks as if the
system is accommodating, that the resources are there
to make sure those with learning or mental disabilities
are taught to their fullest potential. But a closer
look reveals an outdated system driven by politics and
policed by politicians instead of educators.
In Utah, the only requirements for
classroom aides are a background check and a high school
diploma. With little, and unfortunately in most cases,
no school-provided training, the people who help teach
the children who need the most help are mostly unqualified.
Aides are sometimes implemented into the classroom in
order to fill the legal requirements of inclusion, at
other times to make a teacher's life more convenient.
With an aide there to keep a child on track, it is thought,
these kids will have the help needed operate at the
level of the rest of the class. But how can someone
with no training possibly teach the curriculum, in an
adapted way no less, as well as a certified teacher?
The current system makes exclusion
worse. Generally shoved in a corner with an entirely
different project than the rest of the class, kids like
Sam can only watch at the side of their aides as the
classroom moves around, and on, without them.
The average burnout rate for special
education teachers is seven years. It's no wonder why.
Many special education programs (thanks to inadequate
funding and a low position on the education priority
list) operate only a part-time basis, meaning special
education teachers aren't even paid a full teacher's
salary.
Add to that the requirements of the
No Child Left Behind Act. These teachers are now expected
to prepare their students to perform well on a national
test with irrelevant standards somewhere between meeting
IEP goals, battling the daily exhaustion of meeting
special social, mental and emotional needs, and adapting
a state curriculum differently for each child under
their care. Special education has changed very little
since the 1970s with the adoption of the Disabilities
Act, but the system is still expected to meet the newly
instated standards.
The new requirements are also terrifying
administrators and principals into action against the
very kids the law was designed to protect. Ninety-five
percent of all students in every student subgroup must
be tested, even those with disabilities or low English
proficiency. Fearful of losing already dangerously low
funding, some schools have resorted to not so subtle
tactics of encouraging "liability" students to find
other means of education.
These kids are ready to learn but
are we ready to teach them? In a society so ready to
accept the minority or economically disadvantaged student,
why should children who learn differently be the first
to be ostracized? The solution will require both changes
in national and state requirements, but the real change
will come at the local level.
The No Child Left Behind Act or the
mountains of paper work it takes to keep Sam in the
public education system may not be done away with anytime
soon, but the move that will really make a difference
can happen today. The child just needs to be put first
-- before the paper work, before the desire to appear
politically correct, before the easy way out and before
it's too late.
NW
CC |
