The Green Cup

I answered a question for myself this week. It was a longstanding, nagging question that cut to the core of what I do as a special ed teacher. I can’t remember exactly how it was phrased, but in my own words it was something like this:

Under what circumstances is it justified to remove a special education student from inclusion in the general education classroom?

One of the teachers at my school has a daughter who is majoring in education in college. The daughter volunteers at our school occasionally. The kids love her; she loves the kids. One day last week she asked me if I’d answer some questions for her for a class. And question number four (I think) out of six was this question.

Out of the mouth of babes…, I thought.

The question is a controversial one. There are plenty of patronizing people around who think that most children with disabilities are better off, socially and educationally, in a separate room. Someplace where they can get more attention. Someplace where they can be with other kids “like themselves.” Someplace where the risk of failure and frustration isn’t so great.

There are also people out there who advocate for the rights of those who aren’t disabled in some way. They say that special education children can be a distraction to the class. Their needs, their immaturity (or developmental delays) can be disruptive, they say. Some go so far as to say that exposing “normal” children to kids with disabilities can be traumatic for the normal children. Normal kids should learn about Down Syndrome in their early 20’s from a doctor who’s caring for them or their spouse during a pregnancy, not by having a Down Syndrome child in their kindergarten or first grade class.

So there I sat, shuffling through my brain in the back of a classroom where a student with a profound disability is well accepted by peers and achieving academically better than some of the “normal” kids in the room, trying to come up with a good answer for a 20ish year old college student with a servant’s heart and a few freckles.

I started my career as a special education teacher sincerely believing that kids who where mentally impaired or had learning disabilities were better off outside the general education setting. They were mine. I understood their needs. But now I have a few years’ experience…

Kids in America have a right to a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment possible. – whether they have a disability or not. “Normal” kids don’t have a right to be sheltered from real life.

My answer: It’s justified to remove a child with a disability from the general education classroom (from “inclusion”) when the general education environment itself becomes an impediment to meeting the child’s needs. Students with disabilities have a legal right to be in the general education classroom.

And if someone asked me. “What about the rights of the ‘normal’ kids?” Well, they have a right to be there, too…

Note: It’s nice to have a Secretary of Education with some personality. Arne Duncan makes it easy (for me, at least) to be interested in what going on in his office. That said, I’ll probably start to port somewhat regularly on what the Secretary of Education is doing…

Some red flags were raised this week on the status of special education at the Department of Education. One of the criticisms that emerged when Duncan was appointed to the Ed job was that special education had never really been on his radar during his tenure as head of Chicago’s schools. So people wondered whether that neglect of special education would come with him to DC.

Blogger Mark Miller talked yesterday about Duncan’s speech to the National Press Club on education reform.

In a speech intended to highlight the administration’s education priorities, his 4,720 words did not include “special education,” “special needs,” “disabilities,” or the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.” That seems odd to me…

You can watch the hour long video of the speech here.

To be fair, Duncan mentioned IDEA in response to a question after the speech and pointed out that it was receiving “unprecedented money” as part of the stimulus bills.

The slight that special education got in the NPC speech came even as Education Week was already questioning why the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services is still being run by a stand-in. Duncan’s office announced several appointees to major posts within his agency this week, but OSERS wasn’t on the list.

While special education might be a fiscal priority, the question remains: What’s the vision for special education as reform progresses? It’s a question I look forward to seeing answered.

I thought the poll at Edutopia was interesting. The question: Should special-needs students take high school assessment exams? These are exams that, in about half the states, students have to pass to receive a diploma. So far, 21% say “yes” (without any accommodations), 39% say “maybe” (and with accommodations) and 40% say “no.”

In addition to his appearance at the National Press Club, Duncan also went to Chicago this week to participate as a player in the Hoop It Up three-on-three basketball event. The Chicago event is a qualifier tournament. A national championship tournament gets played at the end of the summer, and Duncan’s team has won that national event in three of the last five years…

I can’t imagine doing this at my school – especially not with a special education student. (If you don’t have an account with Teacher Magazine, register and read the article; it’s free.)

An excerpt:

Some educators say time-out rooms are being used with increased frequency to discipline children with behavioral disorders. And the time outs are probably doing more harm than good, they add.

“It really is a form of abuse,” said Ken Merrell, head of the Department for Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the University of Oregon. “It’s going to do nothing to change the behavior. You’re using it as an isolation booth.”