I remember over 20 years ago when I was getting my graduate degree in Special Education and a friend of mine who was getting his degree in elementary education told me that his father, a school principal, said that he probably shouldn’t waste his time getting a master’s degree. . in Special Education. He said that special education would eventually disappear from public education. I was almost done with my teachers at this point, so I figured I’d have to take my chances, besides, what other choice did I have at the time anyway?
I got a job in Special Education and taught for about 10 years. There were a lot of ups and downs during those 10 years, and I finally decided I wanted a change, so I got certified and switched to high school history. At this point in my career, I was reminded of what my friend had said a decade ago and wondered if he was on the cutting edge of schools no longer needing special education teachers, even though it was 10 years later. He was asking me if my job was now secure in my new home in the history department.
Well, I loved teaching history, but life has its own fun ways that aren’t aligned with us or what we want, so after a decade of teaching history, I’ve personally gotten a world-class education on budget cuts and my job was removed. Fortunately, I got back on my feet in Special Education, believe it or not.
It had been more than two decades since my old grad classmate told me that the need for special education teachers was disappearing. Over the past two decades, my friend had gone from grad school to elementary school teacher to assistant principal to principal, just as his father had. I went from grad school to special education teacher, to history teacher, and back to special education teacher like no one else I know had. And believe it or not, there were still plenty of special education jobs available when I got there for the second time. In fact, there were actually a lot of jobs there because there is a shortage of special education teachers in 49 of our 50 states. Imagine that… Two decades after I was told that Special Ed was going away, and I realize they still can’t seem to get enough special ed teachers.
Fast forward a few more years to today and there is an interesting new twist affecting Special Education called full inclusion. Now, inclusion is not something new for our schools. Indeed, inclusion has a long and interesting history in our schools.
Six decades ago there was the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education. In 1954 the new law of the land made integrated schools for all races. Four decades ago, the groundbreaking Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) law went into effect and helped ensure that more than six million students with disabilities have the right to a free and affordable education. adequate, which means that they too can be included. with the general education population.
To help make this happen, schools create a Planning and Placement Team (PPT) that meets and discusses a student’s Individual Education Program (IEP) and then places the student in the appropriate educational setting based on the student’s needs. And the law. The location must also be the least restrictive environment (LRE). I can still remember my college professor describing the least restrictive environment in a short story that one wouldn’t bring a machine gun to take care of a fly. Rather, one would simply bring a fly swatter to take care of a fly. In other words, if a child’s disability can be treated at the neighborhood school, then the child does not have to be sent across town or even to the special school in another town.
Today, many schools are trying to improve this model of inclusion and the least restrictive environment by moving from a model of partial inclusion to a model of full inclusion. Schools in the Los Angeles School District have moved the vast majority of their students out of their special education centers in the last three years to neighborhood schools where they are fully integrated into elective classes like physical education, gardening and cooking. They are also integrated into regular core academic classes, but usually not to the same degree as electives.
Michigan schools say they want to break down the walls between general education and special education by creating a system where students will get more help when they need it, and that support doesn’t need to be in a separate special education classroom.
Some school districts in Portland, Oregon, are a little further ahead than Los Angeles schools that are just bringing in special education students from special schools and Michigan schools that are just beginning to try to fully integrate their students and eliminate most special education classrooms. .
Being a little further along in the Portland process is an interesting case study. Many of the parents who initially supported the idea of integrating special education students into regular education classrooms in Portland are now concerned about how the Portland Public School System is doing. Portland is aiming for full inclusion by 2020. Yet some of the teachers in Portland say, “Obviously special education students are going to fail and they’re going to act because we’re not meeting their needs… If there’s not the adequate support there, that’s not acceptable, not only to the child, but also to the general education teacher.”
One Portland parent said, “I’d rather have my son feel successful than be ‘college ready.'” She further states, “I want my kids to be good, well-rounded human beings who make the world a better place. I don’t think they necessarily have to go to college to do that. I think kids are individuals and when we stop treating them as individuals , there is a problem”. Sadly, many parents and teachers have left the Portland School District, and many more fantasize about it because they feel the full inclusion model isn’t working there as they imagined.
How much schools should integrate special education students is the burning question of the moment. In my personal experience, some integration is not only possible, it is a must. With some support, many special education students can be in regular education classrooms.
A few years ago, I even had a non-speaking paraplegic boy in a wheelchair who was on a respirator sitting in my regular education social studies class. Every day his paraprofessional and his nurse would lift him up and sit with him. He always smiled at the stories she told him about Alexander the Great who traversed 11,000 miles of territory and conquered much of the known world at the time. By the way, Alexander the Great also practiced his own model of inclusion by encouraging kindness towards the conquered and encouraging his soldiers to marry women from captured territory to create lasting peace.
Other important factors to consider in special education inclusion are the much-needed socialization and money savings that integration offers. Children learn from other children and the money not spent on special education could be spent on general education, right? Hmm…
If you noticed, I said a little earlier that Many special education students could be integrated, but I did not say everybody or even the majority must be integrated. There are only some students who are going to take too much of the teacher’s time and attention from other students, for example, in the case of students with serious behavior problems. When we put severe behavior problems in regular education classes, it’s completely unfair to all the other kids there. Similar cases could be made for other severe disabilities that demand too much of the lead teacher’s time and individual attention.
Hey, I’m not saying never test a child with a severe disability in a general education setting. But what I’m saying is that schools need to have a better tracking system for these locations and be able to quickly weed out students who aren’t exercising and taking away valuable learning time from other students. Also, schools should do this without embarrassing the teacher because the teacher complained that the student was not a good fit and was disrupting the educational learning process of the other students. Leaving a child in an inappropriate location is not good for either party. Period.
Over the past two decades, I have worked with more special education students than I care to remember as both a special education teacher and a regular education teacher teaching inclusion classes. I have learned to be extremely flexible and patient and therefore have had some of the toughest and most needy children in my classes. I have performed miracles with these children over the years and I know I am not the only teacher to do this. There are many more out there like me. But what worries me is that because teachers are so dedicated and accomplish daily miracles in the classroom, districts, community leaders, and politicians may be pushing too hard for the full inclusion model thinking that teachers just they will have to figure it out. outside. Failing teachers and students is never a good idea.
Also, I hope it’s not money that they’re trying to save as they push this full inclusion model because what we should really be trying to save is our children. As Fredrick Douglas said, “It is easier to make strong children than to mend broken men.” Regardless of how the financial education pie is divided, the bottom line is that the pie is too small and our special education teachers and our special education students should not be paying for this.
Also, I’ve been a teacher for too long not to be at least a little skeptical when I hear bosses say that the reason they’re pushing for the full inclusion model is because socialization is so important. I know it’s important. But I also know that too many people hang their hats on that socialization excuse instead of educating our special needs students and giving them what they really need. I have seen special education students whose abilities only allow them to draw pictures while sitting in honors classes. There is no real socializing taking place here. It just doesn’t make sense.
Well, finally coming full circle. It will be interesting to see where this full inclusion thing goes. The wise will not let their special education teachers go, nor will they get rid of their classrooms. And for the school districts that do, I imagine it won’t be long before they realize the mistake they made and start hiring special education teachers again. To my friend and his father, now a former principal for all those years, who thought special education was going to go away, well, we haven’t gotten to that point yet, and to tell you the truth, I don’t think we ever will.
