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The district has gotten a part-time aide for D. Hurray! This should alleviate the pressure being put on his classroom teacher, who is getting grief from some of the parents about how much time she spends on D.
It's a parent-participation program. One of the downsides is that a very few people in the program view it as a "get rid of the undesirables" program, meaning the special ed kids, ESL kids, and just slow learners you get in most normal classes. D., with his HFA, is precisely the sort of kid they were hoping to insulate their child from. A teacher having to spend extra time with a special needs kid means less time with their child.
I've always had some qualms about the program from a social standpoint. I love the fact that parents are so involved in the classroom. I love the way that the teacher is able to use the parents' skills. I think it's good for kids to be exposed to as many supportive adults as possible.
But I think it may hurt the school as a whole: it skims both many of the highest achieving students and the most involved parents. As far as I can tell, the parent participation classes have far less than their share of special needs kids or kids with behavior or language issues, meaning that other classes have to carry more of them, with less parent resources to work with. It also encourages cliqueishness: these same kids have been in the class together since kindergarten, and they tend to think of themselves as being "special" and they resist making friends outside of the class group.
Of course, the argument on the other side is that many of these parents would have taken their kids to other schools were it not for the parent participation program. I have heard that said, I don't know how factually true it is.
In any case, it is a very good thing that D. has an aide. We have been fighting the district for a year for this. He is academically pretty much at grade level, and we are seriously concerned that if we move him into a special day class, which is what the district would prefer that we do, it would hurt him academically. We are also worried that, far from helping him be more able to function independently, the special day class would make the situation worse. (The aide is mostly needed for behavioral issues.) His therapist has been urging us all along to keep him in a mainstream class if he can keep up academically. His classroom teacher said to me recently that his behavior has improved to the point where she think it may be possible for him to be in a mainstream class for at least part of the day in fourth grade -- something we were told two months ago was probably not going to be possible.
It's a parent-participation program. One of the downsides is that a very few people in the program view it as a "get rid of the undesirables" program, meaning the special ed kids, ESL kids, and just slow learners you get in most normal classes. D., with his HFA, is precisely the sort of kid they were hoping to insulate their child from. A teacher having to spend extra time with a special needs kid means less time with their child.
I've always had some qualms about the program from a social standpoint. I love the fact that parents are so involved in the classroom. I love the way that the teacher is able to use the parents' skills. I think it's good for kids to be exposed to as many supportive adults as possible.
But I think it may hurt the school as a whole: it skims both many of the highest achieving students and the most involved parents. As far as I can tell, the parent participation classes have far less than their share of special needs kids or kids with behavior or language issues, meaning that other classes have to carry more of them, with less parent resources to work with. It also encourages cliqueishness: these same kids have been in the class together since kindergarten, and they tend to think of themselves as being "special" and they resist making friends outside of the class group.
Of course, the argument on the other side is that many of these parents would have taken their kids to other schools were it not for the parent participation program. I have heard that said, I don't know how factually true it is.
In any case, it is a very good thing that D. has an aide. We have been fighting the district for a year for this. He is academically pretty much at grade level, and we are seriously concerned that if we move him into a special day class, which is what the district would prefer that we do, it would hurt him academically. We are also worried that, far from helping him be more able to function independently, the special day class would make the situation worse. (The aide is mostly needed for behavioral issues.) His therapist has been urging us all along to keep him in a mainstream class if he can keep up academically. His classroom teacher said to me recently that his behavior has improved to the point where she think it may be possible for him to be in a mainstream class for at least part of the day in fourth grade -- something we were told two months ago was probably not going to be possible.