Kindergarten

I was just curious if this is a new policy or not. If not, when did it take effect? Are special needs kids integrated in the same class with regular kids? I believe the school my children will be attending, this policy is the norm. But I was wondering if it applies to all or only a select amount of schools?

In addition, will there be an additional support team member to assist with the special need child? Or how does it work?

Thanks in advance!

 

Most schools do use inclusion programs, especially in K. Depending on the needs of the particular child, there may be a personal aide in the class for the child, a classroom aide, and/or a special education teacher. It really depends on the needs of the children in the grade, how many special needs children are in the entire grade etc. For example, the boys' class has 125 kids. There are around 10 kids with special needs in the grade--they range from a very high functioning child with Down Syndrome, a child with spina bifida, to children with learning disabilities, and autism. In K, they had two inclusion classes (out of 6 classes), and had the same in first. One class had a special education teacher in there all day, and in K the other class had just the regular ed teacher and 2-3 aides (the regular ed teacher was certified in special ed and regular ed and preferred to have aides rather than a teacher in there--as she said to me once "how many different ways can you say "b says buh".) In first, the second class had a full time special ed teacher and aide in addition to the regular ed teacher.

The other 4 classes just had the one regular ed teacher.

Are you asking because you are concerned about who might be in your child's class, or because your child needs the support? I have never seen a downside to an inclusion class, especially at the lower grades--as long as all children are appropriately placed.

 

For our school they are in regular class. My one daughter had a child with special needs. She had a teachers aid with her at all times because she needed help when walking, could barely talk, and barely write. I think that aid stays in that kindergarten class and I would guess that if a child has special needs she/he would go in that classroom with that teacher and aid. I am not sure about the other classes other than the two my girls were in but as far as I know she was the only child that needed a little extra help during school. There were also some kids that got taken out of class to help them with some things like speaking English (I know one girls only spoke Spanish when starting school and didn't understand any English but by the end of the year she could speak some English but understood more of it).

 

I depends in our district.

They have specialized classrooms for low functioning autism, severely multiply impaired, severely emotionally/behaviorally impaired, moderately/severely cognitively impaired, and in the upper elem--some LD classrooms (3-5). Lower grades tend to be 'more' inclusive. But generally, the special needs kids are included with the general education as much as possible. A few do 1/2 day Specialized classroom/ 1/2 day grade level, some go to the resource room for academic teaching or support ( 30 min a day to 3-4 hours a day), others get support in the grade level class (spec.ed teacher goes in for a set period of time each day) and dont leave the grade level classroom, therapists (Ot/PT) often pull kids out of general ed classrooms, but have been knows to work withing the classroom setting, it could be any combination- they also use paraprofessionals in classroom with many special needs and/or for individual students that may need it Even our speech kids vary===the speech teacher goes into the lower end classes and does small group work, other students are pulled out for individual or small groups in the speech classroom. Our Special needs students tend to be distributed evenly across the classrooms if they are included in the grade levels. Specialized classrooms often will 'join' the grade levels for art/gym/pe, etc.

A good district will have a wide variety of programs/plans to meet the needs of the students and it will be listed in the IEPs what the Special Education department will do for each child.

KC

 

In my experience, any child integrated into a regular classroom that needs help to follow the normal routine will have an assistant. If you are concerned, you can talk to the teacher or the school about how they handle it.

 

Jack has Autism, and last year (K) he spent a couple hours in the special ed room, and then the rest of the day in the regular K room. He did have his own aide to help him. He had a hard time sitting and paying attention, and he did wander around the room a lot at the beginning of the year. If you're concerned about your kids education being hampered by a special needs child, then I'd have to tell you that the kids in Jack's class learned to ignore him during class time. They all loved him to pieces though. Every kid in Jack's class went out of their way to try to play with him. They all wanted to be the one to walk to the cafeteria with him. It was so strange to me that they all wanted to be Jack's friend, because he never really talked to any of them. My theory is, it's 'cool kid' syndrome, lol. Since Jack never talked to anyone, he was a mystery, and since he was a mystery he was cool, so everyone wanted to be around him.

Being in the classroom with normal kids helped Jack improve so much last year. I think it helped the other kids too. They learned that people are different, and different isn't a bad thing.

 

I teach a K, 1, 2 self-contained special needs class. My students all have a homeroom at their grade level and go to all the specials - Art, Music, PE, Library, Computer Lab - with their class. I try to push them out as much as I can. Some of my students just can not handle the amount of activity in a regular classroom. Some are so rigid in their need for structure that they can't adapt to schedule changes. My job is to give them the structure they need while working on the academics. I try to gradually increase the amount of time they spend in the other classroom. Each child's program is tailored to their individual needs.

I have 7 students and 3 assistants to help me with including the kids. I also have wonderful classroom teachers that are very flexible with us coming in and out as kids can handle it. They are also great about keeping me informed of special activities so that I can make sure my students attend.

 

Thanks everyone! You all have helped me a great deal!!