New York City is making a change in the way they handle students with special needs. According to this article Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein are working with schools to place students with special needs in public school placements. This brings up important questions: What is best for students with special needs? Do you support mainstreaming, inclusion, or teaching in a special education classroom?
I don't want to call people out by name, so share your opinion. What have you experienced in schools you work in, what would you want for your own child? And I'd like people to push beyond "If _____ model is done well..." We all know if the services are provided well then things will work. Please be frank and share what you think based on the reality of the schools you work in.
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i am a 100%, full supporter of inclusion. i've seen it work in many schools and i teach an inclusive classroom myself. I am a supporter of neighborhood public schools (i.e., any student should be able to go to the school of his/her public school attendance area and have his/her needs met, regardless of disability and language needs). see my dissertation for a longer discussion of these issues. :)
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ReplyDeletelso, i haven't lately agreed much with what they are doing in NYC schools, but i do agree with this movement. i also believe that principals need to be intimately involved in special education (again see my dissertation). i think egregious abuses of special education often happen when principals throw their hands up in response to special ed or delegate it to someone else because they think they don't have the expertise to oversee it themselves. special ed is too important and pervasive to not be central to the work of every administrator.
ReplyDeletei also don't believe in bussing kids to "special schools." for me there are very, very, very few exceptions to these beliefs.
here's an article i like about the whole mainstream/pull-out/spectrum of services issue: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/196015/Taylor2004.pdf