There are school districts who are trying to put non-special needs children into special need class rooms. I think that this is unfair to all students involved. I think allowing special need children into a regular class room is one thing and needs more testing before we can really know if it helped the special needs children. However I think it is unfair to allow non-special needs children into a special needs class room.

MANAZE;454135 wrote:There are school districts who are trying to put non-special needs children into special need class rooms. I think that this is unfair to all students involved. I think allowing special need children into a regular class room is one thing and needs more testing before we can really know if it helped the special needs children. However I think it is unfair to allow non-special needs children into a special needs class room.

IMHO, this is a cop-out on everyone that's involved part. It allows the parents of students that don't work with their children at home a way out of their responsibility. It allows teachers a way not to deal with difficult children and a way for lazy students to not have to do work they should be doing.

But no, it's not fair to the teachers that do have to deal with them nor fair to the child that'll be effected by it in the future!

Manaze, how's so? In what scenerio is this happening? I am familiar with inclusion classes where you place a 4 or 5 "special ed" kids in a "regular" classroom but how is this done in reverse?

I've never seen this done, and on the surface I do no agree with it. There's a reason why special needs classes are offered. There are kids who do need individual attention and guidance, however a seemingly "normal" student shouldn't be taking advantage of this, IMO.

Is this middle school, high school, or elementary?

What I can tell you is that an area school tried to tell parents of a child in preschool who tested "normal" was going to be put into the special needs class because the state law says that there has to be a mix of students in each class. I've heard of having special needs put into regular class rooms but not the other way around. The principal of the school told the parents that "every" class room in that school was now like this. The parents did get their child put back into the "regular" class room. However the parents knew that even last year this same class room was only special needs children because their older child was in the preschool for the past two years and the past two years the class was only special needs children and the letter that was sent home had stated preschool/special need class. When asked how many students were going to be in the classroom that were "normal" and pressured why there are children outside of the district allowed to be in the regular class room the student was switched to the right class.

You can have an inclusion class but I don't think you can have it the other way around. The speed at which the school caved, I mean reversed their decision, tells me they are full of crap.

If it didn't happen how would all these D-1A players make it to college?

it is not the first time this school has done this. A couple of years ago a student tested in to the special needs class and his mother raised holy heck and got him put into the regular class. Well after the first year of preschool he was put into the special needs class. The sad part was his mother would not listen to the teacher at all and blamed her for everything that went wrong. This kid would throw chairs, smacked the teacher on the butt, he would get in trouble nearly every day.

I think a special needs program is very important and deserves more funding but not at the cost of the other children either. I was talking about this with another person and she said that she was not 100% sure but she thought that the school was given more money for each student in the special needs class. Does anyone know if that is true?

ccrunner609;454307 wrote:I highly doubt that this was the way it went down. I am sure that the parents misinterpreted what was being told to them.

I agree with this. There had to be a misunderstanding somewhere.

Well, since Manaze and BigRed1995 both seem to be familiar with the scenario, I bet that it did/does happen and it's in the Steubenville/Wintersville/Weirton area.

I do not have a problem with this..... As long as they use 1st graders....

Bigred1995;454155 wrote:IMHO, this is a cop-out on everyone that's involved part. It allows the parents of students that don't work with their children at home a way out of their responsibility. It allows teachers a way not to deal with difficult children and a way for lazy students to not have to do work they should be doing.

But no, it's not fair to the teachers that do have to deal with them nor fair to the child that'll be effected by it in the future!

This is pretty much how I would have put it.

you must have experience in the field of education

First I would ask, what is the difference? If you are mixing kids, you are mixing kids. You either want them together or you don't, so there is no "other way around". The next thing I'd like to clarify is, are you saying they simply took one child who was not special needs and placed that child in the special needs class? That's it, just the one? Because if that is the case, I'd say that kid's parents are twisting the story a little bit because they don't want their child labeled as special needs - it wasn't the other way around, the kid needed to be in the class.

The school wouldn't tell the parents how many "normal" kids were going to be in the class. You can not just mix kids. Inclusion is ment to put in special needs children into a regular class room to help the special needs children learn how to act around so called "normal" people and surroundings. Some special needs children can be in a regular class room all day while others can be in a class room for a few hours a day. Each child is different. The idea behind the program is great and from what I have heard from teachers it really has helped alot of students.

However reversing inclusion is a horrible idea. Putting a "normal" child into a classroom that is designed for special needs is only hurting the child that does not belong in that classroom.

The difference between the "normal" and the special needs class room are the number of teacher aides, most special needs classes have a low number of students somewhere usully around 10-12 kids, the rules also for special needed children give these children the green light to basically do what they want in the classroom with little punshiment. This was one of the main reasons for the parents wanting their child out of that classroom. Last year at the same school district it took the school over four months to have a child removed that was a constant hitter and biter of not only students but faculty.


I do belive the school district is going to keep the special needs programs but include regular students into the classroom because one there are to many students with out enough funding, two they might be testing out to see if this is something that might be able to do at all thier levels.

I also understand where the parents are coming from. Each parent has the right to want what is best for thier children. And when something like this is going on it is not uncommon for parents to argue over what they think is right for the children.

This is something that I have a feeling might become more of an issue in the future as more schools do this. For years special need families had to fight for what they have and it still not enough. Now the parents of children with out special needs are going to have to fight to keep their childrens education guarded as well.

I can't say what is right because I really don't know. I am lucky that my children are healthy. I have freinds though that their children are special needed children and my heart goes out to them. I just hope that this is something that can be settled with out having to bring the goverment back into it because whenever the goverment gets their hands on eduaction everyone loses.