When I was pursuing my graduate degree in special education more than 20 years ago, a friend of mine who was pursuing his undergraduate degree in elementary teaching informed me that his father, a school principle, had advised against pursuing a master’s in special education. He predicted that Special Education will soon disappear from the mainstream school system. Since I was almost finished with my master’s degree at that point, I decided to take a chance on it because I didn’t really have any other options.
I took a job teaching special education for around ten years. Over the course of those ten years, there were many highs and lows, but finally I realized I needed a change, so I obtained my certification and shifted to teaching high school history. At this point in my career, even though it had been ten years, I recalled what my buddy had said, and I questioned whether I had anticipated schools no longer having special education instructors. In my newfound home in the history department, I questioned whether my position was now secure.
I like teaching history, but reality sometimes works in odd ways that aren’t in line with our desires, so after ten years of history teaching, I lost my job, and I personally received a first-rate lesson on budget cuts. To my great relief, I was able to go back into Special Education.
My former graduate school friend first informed me that there was a declining need for special education instructors more than two decades ago. Like his father, my buddy had spent the past 20 years moving through graduate school, teaching elementary school, assistant principal, and principalship.Like no one else I know, I went from graduate school to special education teacher to history teacher to back to special education teacher. And, believe it or not, when I returned there a second time, there were still a lot of special education jobs open. Since there is a dearth of special education instructors in 49 of our 50 states, there were really plenty of opportunities available there. Think about it… I was informed that special education was being phased out twenty years ago, yet it turns out that there are currently a shortage of special education instructors.
Today, after a few more years, full inclusion, a novel and intriguing development influencing Special Education, is prevalent. Now, inclusiveness in our classrooms is nothing new. In truth, inclusion in our schools has a long and fascinating history.
The Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education occurred sixty years ago. In 1954, integrated schools for all races became the new national standard. Over six million students with disabilities now have the legal right to a free and appropriate education thanks to the groundbreaking Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which went into effect 40 years ago. As a result, these students are also included in the general education population.
To facilitate this, schools establish a Planning and Placement Team (PPT), which meets to review a student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) and then places the student in the best educational environment based on the kid’s requirements and the legislation. Additionally, the placement must be in an LRE (least restricted environment). I vividly recall how my college professor once said that bringing a machine gun to handle a fly was not the least restrictive setting.To deal with a fly, one should just bring a flyswatter. In other words, if a child’s impairment can be accommodated in the local school, the child need not be moved across town or even to a special school in another town.
By transitioning from a partial to a full inclusion model, many schools today are attempting to enhance this inclusion model and least restrictive environment. The Los Angeles School District has relocated the great majority of its special education students into neighborhood schools during the past three years, where they are fully enrolled in elective courses like physical education, gardening, and cooking. They are also included in normal, mainstream academic classes, but often to a lesser extent than electives.
Schools in Michigan claim that they seek to remove the barriers that now exist between general education and special education, establishing a system where children will receive more support when they require it without the need for a dedicated special education classroom.
Compared to Michigan schools, which are just starting to try full integration of their students, some Portland, Oregon school districts are a little further along than Los Angeles schools, which are just bringing special education students back from special schools.
Portland presents an intriguing case study because it is a bit further along in the process. The Portland Public School System’s handling of the integration of special education kids into normal education classes has many of the parents who initially backed the concept concerned. By 2020, Portland hopes to be fully inclusive. However, some of the Portland instructors are claiming that because we are not fulfilling the needs of the special education children, they will fail and act out. If the appropriate assistance is lacking, that is unacceptable for both the student and the general education instructor.
As one parent in Portland put it, “I would rather have my child feel successful than for them to be ‘college-ready’.” She goes on to say, “I want my children to be nice, well-rounded people who improve the world. They don’t necessary need to attend college to achieve it, in my opinion. I believe that kids are individuals, and there is a problem when we stop treating them that way. Unfortunately, a lot of parents and educators have left the Portland School District, and a lot more are daydreaming about doing so because they believe the full-inclusion model isn’t functioning there as well as they had hoped.
The pressing issue of the hour is how much special education children should be integrated into regular classes. In my opinion, some integration is not only feasible but also necessary. Many special education children may attend general education classes with minor assistance.
A youngster in a wheelchair who was paralyzed from the neck down and was using a ventilator to breathe sat in my normal education social studies class a few years ago. Every day, his nurse and paraprofessional moved him into a chair and sat with him. The stories I recounted about Alexander the Great conquering most of the then-known globe by marching through 11,000 miles of terrain made him grin every time. By urging generosity to the vanquished and pushing his warriors to wed the ladies of the occupied land in order to establish a permanent peace, Alexander the Great also put into effect his own concept of inclusion.
The much-needed socialization and financial savings that integration brings are also significant aspects to take into account when considering special education inclusion. Children pick up skills from their peers, and money saved on special education may go into general education, right? Hmm…
As you may have noted, I did not suggest that all or even the majority of special education kids should be integrated when I indicated previously that many of them might be. Some kids, such as those with serious behavioral issues, will simply demand an excessive amount of the teacher’s time and attention at the expense of other pupils. It is blatantly unfair to all of the other kids in those courses when we place kids with serious behavioral issues in regular education settings. Similar arguments may be made for other severe impairments that need an excessive amount of the individual time and attention of the mainstream instructor.
Hey, I’m not advocating against ever placing a child with a significant impairment in a regular classroom. But what I’m really arguing is that schools need to have a stronger mechanism in place to keep an eye on these placements and immediately remove any kids who aren’t doing well and are stealing valuable class time from other students. Additionally, schools must do this without humiliating the instructor who reported that the kid wasn’t a good match and was interfering with the other students’ ability to study. It’s not good for anybody when a child is left in an unsuitable situation. Period.
As a special education teacher and a normal education teacher teaching inclusion courses over the past two decades, I have worked with more special education children than I can recall. Due to my increased flexibility and patience, I have had some of the most challenging and needy students put in my classrooms. Over the years, I have performed wonders with these students, and I am aware that I am not the only educator doing this.
There are a lot more people like myself out there. However, my concern is that since teachers are so committed to their work and do daily miracles in the classroom, districts, community leaders, and politicians may be pushing the full-inclusion model too hard in the mistaken belief that the teachers will figure it out on their own. It’s never a smart idea to set teachers and students up for failure.
Additionally, I hope that in advancing this full-inclusion paradigm, they are not merely attempting to save money when what we should actually be doing is trying to rescue our children. Fredrick Douglas once stated, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Whatever way the financial educational pie is cut, the fact remains that it is just too tiny, and our special education instructors and children shouldn’t be asked to foot the bill.
Additionally, I’ve been a teacher for too long to not be at least a little dubious when the managers claim that the full-inclusion model is necessary since socializing is so significant. It’s vital, I realize that. But I also realize that far too many individuals rely on the socializing justification in place of educating and meeting the needs of our youngsters with special needs. I’ve observed special education pupils sitting in honors classes with merely the ability to draw images. Real socializing is not happening in this area. It’s just not logical.
I guess we’ve come full circle now. It will be interesting to follow the development of complete inclusion. The prudent ones won’t get rid of their special education teachers or classes. I anticipate it won’t take long for the school districts who do this to recognize their error and begin employing special education instructors again. We’re not there yet, and to be honest, I don’t think we ever will be, my buddy and his now-ex-principal father who thought special education was going away all those years ago.
