Kids with disabilities in standard classrooms

[i-need-a-martini]

This has been in the news this week thanks to the school in Canberra that felt the need to 'gaol' an autistic kid in a cage whenever he became hard to handle or violent.

Obviously an extreme case and I am not condoning it.

But I can;t help but wonder if teachers feel they have little choice? Can they really spend a significant amount of time tackling children with disabilities which neglects other kids in their care? Is it really fair that they have to spend the day monitoring a child with a disability to ensure that nothing triggers an episode? And is it reasonable that they should have to grapple with kids who lash out or are violent?

Whilst I get that any parent who has a chikd that is different would prefer they went to a mainstream school instead of a ' special' school (not that there are many of those around), personally I think it is asking a lot of teachers and schools.

And before I get criticised, I have a daughter with an intellectual disability who goes to a mainstream school. But there is no way I expect her teachers to spend the amount of time they would need to in order to help her through each day, each year. Fortunately for me I can afford to send her to a private school that can provide extra assistance to her classroom teacher. But if she was at the local public, it just wouldn't be possible for them to provide her with the extra care she needs. 

[commander-x-2]

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@j*oono wrote:

We have a fair country (so far).  A fair society where special needs children are taken care of with funding, although I don't think it is so easy to get, but all schools should have qualified staff to look after children that might need extra help.

Other countries have no social welfare.  Job or you starve. We just tend to think that our world is Australia, US or Asia.

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I think we do the best we can.The maximum govt funding for in school assistance was 6 hours per week a few years ago. Depending on what the child's impairment is, this may be enough, but if a child id behaving in such a way that he requires several times outs or is a possible danger to himself and others, then either full time class may not be suitable and it may be that some of the schooling is done from the home.

It is my personal beliefe that the best outcome for all chuildren is to be included in mainstream schooling where at all possible. Sometimes, this does mean extra provisions need to be made, and at times, some expenses incurred by the parent of the child. When conditions or classes are not suitable for the child, it is then when their specialist education becomes important.It is fact, that students who fall 2 standard stanines away from normal, that their brains work and learn differently.. This can be difficult to incorporate into a school unable to cater to such discrepencies.as the examples given, a child may be too disruptive for the rest of the class, or too disruptive to themselves to engage with the class.

[bella_again]

Thanks for clarifying that 🙂 I think in general that children have different learning styles full stop.  Some are more visual learners, others are more tactile or hands on learners.  So it depends on the individual child.  I don't think we can assume  that because children are a certain IQ they don't have the capacity to learn in a normal classroom.  Actually they do on a number of different levels, they may not always understand content or concepts but at a revised level are usually quite successful.  However school isn't just about education in the sense of academics, its also about learning life skills, social skills and many other relevant skills.

Don't get me wrong I believe that children who need extra support in the classroom need just that, one teacher to 27 kids and no extra support is a difficult task but when parents, therapists and schools work together it is very achievable.  Most kids with complex needs do come with some funding attached however not always. Parents can't always afford a tutor or aide, that doesn't mean that their kids should be shoved in a special school because its convenient. You need to understand that most parents can't work fulltime depending on the level of disability. It would be wrong to shove our most vulnerable into the easiest solution because its not always the best solution.

We need to look at the best interests of the child and the best possible outcomes.  Special schools are not always the answer, for some children they might be and they do a great job but they are not for everyone.  We discovered with my girls that SS was disastrous, so we got them out and put them in mainstream primary. When funding was cut and they couldn't cope due to bullying (and the ed's own pysch saying they were at risk in the main stream school setting due to those normal kids);  we homeschooled for some years then put them in High School for a few years quite successfully.  They have now gone on to do Tafe at a foundational level with our on going support.