Beliefs Special Education Staff and their Admin Must Have in 2022.

Diving deeper into the Instagram post made by Oly Able founder @LifeSkillsWithLaverty, on 6/2/2022. See Post Here:

Technically, I was hired to teach in a Self Contained classroom, but I have never and will never be a Self Contained teacher. The students I inherited in my first year of teaching used to be stuck in the same classroom for all or most of their day. This meant they were spending their freshman/sophomore/junior/senior years with basically the same handful of people. These students were rarely exposed to their general education peers, and when they were, it just looked like standing in the same hallway or being in the same room at lunch. There was no intentional teaching to bring both groups together and teach them how to interact and engage with each other. It was weird. 

When I started teaching, general education teachers came up to me during my first PD day and whispered: “so like, what do you do?” Even teachers who had worked in the building for decades did not know or understand what went on in “that room”.   

The reality is I have a certain number of students on my caseload. They take my Life Skills classes based on their educational needs. It is no longer the unique few that get to take an art or pe class. The students on my caseload are high school students that happen to be in my program, not students in my program that happen to maybe take an art class. 

Listen. Do all of the students I’ve had on my caseload over the last 8 years take general education classes? Absolutely not. This is because each student has their own Least Restrictive Environment.  But I will say that on my current caseload, only two students attending in person are in my classroom full time. And this is because of their unique behavioral needs. They can access inclusive opportunities in other ways, that better fit their LRE. 

I mean, I could go on and on about this statement. Throw me up on a soap box and I could truly talk all day. But I firmly believe that looking at educational plans, accommodations, and modifications through the clouded lens of their disability label only does a disservice to that student and those around them. 

Students should start their educational journey with the same rights and opportunities as their typically developing peers. When we are looking at educational or social opportunities for a grade level, or classroom, we as educators should be considering ALL students first, and then providing accommodations or modifications as needed, based on the case manager or IEP team’s decision. 

Too often, blanket accommodations or modifications are made for a group of kids because: “they obviously can’t do that” or “well, that’s too overwhelming for the sped kids.” In reality, I would wager to guess that a large number of the special education students could be fully included in the activity with appropriate accommodations, and the rest could have modified participation.

Having this mindset when planning programming or social activities for students will automatically make your school environment more inclusive for ALL students; with and without disabilities.

I’m not kidding. I have run across too many special education teachers who feel like their job is only to work with “sped kids”. And similarly, the number of times I’ve heard general education teachers refer to sped kids as “your sped kids” is truly shocking. The students on my caseload, the students I collect along the way that join my club or stop in just to say hi, and the peer tutors who take my class are all MY KIDS. And I will advocate for them as loud and hard as I would my most highly impacted student. 

There are DOZENS of jobs that will allow paraprofessionals and special educators, and other service providers to work specifically and only with special education students. If you have a difficult time understanding or coming to terms with the statements made in this post, that might be the best route to take as the education system continues to evolve. 

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) is no longer a new thing. As we come out of our (hopefully) last pandemic year, we need to prepare to enter a world where we are as educationally inclusive as possible for all students. The past few years have been an eye opener for many in our country regarding equity. As we create building and school district wide expectations on creating equitable systems for all kids, we need to make sure our mindset is including people with intellectual disabilities.