Kimberlee Ames <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Thank you, Deri, for pointing that out about Special Ed - I did
> not mean to imply that across the board, kids in Special Ed are
> not getting educated.  I was really referring to a problem we
> have in the county where I live in that mainstreaming is the
> main goal, to the extent possible dependent on the needs of the
> child, however, the kids who are too involved to mainstream do
> not necessarily receive an equal opportunity at an education.
> They do not even have an accurate way to test the involved kids
> to know what they are capable of.  I have been told that it
> takes the majority of a school year just to get the child
> evaluated by the Assistive Technology team for potential
> communication devices and that most parents have to go and get
> it done privately and pursue it on their own if they want to
> move forward.  I am just a little frustrated with the system
> and the way it operates.  It's not even that I want my child
> 100% mainstreamed.  But I do want him to have the same
> opportunity as every other child - and he will not have that if
> they can't even help us find a way for him to communicate and
> show what he really knows and can do.
>
This is my point. If parents are too focused on main-streaming,
they are in fact diluting the service which their kids could
receive. In a model where the goal is all disabled children are
taught at a local school the available resources are spread very
thinly, in effect each parent is fighting for a share of limited
resources against other parents with children a few miles away.

If centres of excellence are established at a more regional level
then the energy of parents is channeled into providing resources
which will benefit all the students at the school. This model
would mean that all the staff at the school would have access to
all types of adaptive equipment, many of which could be tried
before finding the "perfect" one.

> Sorry to be going off on this - I am a little uptight about him
> starting preschool in the Fall without me there to "interpret"
> his wants and needs. He will most likely be the most involved
> child in the class, and unable to convey to the teachers what
> he wants to say.  Maybe I'll have a better opinion of the
> school system after I actually see things in action and am able
> to see progress.
>
> Kimberlee
>
>
My views are certainly not PC, and I am waiting for someone to
tell me why mainstream education at a local school is "best".

Cheers

--
Deri James
dawn chorus(n): Nature's way of telling the programmer to go to sleep.