**In Line**
On 5/07/08, lm wrote:
> Bob,
> Somebody does have to watch the bottom line, right?
"Watching" the bottom line, when it involves blatant violations of IDEA
has bit more than one district in the wallet, not to mention that some
admins and teachers have been severely financially 'punished'.
> Otherwise, why
> not give every kid, not just sped kids, any every support, which can
> take many formats. Support classes and modifications increase costs,
> if you number of supports sections increases, you need to staff
> them.
Apples/Oranges. Supports and modifications are not the same thing. I
am hard pressed to think of any modification (that does not involve
physical changes to the plant) that have any cost associated with them.
Good teachers, reg and sped, modify all the time.
Some supports, on the other hand, can become very expensive.
> If you give more kids extended time you need to ensure there
> is an appropriate number of students in a room.
What? I don't follow that line of reasoning at all.
> If it pass a max
> number of kids in a room, you need to increase staff to open another
> room.
That has nothing to do with modifications. If your state mandates X
number of kids as max in a class and you enroll XX number of kids then
of course you need to hire another teacher, find space and open another
room.
> Bob, I work in a fairly wealthy district but we do not get spend
> money without justification. We require students to be tested and
> receive other data before extending support or mods.
Wealthy suburb, rural, inner city - no one 'gets' to spend money
without justification. Testing, evaluation, assessment is mandated to
determine eligibility for services - that's the law not some district
or school level requirement. Once eligibility is determined the other
things kick in at whatever level the IEP team (not just the admin/sped
director) determines is necessary for the child to benefit from her/his
education. Now - do those gatekeeper admins/sped directors exert undue
influence on the IEP team? Of course they do and team members who want
to keep their jobs crumble. That's why parents are equal members and
have avenues to challenge that unilateral "no don't do that".
> Besides how
> many student over the age of 18 do you know want to continue in high
> school?
How many do I personally know? None right now. How many do I know of?
Several, usually those who were held back a year or two someplace along
the line. It really isn't all that unusual to have several 19 year
olds still in high school and the odd 20 year old isn't unknown and
those are reg ed kids.
> They want to get out with their cohort,
I can easily believe that to be true for some - often those you are
glad to see the end of - for others, who have realized that earning a
hs diploma is not an end but a beginning, not true. Those are the kids
that should be receiving more support, more encouragement to stick with
it. The truth of the matter is, I think, that high schools are very
uncomfortable with having legal adults as students so they receive
little support, little encouragement.
> if they do not, they most likely continue at the local community
> college.
The community college system in this state is not a dumping ground for
kids who didn't complete high school. Does it admit students without a
hs diploma yes - but they remediate the heck out of them to bring them
up to speed before they are allowed to enroll in that first 100 level
class.
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