In our area, we are served by two school districts – a special education district and a local school district. Most of the time, the two sides get along well. But it is a tenuous liaison, and it is almost always personality-driven.
Life is difficult for a special education teacher if she and/or her direct reports don’t have the people skills to carry a relationship within the school community. It is even more difficult if she hasn’t earned the respect of school administrators. A school’s principal and guidance counselor are the top guns in the building, and their advocacy of educational inclusion is critical.
And yet, it’s hard to find time to build those relationships. Special school district personnel are busy with pounds of paperwork related to IEPs and legalities, scheduling, managing staff and measuring progress. They are often so busy that they don’t have the time they’d like to keep up-to-speed on the latest developments for teaching children how to overcome their disabilities.
General education teachers don’t have it easy, either. They are often frustrated by disruptive behaviors from children with special needs. Intrusions from special education staff parading in and out of the classroom for observations and pull outs can also be distracting. And then there is the occasional rudeness of special education staff — one of Connor’s paras, for example, actually talked OVER the general education teacher during an important lecture .
Yet, general education teachers are catching up, and quickly. The No Child Left Behind Initiative has forced local school districts to treat each child as an individual, and it is working. To meet NCLB goals, local school districts have had to develop creative and unique programs to teach reading and math skills.
Educational inclusion is tough for everyone, but we’re all learning. After all, it has only been in the last ten years or so that paraprofessionals have become accepted practice. It has only been within the last twenty to thirty years that our children haven’t been segregated into institutions or special schools.
So we have to work as a team. Checks and balances between special and general education personnel are essential to its success. And yet, the sheer number of services available between the two is difficult for team members to learn about, and even more so to mix-and-match to an individual child’s needs.
