Jan 21, 2019, Boston Commonwealth: Boston falls short on ‘inclusion’ classrooms https://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/boston-falls-short-on-inclusion-classrooms/ District not meeting standards for special education BOSTON TEACHERS ARE passionate about fulfilling the promise of every child, and that’s why we support robust inclusion programs. … The law requires a per-pupil allocation to serve students with special needs. But on the ground, in schools across the city, this is often not the case. That’s because the dollars that should be earmarked for students with special needs are not following the students into the general education classroom. In many cases there is just one teacher in a room of students with a wide variety of physical, emotional, medical, and learning disabilities. Our teachers are urged to get two or three or four certifications to serve these incredibly diverse classrooms. But no matter how many certifications a teacher gains, it is impossible to simultaneously teach all these different groups of students, at the same time, without proper staffing. The Boston Teachers Union conducted an extensive survey of Boston educators to gather their views on inclusion. We found that, overwhelmingly, teachers believed in inclusion and were committed to nurturing the potential of every student. But teachers often recounted examples of ways the status quo is failing our students and our communities. One general education teacher wrote: “Inclusion does not work well when a classroom contains six inclusion students with diverse and in-depth needs, in addition to general education students with many social emotional needs in situations where a paraprofessional cannot sufficiently support [them]. … Time and again, our teachers tell us that, ideally, they would have two certified teachers and one paraprofessional in the classroom to manage the complex array of students’ special needs. At the minimum, there must be two fully certified teachers in a classroom to ensure every student has an equal opportunity to learn….
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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