Comments on: Zero tolerance? Or just what are schools expected to tolerate?

By: Dana

Dana — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:37:56 +0000

Thank you for sharing your experience, Julie. It is a fight to get services for a child who needs it, unfortunately. I remember telling a parent that she could indeed call an IEP meeting, and tried my best to tell her what she needed to try to push for. Unfortunately, once the “powers that be” began trying to dissuade her, she went quiet and accepted all their recommendations.

It is a battle…and I’m sad to say that homeschooling often appears easier. Some of that depends on what the child’s special needs are, however. And where you are. I observed in a “poor” school in Lawrence as part of my education coursework and the program there was so well recognized that people were moving from out of state so their children with special needs could attend the school. The resource room instructor there was one of the most amazing educators I have ever met.

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:10:28 +0000

Dana, I was out of the loop and I am late on this post. But, I wanted to add my two cents anyway. I have nonwhite children and while my little children haven’t been to school, my oldest child has and she did not behave well at school. A child with a behavior problem needs a structured environment with consistant adults who are sensitive to behaviors he or she exhibits when they are escalating. Changing schools due to behavioral problems is a poor option. Marissa’s friends are always the kids who have unstable homes and behavior problems. “Normal” kids don’t understand her.

[Who is there to advocate for these kids when their parents don’t even know that they can, let alone how?] Marissa had services in school. But, initially the school refused to test her. Ron and I had to pay for the tests ourselves. After our test demonstrated that Marissa did indeed have significant developmental delays, the school was forced to test her. The schools tests consistently demonstrated that while Marissa did have needs she didn’t score low enough on any of the standard tests to qualify for services. We paid to have her re-evaluated by an independent neuropsychologist. The school never fully implemented his recommendations. While we have insurance through Ron’s workplace, our insurance doesn’t cover evaluation for learning disabilities and our coverage for psychiatric care is nearly non-existant. We have paid simply thousands of dollars for Marissa’s care. I recieve adoption support so some of the cost is absorbed. I don’t know how a single woman without access to these services could financially manage getting her child services. I couldn’t do it and we had the money. I stopped short of hiring an attorney and decided to invest my time, talents and treasures into my child rather than in trying to change the system.

Last, I am not sure we will ever be able to separate race and economic status from the discussions about special education and cost of education. Only 3% of our town’s population is nonwhite, yet a majority of the students in Marissa EBD (emotional-behavioral disorder) class were nonwhite.

By: Susan Ryan

Susan Ryan — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:08:58 +0000

A couple of times I’ve been in the high school office advocating for alternative education (homeschooling)for a family. I was called in by the principal once for a 17 year old who had been in disciplinary trouble. It was an odd situation, but the family had been left with a recomm. of using American School and getting the heck out of (school) town. The principal was personally intimidated by this boy, I think. Whether it was for good cause or not, I dunno, but I think that’s why he approached an annoying homeschooler like me with this. (I think that my husband being on the school board was another reason.)

The second time was when a boy had been told that he couldn’t enroll until the following year (in public school). He was totally left hanging with no school alternative. (The guidance counselor didn’t want to do paperwork…I dunno.) The boy had the pleasure of telling the gc that he wasn’t interested in school after all, but would be homeschooling. The last time I saw him, he was 18 and graduating from the community college. He went from sheer helplessness and hopelessness to success and better yet, happiness.
I know the high school principal’s asst…she goes to our church..and is a wonderful lady. She’s had the offer from me, but I haven’t heard from her about this,since our family exited the ps school board-wise and kid-wise. They changed principals and the current one is a community based, kid engaged guy. I think he’s a good one and doesn’t do the politics thing regarding kids.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:42:31 +0000

I was mulling this discussion over this morning while walking the dog. I really like Susan’s suggestion that homeschoolers be more proactive about reaching out to pushouts and dropouts — “emergency homeschoolers”, and her idea of providing a resource page to the school office. I also wonder, if a school accepts the enrollment of a student who has left his previous school due to repeated offenses and expulsions, shouldn’t they do so “with eyes open” so to speak and a *plan in place* to help ensure that the “change of environment” brings about a change in the child? Such a child is going to need firm limits, extra supervision, special ed evaluation, and cooperation between parents and school. Otherwise it’s just same song, second verse…

By: Dana Hanley

Dana Hanley — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:47:33 +0000

My spam filter should actually allow one link. I’m still baffled as to why it rejected you so soundly after you’ve been allowed to post so long. I may have to start watching what goes into the spam filter rather than just the moderation queue but that thing catches over a thousand comments a week. I would like to read some other blogs sometimes.

By: CircleReader

CircleReader — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:04:30 +0000

@Susan Ryan #14:

“I’ve sent along a local homeschool resource page and a ‘give me a call’ to our high school office. With pushouts and dropouts reaching record highs in schools, it can only help our community and society to not have ‘emergency’ homeschoolers floundering.”

Excellent! Has anyone ever taken you up on your offer?

By: JJ Ross

JJ Ross — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:42:05 +0000

Just a brief addendum to Dana’s comment — as a nonpartisan, I also didn’t think Gore or Kerry would make good presidents (nor George Bush) so I understand where some of you are left THIS year, with no inspiring choices.

But I don’s see Obama as just the next in line with them. And for a change, for me, for once, I do have high hopes this time, and I personally pin those hopes on Obama, specifically because of his March 2008 race speech. That’s when and why I made up my own mind to care this year.

I won’t link it (because Dana’s spam filter eats my comments if I do that) but you can go to my homepage and type this title into the search box to bring up my March 18 post: “I am voting for this man!”

By: Dana Hanley

Dana Hanley — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:31:33 +0000

I hear what you are saying, Mrs. C. To me, the whole discussion comes in part from an oversensitivity to the issue for some and its overuse by others. I’m tired of hearing that Obama may not get elected because America isn’t ready for a black president rather than dealing with the reality that a lot of us just don’t think he would make a good president for the same reasons we didn’t think Gore or Kerry would have regardless of skin color.

But at the same time, the issues this family face are related directly to their socioeconomic status…its wealth and family structure. Why do these problems disproportionately affect minorities, and particularly black and hispanic communities? It isn’t a question that we can seriously and honestly address without looking at race as well.

By: Mrs. C

Mrs. C — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:23:39 +0000

Oh, wow. And here I steered away from calling the child a “boy” because I was concerned someone would take THAT as racist. Perhaps I should have called him “her child?” But really… the point I was *trying* to make is that such focus on race, in my personal opinion, only serves to reinforce negative stereotypes.

You can disagree if you want, but my refusing to want to label each child and family by race and socioeconomic status speaks more to my political views on the role of government in education and other areas than race.

By: Susan Ryan

Susan Ryan — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:09:02 +0000

The description of the boy’s expulsion hearing explains a lot about what doesn’t work in a crazy bureaucracy called public school. This boy had no voice in his defense right from the start. Except when he’s facing a school board and other strangers who will decide his future. ..sheesh..
The mother is looking to the school to help when the ’school system’ had already failed her son in reading and writing. But as noted, she doesn’t know where else to get help.
I hope local homeschoolers read this article and attempt to take her (and family) under their wing, as the homeschooling community has with so many others. She’ll have a sympathetic ear and hopefully a visit to the library to see the many free resources that are available.
I have seen so many families who are so very desperate to help their children and do only know to look to ‘experts’ for educational help. School authorities offer their limited vision suggestions to use “accredited” and very expensive correspondence schools that I’ve seen lead to disaster for a kid who’s already fighting ‘the system’.
I’ve sent along a local homeschool resource page and a ‘give me a call’ to our high school office. With pushouts and dropouts reaching record highs in schools, it can only help our community and society to not have ‘emergency’ homeschoolers floundering.