Schools could face several different challenges involving educational placements for their students with disabilities. First, schools need to be sure that they have provided the students with the Least Restrictive Environment in the general education classroom (that included the use of supplementary aids and services) and it was not successful. Schools also may be faced with a challenge when the least restrictive environment is not possible and their environment supports the most restrictive environment. This leads to that school having to find the support for the student who will now be in their school. The same applies for our schools who are providing the least restrictive environment with supports and services in the general education setting. When it is decided that the child can not be educated satisfactorily in the regular classroom and will be transferring to a different school, the school could then be left with the staff that was hired to support that student. (It is never a bad thing to have “an extra” staff member, but that staff member got hired thinking they would be doing one thing and are now being shuffled here and there to cover different openings). This is what happens in our building when one of our students who receive certain supports is absent (like today), and the person giving the support doesn’t like the shuffle. In my district, students placements have changed due to them being in a different area. Our county is pretty big and parents do not like it when their student has to be bused to a different school, as they then spend a great amount of time on the bus. So, that becomes a new piece of the puzzle we have to look into.
The challenges that I see and hear about frequently for teachers are the lack of support, the high caseloads, their lack of knowledge on the different disabilities in their classrooms, their lack of experience with these disabilities, and the lack of professional development to educate them on these disabilities. Teacher retention has been an issue in our school and state because teachers feel that they are being given too many different behaviors/disabilities and not the PD to be able to handle them. They do not feel supported with the behaviors/disabilities and feel it is just putting one more thing on their plates. Time is such a struggle right now and even the teachers who want to learn more about the disabilities at hand, find it tough because in order to take the time to educate themselves about them, they are taking that time away from something else.
Some of the challenges that schools face in dealing with litigation involving educational placement for students with disability are: The lack of support, handling the problem of an inclusive class, lack of support from parents, none instructional responsibilities and on…
The time that ARD committee take to decide if the child need that service or not usually happens after the child spend much of their school day with children who do not have disabilities. This also includes the academic side, the nonacademic and any after school activities. This part of IDEA is called Least Restrictive Environment or LRE.
Today, the courts must interpret laws that define school attendance as the right of every child, regardless of her disability. Litigation is now focused on ensuring that every child receives an education that is appropriate for her individual needs. As some legal scholars have pointed out, this doesnt mean that laws or litigation support full inclusion of all children with disabilities in general education (Bateman, 2017).
I can’t personally speak directly about this subject because I am not in the school system at the moment but I remember that someone’s child(a neighbor who used to go to the same school than my son ) placement change when he was moved to another school. All i knew is this child was too active in class, kind of aggressive with other kids but very smart. After testing him and moving him form our school, he was placed in school known to be for kids who over excel.
Much of the special education litigation has involved controversy over the use of intelligence (IQ) and other standardized testing to determine students eligibility for special education. Although the debate about IQ tests has been acrimonious, some scholars have found that IQ scores themselves havent been the primary means of classifying children as eligible for special education (MacMillan & Forness, 1998).
Some of the challenges that teacher deals with recent special education legislation is the widespread misperception that teaching is easy. Also the challenge of multicultural can be challenging for our teachers. Today Multiculturalism is now a specialized field of study and research in education. The ruling can impact the class when it come to discipline. interdisciplinary collaboration among all service providers is a must. That can be educationally relevant services versus medically relevant services, mobility independence, ability to operate assistive technology, improved posture, and improved upper extremity coordination are all therapy goals that directly relate to improved educational outcomes.
