How do I IEP?

How do I IEP?

The school year is about to start anew.   For many families that means there will be an IEP meeting that will need to be negotiated.   These meetings can be fun, fulfilling and/or demanding and torturous.

Federal and state law require that the IEP (Individual Education Program) be truly individual to each child and be the document that describes how FAPE (Free appropriate public education) is provided to each child.  FAPE is guaranteed to each child with a disability from birth through the school year in which the child turns 21.  A school system cannot plead lack of resources or staff for failure to meet the requirements of the IEP, so it is very important that the document spells out what is needed.

Since school systems cannot claim shortages as reasons for not providing the services, they will sometimes go another route and insist the child does not need the service.

Flash to parents, first of all the IEP is a serious deal for your child, please dress the part.  You want to be taken seriously by the staff.  There is a good chance that staff will outnumber you, so you need to look like someone who is not to be messed with.  Parents may bring an advocate or an attorney to the meeting.  They may also bring separate independent evaluations about their child.   The law requires that the team consider these evaluations.  Consider does not mean accept or follow the advice given. It means simply that, consider. So, the team can read the evaluation, put it aside, and they have considered it.

This past year the Supreme Court gave parents a bright new tool. The Janus decision is very clear, an IEP that provides only the minimal amount of progress for a child from year to year is not providing FAPE.   In the past, before this decision, IEP teams could count any progress at all as meeting the requirement.  Now families can demand more and they can insist on differing expectations to meet their children’s needs.

It is not unusual for staff to report school performance that is below that which families see at home or for teachers to indicate that instructional performance in the classroom is higher than that shown on a formal evaluation. Kids do better at home because there is usually less pressure and parents help in many ways their support to provide.  Likewise, in everyday instruction, there are many supports that allow a student to do better than on a timed formal test.

No matter how young or how old the child is, a parent’s eye should be on where you want this child to be when the entitlement of FAPE is over.  

The IEP is parents’ best control over their child’s education. Use it carefully and wisely.

Will Your School Stand UP?

Will your school stand up?

Does your child go to a good school?   How do you know?   If you follow the common wisdom, you can tell by the test scores.  School systems are required to post the test scores of each individual school within the system.  Real estate values go up or down based on the posted scores.   Families agree to privately transport to the schools with good scores and/or make up reasons why their children need to go to the schools with better scores.

But are we chasing the wrong pots of gold?   Is there really lifetime success at the end of these rainbows?  The answer is probably not.

Sure, learning to read, write and do arithmetic are very important skills that will lead to vocational success but they won’t work alone.

In fact, a strong school stands on four legs not just one.  Like a table that is unbalanced unless there are 4 legs of equal length and strength, so a good school needs to provide skills in four areas equally.

It is easy to argue that a good school does a good job of teaching academic skills.  A really good school teaches those skills in multiple ways, matching the teaching style to the learning style of the children.  The teachers teach kids how to problem solve and apply old learning to new situations.  There is minimal emphasis on memorization and repeating answers to problems that someone else has solved.

No table stands on one leg.  And no good school does either.  There are three other legs that good schools provide for their students.

At some point in time, the expectation is that children will leave school, be it after high school, college or grad school and look for productive employment.   This means that ALL students need vocational and soft job skills to be able to thrive in the world of employment.  One of the most important of those skills is the ability to work in a diverse workplace. The United States is becoming more and more diverse.  Already white students are less than half of the students in public schools.  The workplace will soon follow.  Kids need to know that a big part of keeping a job is showing up and showing up on time.  It is being respectful to supervision and being able to problem solve and work collaboratively.  We are not teaching those skills and we need to.

You may have noticed lately that folks are lacking in social skills as well.  Saying please and thank you seems to be a lost art.  Yet those simple words can oil many a sticky situation.  Just yesterday I saw a car cut off an ambulance with its siren on.  That is an instance of poor social skills taken to a life-threatening extreme.  We know more about communicating in code via text, than we know about talking to each other.

Doesn’t matter where we go or what we do, we take ourselves with us- 24/7.  Most of all we need to learn to accept and like ourselves just as we are, without the “if only”.  As in I would be a better person, “if only”.  Each of us is the only version of ourselves.  We each need to learn to love the person we are, to put on our own oxygen mask on first. Teachers can be a huge help in teaching our children while they are small, before the world beats the joy out of them, that each of the children is a really special person and deserves to be celebrated.

That’s it.  Four legs to the table, academic, vocational, social and emotional.  As with any sturdy table the legs need to be of equal length and equally strong to create a sturdy balanced table.  So it is with schools.  Don’t be fooled by the shell game that teaches us that only test scores count.  Because when all school is said and done- we each need all four legs for our table

Hate: A back-to-school supply

Hate, a back to school supply

Three swastikas were found on the mirror of the girls’ bathroom.   A homophobic comment was left in a note in a student’s desk.   Inside the back pack of a Latino student was a note that said: “Go back to Mexico”. The n-word has been whispered to students as they pass in the hall.  Muslim students are called by racist terms.

These instances are not new.  They have been in schools for decades.  What is new is the the uptick in the number of these incidents in schools since the election of Donald Trump.   There are some who will say that the coarse language used by Trump in referring to some minority groups has given license, if not tacit approval, to these events.  They will say that Trump’s influence has emboldened some children, teenagers and even school employees to openly espouse hateful views.

But can we really blame it all on Trump?  While his behavior makes him an easy target for blame, it is also true that schools have long been a venue for bias and harassment.  It is easy to say, it has always been thus. That does not let school leaders off the hook.   What a school can do and what a school should do to improve the climate so that all kids feel safe need to be one and the same.

These incidents are most likely to occur in suburban schools where white students are far in the majority.   As America becomes ever more diverse, these schools and all schools, are going to need to learn how to live together with everyone.  Minority students regularly report that majority students and staff just don’t GET the pain that is felt by the targeted students.

That situation needs to change.   Schools need to tackle diversity head on.   Diversity clubs and councils need to teach majority students that contrary to the old rhyme, words can harm us and do regularly.   White administrators want to do “one and done”.  They want to hold a meeting, invite a speaker, have a talk and then declare victory and go home.

It is not that simple by any stretch.  First of all, school leaders need to call out hate wherever it is found and bring it out of its hiding place.   They need to work to get first-hand accounts from the victims to the victimizers and let the victimizers know the harm they have caused.  Victimizers need to be made to do the research to see what horrible damage their hate has caused and does cause.  Social media gives hatred its best forum ever, more visual and faster.   So when a group of kids in a Maryland high school had a scrabble day and spelled the N-word on t-shirts with letters, the photo went viral.  Parents were informed of the ”incident” but there was minimal discipline.

School administrators need to see that these are not “incidents”.  These events are indicators of our failure to educate students to live in a diverse democracy.  It is way past time for us to start getting this right.

School is about to start soon.   We ALL need to actively make sure Hate is not the school supply we send back with our kids when classes start.

High School Graduation Rates are up again-who cares?

High School Graduation Rates Up Again

Look, look see the superintendent celebrating and parading through the high school with banners and pompoms.   See the New Orleans style dance the superintendent did as he extolled long awaited gains in the high school’s graduation rate.  How really wonderful is that!!

The Prince George’s County DuVal high school’s graduation rate had gone from an above average of 81 percent to a celestial 95.4 percent.   Is that not wonderful and worthy of so much celebration?!  “We have made remarkable progress.” said the superintendent.

How high they fly; how far they fall.   Soon the Governor ordered the State Department of Education to hire investigators and soon after that the thrill of achievement was filled with the fog of doubt.  There had been cheating.  Staff were told to do what you need to do to get kids to graduate. Whatever you do, staff were told, just find a way to make them pass.   So students who barely attended school found themselves with passing grades. Other kids were “helped” to learn what was needed to pass the tests.  In the end, 3 counselors were removed from their jobs, an assistant principal resigned and the principal retired.  The superintendent, Maxwell,  decided to resign as well; he did his snake dance right out the door.  Even members of the school board came to physical blows over the amount of buy-out the Maxwell should receive. Really, I am not making this up.   The situation might also have brought down the county executive who lost his bid for higher office after he continuously supported the superintendent he had hired in spite of the developing scandal.  

Nationally graduation rates have been climbing since 2011.  Federal law expects states to set sky-high graduation rates and targets.   But are the schools and students really doing any better?   Is the rush to higher graduation rates ensuring that the weaker willed will succumb to changing exam grades to ensure passage, ignoring excessive absences and providing tutoring that looks a lot like cheating.

The problem turned out to be much larger than just one high school. Overall there were 5500 grade changes and 30% of the county’s graduating class lacked proof to show they qualified for graduation.  The virus seemed to have impacted the entire county system.

With all of this happening, why has the question never been asked- What’s the big rush to get kids out of high school in four years?  What makes four years the magic number in which every kid needs to complete high school?  Wouldn’t it make much more sense to set goals that related to skill sets and that kids would graduate when they reached those goals?   We would have more graduates ready for employment and fewer college freshmen taking zero credit make-up courses.

But graduation rates are up again.   We are all happy.  Will someone PLEASE ask why does that matter.

Cover Up or Career Protection

Coverup or Career Protection

The Supreme Court recently ruled that public sector employees no longer need to be forced to pay agency fees to the union.   This ruling heavily impacts teachers’ unions because they are the largest public-sector employee unions representing millions of teachers nation-wide.   Many states, Maryland included, have required teachers to pay an “agency fee” in lieu of membership dues to cover the cost of the union representing all teachers in the contract negotiations.

There are two issues here- free speech, the one the Court used for its ruling and the second issue long advanced by union opponents, that unions protect weak teachers and severely limit the ability of school administrators to weed the gardens of education of the weak teachers.  

Conservative groups have jumped on the Court’s ruling.  They are emailing union members nationwide informing them that they have a choice to opt out of the union.   The response of these groups to the ruling has been sophisticated and tactical.  Unions have been quick to point out that these efforts are funded by Koch family foundations and Betsy DeVos foundation money.  The organizations are using freedom of info acts to get access to teachers’ email addresses.   Anne Arundel County in Maryland is one of the school districts that has blocked the opt out feature of school emails at the union's request.  Governor Cuomo of NY has signed an executive order preventing the release of the info for NY teachers.  Regardless of the funding source, that does not change the facts on the ground.   Teachers will no longer be required to pay the agency fees and that is going to cost the unions income and membership.  

Does that matter?   Depends on where you sit.   Some people see anything that limits the unions as a good thing.  School administrators are extremely limited in disciplining teachers and removing weak ones by the union agreement.   They cannot require that teachers work a single minute more than what is in the union contract.  A big part of the union representation is that a union will go to bat to protect any teacher regardless of the accusations of wrong-doing with the exception of criminal acts.  Unions, and some teachers, say that is exactly why they need a union because otherwise they would be subject to the whims of administrators and their salaries and benefits would suffer greatly.

On the other hand, lawsuits are currently pending in Maryland and other states by teachers who are demanding the return of the agency fees they have already paid in what they are now saying was an illegal collection in the first place.

So what is the role of a union?   Does it protect the weakest links or does it protect academic freedom? The recent Janus vs. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 is going to make us all consider that question.

An Ill Wind

An ill wind

It is often said that even an ill wind blows some good.  Such is the case with the current employment situation in the United States.  Presently, the U.S. has an aging population and therefore, workers are leaving the workforce. Ordinarily this condition is not a bad thing because that leaves room for the younger members of the population to move into those spots.   Problem is there aren’t enough younger members to join the workforce.  The situation is going to get worse since the number of people immigrating to this country is down considerably and so is the birthrate of those people living here.

As a consequence, businesses cannot expand as much as they would like and some are having difficulty maintaining the status quo.  Capitalism is a creative economic system.  To meet this challenge we are seeing two big changes coming into play. First of all big companies are going all out for AI (artificial intelligence) converting as many operations as possible to robots.  But what about the little guys without millions to spend.

That’s where the good news comes in.   Many potential employees who have been marginalized because of ethnic background and/or perceived disability are getting another look.  That is particularly true with regard to those with disabilities.   Employers have been very slow to hire folks with disabilities.  They often need special training, are not as easily switched to different functions and may not have good attendance.  Bottom line, they need extra work by the employer and if people who require less attention are standing in line for the job why bother.

The truth is that once trained, people with disabilities make terrific employees and employers are finding that out in droves.   More cognitively challenged workers are finding jobs with small convenience stores doing stocking and assisting customers, as checkers in super markets, and in small restaurants that value customer service over speed.  Employers are learning by their own experiences that these employees love their work and are happy to do it.  And just as importantly, they will stay on the job for a long time.

There are also lots of jobs for people on the autism spectrum.  The rigidity is reframed as great attention to detail  Microsoft is discovering the value of workers on the spectrum in programming and organization.  

The unemployment rate for the general population is currently at 4%.   The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is 67%.   That ill will that is blowing across the land might just blow some very good news for people with disabilities.  The times may be a-changing.

Making Money or Doing Good

Making Money or Doing Good

More and more colleges are creating programs for students with disabilities.  Some of these students have cognitive disabilities to the extent that they are intellectually limited.  Still there is a college program out there for these kids.

As of this coming fall, there are 270 colleges with programs specifically targeted for people with intellectual disabilities.  Under typical circumstances these students would not even consider applying to college.  Now they can. So isn’t that a good thing?

Students do not receive a degree for the experience.  Mostly there are only a few dozen or fewer students in the program.  Only some schools allow students to live on campus.  They audit regular college courses and are assisted by peer mentors and university advisors.  They also participate in internships.  Figuring out how to include students with IQ’s at 70 or below is challenging.  Advocates insist that students are experiencing college life and maturing in the process.  These students are also eligible for postsecondary financial loans to pay for the programs, so they can join their typical peers in completing programs steeped in debt.   Most of these programs are only two years long; although Temple has just expanded to a 4-year program.  Parents are demanding more of these programs.  The students are not graded for their academic work and receive modified assignments.  Temple University claims that 60% of graduates are employed, working at day-care centers, restaurants, gyms and at horse farm.  Doesn’t this seem really great?  

Or maybe it is reality delayed.  Students leave these programs having paid regular tuition and with no degree.   I wonder how much socialization goes on between these students and typical age-mates.  Or is it similar to inclusion programs in the lower grades where socialization with students with disabilities is limited to good deed kindness but not invitations to parties.  And are these students prepared for the hard life choices that college students need to make at college parties- to drink or not to drink, have sex or not to have sex?  Are they prepared to protect themselves from predators who might take advantage the disability and their deep desire to belong.   And while I am being cynical, are these programs the response to the law of diminishing return on 18-year old students who each year are becoming a smaller portion of the population and thereby causing freshmen classes everywhere to take a hit.

What is the benefit to the students with disabilities?   Wouldn’t that money be better spent on true training programs that are geared to the young adults abilities rather than putting them in yet another environment where they don’t measure up?  So why are colleges starting these programs-  they want to do good or they want to fill the gap left behind by the reduced number of typical 18-year old students.   You decide.