Pages
▼
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Disproportionate representation - Blog #4
This is a very interesting topic for me to discuss. The reason is that for my project in our other class I learned from my students parent that Pennsylvania is notorious for the over identification of its students qualifying for special education services. For the purposes of this blog, I didn't research the accuracy of that statement. However, based upon what we have learned from our reading, I suspect that any district would love the opportunity to inflate their numbers regarding students requiring services. The logic is simple to compute once you learn that every district receives additional state funding per student with disabilities. For instance, you can triple or sometimes quadruple the revenue per student that qualifies for services. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the temptation in that. When you are already a lower income school district that struggles with increasing your capital by utilizing the traditional methods like levies and fundraisers, you might be inclined to fudge the numbers. Now, unfortunately I don't want to stereotype any group, but we all know that the African-american population tends to be among the largest cohort that falls into that low socio-economic status. This explains why we have learned that young black males are among the most disproportionately accounted for group in special education. Take for instance, Youngstown City Schools, which is quite a mess. For example, because of poor parental involvement in the schools and community, you have horrible results for levies, fundraisers and the like. The teachers are completely overwhelmed with the job in front of them due to lack of support from across the board. I guess, simply put, it's a systemic failure from the word "Go!" Where is the school going to get any funding from now? Where is the teacher going to get support from now? At least by putting these kids on IEP's, they will get some of the attention they are not receiving at home. The same thing has been going on fifty miles away in Cleveland for just as long. Their inner city schools are grossly under-staffed and supported. The sad thing is that these children probably don't need special education services, they need a good home.
Anthony, I agree with your last statement that many of the children in Youngstown City Schools don't need special education services but just need a good home. I saw this in my 10 years I worked at Warren City Schools. Many of my frequent flyers in the health clinic came from impoverished homes. The school health clinic was a safe zone for them. Many students felt comfortable talking about their problems in their home. It was so upsetting to hear what some of them had to deal with at home. As stated in my blog, many do not have the "luxury of just having to go home and do their homework or study for a test. They do not have any support at home. I just have to wonder if my 3 kids would have been as successful in school if they did not have the supportive parents they had. We are paying for special education services for many students when what they really need is support and help at home.
ReplyDeleteI was very shocked and surprised about what occurs when politics or financial gain comes into play when it comes to helping out over identification of diagnosis with students with special needs. I am not a parent nor am I an educator so I do not have to much knowledge when it comes to how schools are funded. I am from Sharon,Pennsylvania and the schools that I attended as a child/teenager and also worked out of (Mercer County area) did well financially but don't get me wrong,,extra funds that came in were highly valued and appreciated. I also did notice though that when I worked with children with special needs some of them had extra diagnosis and I agree that was occurring so extra funds can come in and assist the school but I also did see parents/families gain financially because they were able to get more money to assist themselves with. I felt like my hands were tied because I would speak up for the child but nothing was being done to hear my concerns. I agree,Anthony, that special needs children need love, support and a guiding hand to prosper while gaining an education and it is up to us to lead them on the right path toward achieving it.
ReplyDeleteI believe that a good home life is crucial for students to succeed in school. That is not to say that students cannot succeed without parent involvement, but it is probably more difficult for them.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you and think schools are too quick to label students as special needs because of additional funding they will receive.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe saddest part is that no one unlike us will give these kids an opportunity to succeed in life. The fact that schools are understaffed is heart breaking
ReplyDelete