My intelligent and verbal but impulsive autistic (and ADHD) son is in 4th grade general education in Texas. He was issued a school Chromebook and it's a distraction to him that is harming his ability to focus on class. The teachers and classroom support sometimes take it from him to help him.

It's really only a few websites and search terms that are a problem. I would like the ability to block individual websites and search terms but the staff at the school say that it's not possible. I've also asked for the ability to provide him with a Chromebook that he could use at school and they said no.

Is there any legal basis to demand that this ability be enabled for his teachers and I so that he can have the same opportunity to focus as other students without impulsivity and ADHD problems?

He is extremely polite, doesn't make any waves and masks very well. It takes teachers a long time to notice he isn't understanding what is being taught, and has not mastered the previous skills necessary to learn current subjects. His classes are large-ish (30+ kids) and some have a co teacher, but we still feel he spends the bulk of his time in class simply being babysat. He's in seventh grade, but only copies down a word in the time it takes the other kids in his class to write several sentences. He is in classes teaching integers and formulas, but can't multiply double digits. His English class is writing essays, and his IEP goal for next year is to write five sentences independently (currently barely writing three.)

The district just recently did a SCIA evaluation, in it his case worker stated he needs adult assistance 100% of the time in academic subjects. They still denied the SCIA and have zero SPED classes besides one class (which takes place of an elective) every other day to focus on the work he is assigned. We're trying to toe the line between being overbearing parents and fighting for a FAPE for our son.

Any advice appreciated, thanks.

P.S. We don't blame the teachers at all. They have large classes, many children to attend to, and they are great with him. They need help, and so does he.

I have been applying for jobs, some for Ed Tech III's (paraprofessionals) and school based bhp's. I believe the Ed Tech III pays slightly higher. Is it better to work for a school district directly or for a behavioral health agency? What have your experiences been like?

These decodable texts man 🤦‍♀️

A question - is it ever appropriate for two young people (16f and 21m) to be sitting in class kissing and caressing each other throughout the day, every day? 16f needs 21m to “stroke her to stop her from stimming” say staff. School is in the UK.

Student moves in the middle of a sped eval, what happens? Can the receiving school change the assessment plan/remove areas of suspected disability?

Last time I subbed sped, which I did not realize I was doing, I was assigned to a non verbal third grader. This would be fine except this individual child when frustrated, which was often, would grab for my throat. Not once in a while, this was every few minutes. He would literally try to choke me. There’s two things I will not do in my job, change diapers and allow myself to be abused. I’ve experienced that before and there are no benefits to working with such a child. I’m not trained to work with sped children, nor am I trained in proper restraint techniques, etc. The risks far outweigh any feel good pros and I’m held responsible if that child hurts other students or himself. I mentioned this behavior to the main sped educator in the classroom and her response was a casual, “yeah, he does that.” I stood up for myself and let her know this behavior was unacceptable and not something I was willing to put up with. While she didn’t say anything specifically, she became noticeably irate. Very passive aggressive. She even made me give her back the pen I had borrowed for the day. She assigned me to a different child. Everything was fine but I felt that dark cloud over me the rest of the day from her and the other SPED staff. I’m pretty sure he was assigned to me in the first place because no one else wanted to deal with him. I believe every child deserves an education but I’m not necessarily the one able to provide it in all situations. I passed my feelings on to HR and they were very supportive of me. Bless those of you willing and capable of working with this population.

I got an email today from the SpEd supervisor. Kid's autism support teacher and case manager (teaches in self contained room, but not all students are in AS class for all subjects) is being transferred to another building. Replacement teacher is a current EA in the autism support program.

I go to state website to make sure she's actually licensed. She's got a license for all subjects in 5-6, but only math in 7-8. (Class is autism support 6-8.)

I have a feeling, due to the special education shortage, that the answer to "is this legal?" is going to be "there's a waiver for that" (I'm in PA, by the way) although a friend says it's not legal in hers. However, I am particularly concerned over having someone with no special education license as case manager and writing an IEP. Is this allowed? And what the heck can/should I do when IEP meeting comes around in a few months?

Gen ed teacher here, lots of kids w/ IEPs. Mostly ADHD. I've been seeing this issue a lot with students who have extended time. I remind them (usually several times) that they have extended time, that they can and should take their time, they should reread the question, etc etc.

But time and time again, they finish the test extremely quickly and wind up with a poor score.

Any advice on teaching them to slow down? Or just test-taking skills in general?

Hi All,

I'm a first year teacher who was just recently given Rules Based Reading as a class after attending a 3 day training. I have two students in particular who have very little problem decoding words, but have difficulty with defining words and reading comprehension. Unless I misunderstand, the Wilson Reading System focuses a lot on decoding (which they do not need much assistance with) so how else is Rules Based Reading done? I'm unsure how to move forward with those students as my 3 day training focused on how to teach decoding skills.

I work as a general in a kindergarten class and just started taking classes to become certified in special education, so I still have a lot to learn. the class is small, only 13 kids, but there is a diagnosed autistic child in the classroom who frequently elopes, climbs on tables and chairs, hits other students when she wants something they have, and has some stims that can be dangerous if left unmonitored. she also uses an AAC. the school has refused to acknowledge she needs a para (pretty sure because they don't want to hire someone else). we have taken data and had her observed with no luck. she has an IEP already. the rest of the kindergarten team is in agreement that she needs supports that she is not getting. we've been trying since we met her in ESY this year. any advice on next steps?

edit: thank you all so much for your insight and advice! I will definitely be talking with the classroom teacher about everything you've shared. she is new to working with special education students so it's been a learning curve for sure, but we both care a lot about getting this student the support she deserves. thank you!

Sped teacher emailed to say that my child pretended to faint in class and gave everyone a scare and that I need to talk to him to discuss how that is not okay. She wrote that the paras said he was pretty convincing. I asked her what was going in the class that caused him to do this. She said she didn't know as she wasn't there. I asked if he got checked out by the nurse. She said no. Regardless if he says he's okay, shouldn't he have been seen by the nurse? And isn't it common sense to understand why he would do that?

Are there any good subreddits where I can ask about reading? Thanks.

I’m trying to figure out if my high school is “the norm” or not. We offer “English Strategies” (the names for pull-out English classes for student who can’t access the gened English classes/have reading and/or writing service minutes in their IEPs), which is utilized by a wide variety of SpEd students- I’d estimate mostly setting 2 and 3 students.

These classes have had a bit of an identity crisis in the years since I’ve worked at my site. When I started they were open to all grades and all reading levels, they’d be coded in the system as “English Strategies 9” for students in 9th grade so they could take a “new course” every year, and we tried to keep kids in with others in their grade but it was a loose system.

Myself and other teachers opted to do a comprehensive literacy training which really opened my eyes to this system being impractical. Based on the science of reading, students should be grouped based on their reading level and reading needs so no student is expected to read material that is beyond there capacity to read independently.

I proposed changing the system to admin, who were somewhat on board. However, the first problem is that we couldn’t change the name of the class- we only had the coding for English Strategies 9, 10, 11, and 12. We couldn’t do English Strategies 1, or otherwise create an easier system to show which “level” the class was. This led to kids being placed in class based in their grade level and not their actual reading abilities.

Second, admin didn’t understand how to gauge reading level and came in thinking we were going to somehow align with both “grade level state standards” and gen-ed standards. IE- using 2nd grade literature standards and somehow combining them with 9th grade ELA standards. Myself and other teachers tried to explain that this was not the intent-it would be more based on phonics, morphology, and comprehension, etc.

I have continued to get push back (mainly from admin, but sometimes from veteran teachers) to the idea of placing students in pullout classes based on there reading level so texts can be prepared that they can read mostly independent.

Other details: Classes cap at 15- but can be smaller. So it isn’t so much a “small group” that can get individualized lessons. All students are integrated, so the English teacher likely only teaches English and there isn’t one dedicated SEA to the room. The school is a Title 1 school and had general problems with students reading below grade level.

TLDR: How are pullout ELA courses organized at your school? How is it determined that a student is placed in one course over another? And, does it feel like this system “works” at your school?

I am an autism SEA in a high school history class. One student was just fine in the course, doing assignments and making them up.

In the past week and a half ( before thanksgiving) it seems he is doing work refusal in many classes. Just sitting still ignoring my prompts to do anything. At all. He just sort of shrugs and says he’ll do whatever he wants.

It almost seems like im watching a stone slowly sink in the lake with him and his grades. Short of dragging him to do the work, it is not going to get done now.

My mom had a great idea though ( she has a background in special Ed). She said I should do a “ first, then” reward based system with this kid and give him just two assignment to do and he can choose one. That way he feels less overwhelmed.

What causes work refusal? What strategies to stop it? Thanks

Recently my job decided they would up the level of support and have veteran teacher coach me in my classroom. They are my closest friend there so when she came today she took over the class and I watched. I didn’t jump in at all but we were down a staff. It was so chaoct. Then the afternoon came and I had to help because my student had big behavior episodes and the last one we almost called 911 because they were bleeding everywhere . Mom had to pick them up because we didn’t want to do a hold it was way to much.She is going to advocate for another staff because there is no way we can do it with 3. If they were older than it would be different because they would be used to school and general classroom rules. I’m happy that she sees it and will advocate for me because the admin made me feel incapable and I’m clearly not.

here’s mine:

every once in a while when my kids go to specials & I don’t have meetings, i’ll take a nap in my calm down area if i’m exhausted.

one reason I like to work with the nonverbal kids is they don’t talk back to me like the rowdy gen ed kids do.

on the outside i’m patient & not taking their behavior personal but on the inside i’ve head butted a butterknife bc i get sick of it.

I don’t mind that every day is “groundhog day” in my class!

what’s yours??

My personal stance has always been to try and use part of my planning period to complete IEPs. If it goes beyond that window, I'll spend the final 30 minutes of class writing them and give students work to do. I don't want to bring the work home.

I'm curious as to what you guys do.

I work with a 5 year old ASD student in her classroom. She has a habit of pushing off her responsibilities and then not following through. For example, she hates going potty so when I tell her it’s time to go change her pull-up she will say something like “first snack, then potty”. The problem is, is that if you agree she will eat snack and then run away and still throw a tantrum when it’s time for potty.

I want her to understand that I want to listen and respect her words as well as foster independence in her but right now I don’t trust her to follow through and keep her promises.

How would you help teach that lesson?

I’m a school social worker, I’m currently covering for part of a colleague’s caseload while they are on temporary leave. I was given their schedule for when they see students and told teachers I’d keep the schedule the same as much as possible. As it turns out, this social worker has been providing nearly all push-in minutes where they essentially just… sit next to the student during an academic portion of the day. For some kids this could make sense, such as those with goals about focus or staying on task, but the service would still not really teach the students HOW to improve in this area. Further, there are some students where the goal is a social/peer goal which is impossible to work on during that time. Additionally, teachers have reported to me that the SW often just sits on their computer for the entire time and does not really interact with the children. My question is, do I have an ethical obligation to report this to the principal or the SPED director? Teachers have shared that they did complain in the past to the principal so I know it was reported. But IMO this social worker is essentially committing fraud by recording these as SW IEP minutes.

Hi, all,

I work alternative placement at a school for kids with ASD. My job is cheap as hell and doesn't pay paras crap, so we just can't hire anyone. Meanwhile, we've lost some staff. I was told that ratio doesn't exist anymore and we've just got to make it work.

There should only be 3 students to 1 staff but I routinely have 4 just for me and 1 of those students should be a 1:1. Some of my students spend all day sitting in an admins office because we have no one to be a 1:1 for them. There's been days I'm alone with like 6 students with 1-2 of those students supposed to be 1:1s. It may only be for a few minutes while the only other staff goes to the bathroom or something, but it still feels crazy.

My bosses are done with me bringing up staffing concerns, but I also don't know what to tell them when they ask how I can be supported or solve problems. It's literally just staffing. I got a glowing teacher evaluation, I'm known to have great classroom management, but even as a strong teacher I can only be pushed so far before things start to fall through the cracks.

Is anyone else in a situation like this? How the heck are we operating? I'd quit but I've tried working all kinds of places and increasingly this seems to be everywhere. But yeah. Idk what to do.

I have a conduct student, and the only way he will refrain from hurting others and being an absolute monster is if there is the reward of lunch with the teacher. I am NOT willing to give up the 20-30 minutes that keep me sane, but at the same time, I need to find a way to stop him from being violent. He also has his lunches in the cafeteria, so if he doesn't show up, then they mark him down as missing. I also have an entirely new batch of students during the time he should be at lunch. I'm exhausted and I honestly just don't know what to do at this point. The other sped teacher that works with him gave in on this a lot so he's used to getting what he wants in this department.

I would appreciate ANY ideas on what to do at this point...

Its only December, but am wondering if special ed is needed for first grade. No academic concerns at all just a lot of behavioral ones.

Son is nearly 5 and half year old and in Kindergarten now after 2 years of half day preschool.

At first parent teacher conference (last Nov), teacher mentioned child is disruptive (talks when not supposed to) and has troubling focusing.

Recommended evaluation by developmental pediatrician (scheduled and trying to get done sooner)

Asked teacher if EIP was warranted she said no; he does extremely well academically (reading, spelling, math). His only issue is behavior (IMO the most important one)

Outside of lack of attention, there was no behavioral issues in pre school (only half day)

I have 8 non-verbal students 7 on AAC devices and 4 are brand new to them. The slp is great but only wants to do push in and my class is so hectic that those new friends can’t even concentrate on anything. Its also would help significantly because my students all love this guy and it’s redirecting them away from them so it’s just distracting. I have mentioned that having a quiet place to really get to know visuals and AAC would be beneficial. I went to school for speech (decided to drop) so I know how imperative it is to really have a calming environment so they can learn how to communicate. The slp said that’s not how they like to do it. The BCBA also agreed because all my student behaviors are around communication and they aren’t getting to utilize the devices in a separate location to see if they even understand how to use it. Even if it’s 1 session out and 1 session in. There’s also a student whose mom is mad that they are doing push-in because of that reason.

I don’t have the paperwork in front of me at the moment but I am currently grading a CTOPP 2. The student got more than 4 errors on the rapid letter naming. The manual says do not score this subtest if they have 4 or more errors.

So do I literally leave it blank or do plug in a 0? My gut says leave it blank but want to double check as I’ve never had a student do that poorly on this subtest before. I don’t have a ton of guidance at my school (working on it) so I appreciate any help.

Thanks

I think it pretty much happened to me, like as a person who has autism, back in the school that I went to from K-1st grade, they straight up said to my parents that I don't have capacity to learn in regular classes and I honestly feel quite dumbfounded by this. And made my parents have way less faith in me in education.

Has this happened to anyone else similar to this?

Starting in January of this year, I have been applying for jobs (like assistant teacher and teacher aide jobs, where in my state, you don’t need to take any type of test or anything. You just need a high school degree and some experience working with kids) to help me get my foot in the door to a education career. My bachelors is not in an education-related field (mass communications), but I have been working part-time at a tutoring center working one on one with kids and in group settings as well for a little under three years after graduating from college in 2021. For context, I live in a blue state in the northeast United States.

These few things have happened to me during my job hunt : A: I apply and get ghosted. B: I apply, get an interview and then get ghosted until I have to reach out to them to see what’s going on. C: I apply, get an interview, but there is some stuff they leave out (like pay, having no benefits, etc.) that makes me back off.

I have the experience, and I keep hearing about how schools need aides, they need the help, etc.. Okay.. so why do schools take so long to reply to applicants, want to give them low pay and no benefits, or even never follow up with applicants after applying/after an interview and have to repost the same job posting over and over because schools cant find anyone! (I see this quite often!)

I always prepare before these interviews too, with flashcards and practicing with my parents, because I know with myself having ASD, my verbal skills aren’t the greatest, but I do work on improving my interviewing skills whenever I can.

This whole experience is just immensely frustrating. I’m grateful to have a my tutoring job in this crappy job market we have now, and I live at home, but this is just discouraging. I’d like to branch out beyond part time work, but that seems difficult.

Jesus Christ. Even writing this makes my heart pound. The TLDR, if you don't want to read further-- (I'm sure you're all very busy! And it's a rough read, I wouldn't blame you if you opted out!)-- is that I struggle with PTSD. It makes my college life a living hell. I probably need some sort of accommodation. But my PTSD makes me afraid to even ask for one.

Apologies for the incoming trauma dump, but I feel like it's a bit necessary to explain just how bad this past situation got. Trigger warning for multiple types of childhood trauma. (And before anybody here stresses out-- I have a therapist & medication, I promise!)

I'm not enrolled in college right now, but I hope to be within the next year or so. (Financials are rough.) I did my first semester earlier this year and while I kept up with most of the work as it was all online & did well on presentations, I kept having trouble actually going to school due to PTSD.

The issue is this: school itself is a PTSD trigger for me.

I was born disabled and had many bad experiences with SpEd over the course of years; primarily in grades 7 and under. And it wasn't like "Oh, a teacher was mean to me" or anything stupid like that, it was like... a lot of in-fighting and violence between my peers & I. Which I wasn't allowed to escape due to my school not wanting SpEd & General Ed kids to interact too often, even though I was never the type to make trouble or have too many social issues or anything. We were extremely isolated and I noticed it when I was still very young. (4 years old?)

!Teachers would often put us SpEd kids against each other & play favorites? Didn't model acceptance or understanding that well-- we were so bad that an Autistic non-speaking immigrant kid had to switch schools by Grade 4 for his safety. A lot of staff treated disability like it was too taboo to even be talked about or seen, and that definitely trickled down to us.!<

!Some adults specifically treated me like the golden child of the room, because I needed far less support than the other kids. They'd straight-up compare struggling kids to me, like, "Why can't you all be more like Jonah?!" Which only made my bullies even angrier with me

(Also made ME pretty anxious to ever slip up and lose my standing with them.) To make a long story short, the unchecked ableism and bullying escalated into sexual abuse by Grade 6. They harassed and assaulted me for almost a year straight. But because of the adults' previous misdeeds, I had 0 faith that telling any of them would help me.!<

!I've been forcefed foods I didn't wanna try by paras unnecessarily before, made to lie on school surveys so we would look better than we were, a para physically grabbed me the first time I ever had a panic attack even though I wasn't hurting anybody, etc. I was also almost ran to death by another student more than once. (I'm a severe Asthmatic; I can't run too much, but he was chasing me, so I had to. This was also in Grade 6, and given what my bullies were doing to me every day, let's just say I was absolutely terrified of what could happen if this boy-- who was from the SpEd class a year under me-- ever caught me. So I would just run and run around the halls coming up from Adapted Phys Ed with him in an attempt to confuse him about where I was headed, to the point where I collapsed multiple times and had to fumble for my inhaler. Sometimes, I genuinely feared that I would suffocate and die in those halls.) I reported him 4 times over the course of 10 months, but nothing was done. Eventually in October of grade 7, I felt forced to attack him outside of school on the streets myself.!<

This isn't everything that haunts me. But you get the point. That place genuinely made me feel like my life was in danger. I'm in my 20s now and still shocked I'm not dead. But they always said that SpEd was a place meant to help me, so... my brain learned to associate needing/getting "help or support" with being in danger. And while I transferred into General Ed from Grade 8 onwards, I started struggling with PTSD symptoms around March of that year. At first, it was only every once in a blue moon. But it followed me into high school and kinda just... eroded my ability to succeed.

I'd do well for a while. But if I didn't understand something or found a class going too fast for me, I just FROZE. I wouldn't turn things in because I knew that failing makes you wind up in the SpEd room, and I didn't want to put my best effort in just for that to happen anyway. I didn't dare ask for help because I couldn't shake the idea that doing so would get me isolated and hurt again. And doing literally anything that not everybody had to do (IE: tutoring) made me get embarrassed at best and fearful at worst. It got to the point where I even quit doing school for a while. I didn't drop out, I just... vanished. I just couldn't do it anymore.

My high school GPA is embarrassingly low because of all that, and while some teachers did try to help me, that just scared me even more. Even my friends noticed. And yeah, I felt bad because they weren't bad like my old ones, yet I was probably making their jobs difficult with no context on their end. But... I didn't wanna explain to them how afraid of teachers I was. Or the real reason needing help scared me. It just felt so stupid. And I didn't want somebody to put me through hell just because I needed help with stuff again. So I kept my mouth shut, and... they couldn't reach me that way. I graduated on time, but with some awful scores.

I don't want that to repeat further in college. But I can't just NOT go; I can't just let this disorder get in my way forever! I'm 21 already and only have one semester of college under my belt with atrocious attendance, and I know I'm better than that. But I struggle with math & science courses sometimes, and the image of a near-empty classroom + 2 teachers sends me back in time. And when I was met with those in my first semester... that old terror just came back. And it's not as strong as before, nowhere close. But it's still a lot. My college is a pretty safe place, but I still skipped a lot of days.

And I hate admitting this, but I don't think it's realistic for me to be held to all the same standards as everybody else under these conditions anymore. I'm doing my best, but I can't work like this. School really is harder for me than it is for other people. I'm gonna need extensions, or maybe extra time on tests for things like Statistics. And at least I'm at a place where I don't beat myself up for that anymore; it's not my fault those people messed my brain up so badly.

But enough rambling. Here's the thing I think I need you guys' help on.

1. How the hell am I supposed to ask for accommodations or "special help" when that's literally exactly what I'm afraid of? It's like no matter how much time passes, my brain is convinced that any form of SpEd is gonna put me through pain I can't handle. I know you're all here to help, but so were the people who educated me as a kid, you know? Even if college is different, I can't trust ANY school that easily, anymore.

2. Is there maybe some accomodation or even alternative form of education I should consider asking for/doing that I'm not thinking about? Like... online school WAS easier for me, to be honest. But I'm kinda worried I'll coop myself up like a hermit if I pursue that entirely. What would yall do for someone like this?

Thank you SO MUCH if you read this in full, let alone reply. You all have bigger impacts on students than you know. And I guess that's pretty grim in MY context, but I lurk in here a lot, actually. I know that at least some of you would've done a little better for me, or any of your current students than the people I got.