by Rick Colosimo on February 19, 2010
Jen Laviano (@JenLaviano) has a post up this week that mentions my un-favorite urban legend about autism: that there are parents who get their kids a diagnosis so that they can get “extra help” from their school district.
Jen talks about having discussions with parents, friends, relatives, teachers, etc. to explain the value of special education laws and our goals of educating kids who fall into these statutory groups.
Jen, it’s not just friends and acquaintances who ask strange questions with missing premises. The anguish some parents feel is simply incomprehensible for parents of typical kids. I have colleagues, some of whom are also lawyers, and who I know/believe to be generally kind people.
Yet they will repeat (more than once) this urban legend about parents wanting to have their children classified so that their kids will get extra services in school. I have yet to meet one of these parents, of course. I doubt that the benefits of “extra help” will ever overcome the stigma of “special ed” in any parent so focused on the outcome for her typical child.
If you don’t think “special ed” carries any stigma, search twitter for #specialed and see what pops up from people outside of advocates, lawyers, and parents. These folks had to type that in on purpose.
I gently remind them that while that is a hypothetical possibility, it’s easy enough to identify far too many children whose deficits are so great that it absolutely interferes with their daily existence. “Like my son,” I say.
Perhaps that’s one of many “next jobs” on this front: identify these parents so ignorant of the label that they will push NT kids into our wonderfully effective special education system. Because then I can send all my clients’ kids to that school district where special ed works so well.
by Rick Colosimo on January 15, 2010
“Ignite” talks are presentations composed of 15 slides that automatically rotate every 20 seconds, meaning they’re only 5 minutes long.
Since I’ve been working on a similarly sized presentation to introduce my ideas on a comprehensive ASD curriculum planning & tracking tool, and since March 1-4 is Global Ignite Week, I wondered whether there are others in our community who would like to present a short presentation in this style.
There’s certainly more that can be done, but perhaps some focus might be an interesting way to get ideas on the table and excite each other about what we’re thinking in the background.
Please leave a comment if you’re interested in presenting or helping organize such an event. If there are only a few of us, perhaps we’ll piggyback on some NYC events that same week.
by Rick Colosimo on January 11, 2010
This article on the siphoning of stimulus funds for special education to general education is one of the few I’ve seen in the WSJ on special education. By itself, I think that’s a major achievement — it means that special education and the plight of students and the often under-funded special education departments is getting more attention.
My fear is that even good people, friends and relatives, colleagues and classmates, will see this as a good idea, as a way to protect general education kids. My fear is that they won’t think about the tremendous needs of so many of our children, not just those on the spectrum but also those with other developmental disabilities, those who are deaf and blind, those with dramatic medical problems.
This isn’t “budget realignment;” this isn’t “creative accounting:” this is stealing the future from these kids. If our “educators” do this indirectly now, how long until they do it directly? Is it just a matter of time?
