school "obligations"

x-no-archive: yes

Okay, here I go (grabs flame-retardant blanket). I believe my husband's and
my obligation is to our child, not to the schools.

We make sure our daughter gets to school fed and reasonably rested, prepared
for school, having done her homework. We support her lessons at home by keeping
aware of what's being taught and helping her if she's either having trouble or
needs more challenge. If she has a project to do for school, we participate in
that by taking her to the library, buying art supplies, or doing whatever else
is needed to support her in getting her project done. If we need to contact the
teacher for more information, we do.

We take part in parent-teacher conferences -- which I do believe is imperative
-- and come to them prepared to share input with our child's teacher and listen
to what the teacher has to say. My husband and I are also lucky enough to have
a flexible enough work schedule that we can and do attend classroom events
(Mother's Day luncheons, Father's Day picnic's, class performances), but we
also recognize that not all parents can. I've driven on a field trip to a play
once, mostly because I wanted to see the play myself and I enjoyed the
opportunity to spend time with my daughter, her teacher, and her class friends.
My daughter liked having me there. I'll probably help in driving the class to a
play again this year, but I don't feel like I "have to" -- it was just a lot of
fun.

We provide additional educational opportunities for our daughter that she
wouldn't be able to get within the school system.

We support our daughter in the extracurricular activities she has committed to.
She's in choir, so we make sure she's at the rehearsals and participates in as
many of the choir activities as is practical. We attend the school choir
concerts. If the choir teacher sends home tapes to learn from, we dig out the
tape player and make sure our daughter spends time practicing.

Our daughter has a mild hearing impairment. I act as an advocate for her in the
school, with my husband backing me up, in setting up a 504 plan for her and
getting her the necessary accommodations. I coordinate the development of the
504 plan with the school nurse, the school audiologist, and her teacher. Our
daughter is gifted, so we also ensure that she has opportunity to take the
appropriate placement tests, including arranging accommodations for the tests
as needed.

I'm sure there's more, but my point is that there's a lot of ways to get
involved in your child's education that have nothing to do with volunteering. I
*do* feel obligated as a parent (happily so) to take part at this level. I'm
imagining that most parents here who are saying they do "nothing" for the
schools are doing at least this much. I don't feel obligated to volunteer in
class or to give money or items to the school. We do buy Christmas wrap,
though.

Whether or not someone judges us is immaterial. My husband and I do what we
believe is right by our child and her school. That's what counts.

beeswing

Beeswing wrote:
: x-no-archive: yes

: Okay, here I go (grabs flame-retardant blanket). I believe my husband's and
: my obligation is to our child, not to the schools.

snip

: Our daughter has a mild hearing impairment. I act as an advocate for her
: in the school, with my husband backing me up, in setting up a 504 plan
: for her and getting her the necessary accommodations. I coordinate the
: development of the 504 plan with the school nurse, the school
: audiologist, and her teacher. Our daughter is gifted, so we also ensure
: that she has opportunity to take the appropriate placement tests,
: including arranging accommodations for the tests as needed.

I find the juxtoposition of these two statements absolutely amazing,
having a kid with special needs myself. Do you know how much extra money
it costs the schools to fund special services to these kids? And then to
say you have no obligation to the schools? Okay, I do find that stunning.
YMMV, but it is *because* of the extra services my son gets that I go out
of my way to help the schools.

Noreen

Beeswing wrote:

Okay, here I go (grabs flame-retardant blanket). I believe my husband's and
my obligation is to our child, not to the schools.


Hear! Hear!

[snip}


I'm sure there's more, but my point is that there's a lot of ways to get
involved in your child's education that have nothing to do with volunteering. I
*do* feel obligated as a parent (happily so) to take part at this level. I'm
imagining that most parents here who are saying they do "nothing" for the
schools are doing at least this much. I don't feel obligated to volunteer in
class or to give money or items to the school. We do buy Christmas wrap,
though.

Whether or not someone judges us is immaterial. My husband and I do what we
believe is right by our child and her school. That's what counts.

beeswing


I've been reading the hijacked Kindergarten thread with bewilderment.
Like Beeswing, I do what is right by my daughter and her education, but
I certainly don't feel it's necessary for every parent to volunteer
(that's why they call it *volunteering* ) at the school. And I
certainly don't judge people by the amount of volunteering they do at
the local school.

Jeanne

Noreen Cooper wrote:

Beeswing wrote: : x-no-archive: yes

: Okay, here I go (grabs flame-retardant blanket). I believe my
: husband's and my obligation is to our child, not to the schools.

snip

: Our daughter has a mild hearing impairment. I act as an advocate for her
: in the school, with my husband backing me up, in setting up a 504 plan
: for her and getting her the necessary accommodations. I coordinate the
: development of the 504 plan with the school nurse, the school
: audiologist, and her teacher. Our daughter is gifted, so we also ensure
: that she has opportunity to take the appropriate placement tests,
: including arranging accommodations for the tests as needed.

I find the juxtoposition of these two statements absolutely amazing,
having a kid with special needs myself. Do you know how much extra money
it costs the schools to fund special services to these kids? And then to
say you have no obligation to the schools? Okay, I do find that stunning.
YMMV, but it is *because* of the extra services my son gets that I go out
of my way to help the schools.

Noreen


She had no obligation because she is a taxpayer and has a right to those
services. Should we make sure that citizens who donate money to the
police department get faster response times than those who don't?

Marion Baumgarten

Marion wrote:

: She had no obligation because she is a taxpayer and has a right to those
: services. Should we make sure that citizens who donate money to the police
: department get faster response times than those who don't?

Ummm...well it you find a magic way to get the feds to belly up, then
maybe you'd have a point. But what happens instead is Special Ed services
are taken out of the general fund for a particular district, with some
state support. In the case of California, that state support is dwindling
faster still. I *know* how much more Special Ed kids cost our district.
It's no small change.

From: http://www.nea.org/specialed/

"Access to a free, quality education is the key to the uniquely American
promise of equal opportunity for all. This promise was formally extended
to children with disabilities with the passage in 1975 of landmark
federal legislation now known as the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA). Public schools across the country today serve more
than 6 million youngsters with a wide array of disabling conditions.
But the promise made in 1975 remains unfulfilled. NEA President Bob Chase
described the major problems facing special education as "mountains of
paperwork, oversized classes, exhausting workloads -- and above all else,
the failure of Congress to fulfill its more than 26-year-old promise to
fund 40 percent of the cost of educating children with special needs."

Ever since its initial enactment, the federal law has included a
commitment to pay 40 percent of the average per student cost for every
special education student. The current average per student cost is $7,320
and the average cost per special education student is an additional
$9,369 per student, or $16,689. Yet, in 2002, the federal government
provides local school districts with 17 percent of its commitment rather
than 40 percent, or $10.5 billion less than the law specifies.

This shortfall creates a burden on local communities and denies full
opportunity to all students -- with and without disabilities"

-----

Noreen

x-no-archive: yes

Noreen wrote:

Ummm...well it you find a magic way to get the feds to belly up, then
maybe you'd have a point. But what happens instead is Special Ed services

For what it's worth, my child is not special ed and does not use special ed
services.

beeswing

"Marion Baumgarten" wrote in message
...
Noreen Cooper wrote:
Beeswing wrote: : x-no-archive: yes
: Our daughter has a mild hearing impairment. I act as an advocate for
her
: in the school, with my husband backing me up, in setting up a 504 plan
: for her and getting her the necessary accommodations. I coordinate the
: development of the 504 plan with the school nurse, the school
: audiologist, and her teacher. Our daughter is gifted, so we also
ensure
: that she has opportunity to take the appropriate placement tests,
: including arranging accommodations for the tests as needed.

I find the juxtoposition of these two statements absolutely amazing,
having a kid with special needs myself. Do you know how much extra
money
it costs the schools to fund special services to these kids? And then
to
say you have no obligation to the schools? Okay, I do find that
stunning.
YMMV, but it is *because* of the extra services my son gets that I go
out
of my way to help the schools.

She had no obligation because she is a taxpayer and has a right to those
services. Should we make sure that citizens who donate money to the
police department get faster response times than those who don't?

Bing bing bing bing! The schools are charged with the task of providing
educational services to *all* children. They are *supposed* to be
fully-funded by tax-revenue to discharge this mission (although, in
practice, they rarely are). No parent whose child attends a public school is
under the *slightest* obligation to assist "the school" in any way--not by
volunteering his/her time, not by giving money to the PTA or participating
in fundraisers, not by giving books to the library, etc. Parents *are*, of
course, under an obligation to participate in their children's education
(and sadly, many do not), but one does not have to do anything for "the
school" to achieve this objective.

If parents *want* to help the schools and, by extension, all of the kids who
attend it, that's all to the good, of course. It's noble and generous. But
no parent is *required* to do so, even if their child utilizes expensive
special education services. What, shall we only give such services to the
children of parents who can afford to give either time or money to the
school?

FWIW, my husband is on the Site Council for our school. Whenever a
fundraiser comes along, I write a check in lieu of hawking overpriced
merchandise to family and friends. But we don't do these things because we
feel we *have to* but because we *want to*.

Now, having said that, I have to admit that I believe we tend to shoot
ourselves in the foot when we pad the schools' coffers with charitable
donations. Because every time we do so, we're effectively telling government
that it doesn't have to spend as much on schools as the schools actually
*need* because parents and local businesses will take up the slack. And, of
course, poor schools suffer disproportionately when funding is inadequate
because there is less money in the community to make up the difference. If
we truly *want* our public schools to be fully funded by tax dollars and
therefore ensure *equality* of funding across schools, we have to stop
putting extra money in the kitty.
--
Be well, Barbara
(Julian [6], Aurora [4], and Vernon's [17mo] mom)
See us at http://photos.yahoo.com/guavaln

This week's special at the English Language Butcher Shop:
"...we patiently sat by his door, waiting for it to open so he could tell us
all about who he had met" -- from _Uncle Andy's_ by James Warhola

nd therefore not suffering enough academically, my husband and I
might have to foot the bill personally for the $800 sound-field system to
ensure that my daughter can adequately hear the teacher.

You shouldnt have to pay for this....is your daughter under 504? There is
nothing stated that the kids have to be suffering academically in order to have
the modifications made for hearing impairments. Does she wear aids?
My daughter uses an FM system in conjunction with her aids...never looked into
the sound field. Do you know off hand what the advantage may be?
Kathi

Noreen Cooper wrote in message ...
Marion wrote:

: She had no obligation because she is a taxpayer and has a right to those
: services. Should we make sure that citizens who donate money to the police
: department get faster response times than those who don't?

Ummm...well it you find a magic way to get the feds to belly up, then
maybe you'd have a point. But what happens instead is Special Ed services
are taken out of the general fund for a particular district, with some
state support. In the case of California, that state support is dwindling
faster still. I *know* how much more Special Ed kids cost our district.
It's no small change.

The greatest reason for why sped costs so much is that every kid in
the schools has a diagnosis these days. 20 years ago, you had
dyslexia, vision impaired, hearing impaired, MR and ED kids. That was
a fair chunk of kids in SPED, but nowhere NEAR what there is now. In
many states, ADHD alone is cause for an IEP. SIDS is now considered a
SPED diagnosis. NVLD is a new one. APD are also fairly new on the
diagnosis list.

I'm not saying that these aren't legit reasons for help, but
realistically, if every parent of a kid with a quirk starts demanding
an IEP (and all a parent really has to do is demand an assessment to
get an assessment), the cost of SPED skyrockets. As a parent of one
IEP child and one 504 child, I'm keenly aware that my kids are costing
my community extra money. I'm also keenly aware that it is my
responsibility as a parent to get MY children the extra help they
need. I don't expect, nor do I trust the schools to fund all of my
children's extra help. For example, my daughter goes to a private
speech and language specialist for her CAPD. She does this because the
school *cannot* provide the level of help my child needs, nor do I
believe that the person hired by the school would be the right person
to work with my time. This is my responsibility as a parent.

But I highly doubt that I'm in the majority on this way of thinking.
Most parents believe that the schools are there not only to teach, but
to support their child's special needs. Schools should provide
accomodations, just like IDEA says they should, but I do not believe
that schools are funded for, have the expertise in, and the time
planned for PT, OT, SLT, etc., and parents who count on the schools to
provide all this help without paying extra for the privilege are
deluding themselves.

Why would *any* parent, when they know that with this economy schools
are especially strapped for cash, think that their child should get
special services gratis? Schools are for *educating* children, not
providing health services.

Marjorie

chiam margalit wrote:
The greatest reason for why sped costs so much is that every kid in
the schools has a diagnosis these days.

I think it's partly a circular phenomenon.
For whatever reason, the school isn't meeting a child's needs, so the
parents get an IEP for that student, then other parents see that the
school is doing better for the children with IEPs, so *they* get IEPs, and
so on. Maybe, if schools could be more accomodating in the first place,
parents wouldn't feel the need to go through the added cost of IEPs and
SPED in order to get their kids a decent education.
As I said, my husband reports that when he was growing up, most of the
gifted students had some form of IEP/sped, because that was the only way
to get special services for the gifted students.

There's also a matter that schools are now expected to educate everybody,
rather than just warehousing disabled students or expelling troublemakers.
It's a societal change in expectations of what minority students deserve
(and I'm including the disabled as special ed).
[Sunday's Boston Globe article had an article on this aspect. To quote:
So much has changed, and so quickly, that it is difficult even to
recall practices that were taken for granted barely two generations ago.
Consider what was commonplace in education. School principals in the
Southwest expelled students who dared to speak Spanish on the
playground, and the same treatment was given to native French-speakers
in Louisiana. Miscreant students had fewer rights than accused
criminals. Athletics was a boys' club, with girls relegated to the
cheerleading squad. Native American children were shipped off to
government-run boarding schools, where they were drugged with Ritalin
into submissiveness as their history and traditions leeched out of them.
Mildly retarded or emotionally troubled youngsters got little more than
babysitting in classrooms far from ``normal'' students. Severely
disabled youngsters, regarded as ``uneducable,'' were locked away in
institutions or left to vegetate at home.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/08/24/the_other_civil_rights_movement/

Finally, I think schools have become more rigid in certain aspects.
Have you ever read Thom Hartmann's Hunter/Farmer metaphor for ADHD?
Given the percentage of children who have ADHD, our schools are not being
designed to accommodate such students *without* bringing IEPs into the
picture.

For example, as academic requirements have increased, budgets have
decreased, and schools try to squeeze in more learning without increasing
hours, recess and physical education are frequently eliminated, giving
energetic children fewer chances to burn off excess energy, possibly
*increasing* problems in class. [Can you imagine a full workday without
any break?]
And don't get me started on lengthy high-stakes pass-fail multiple-choice tests.


--
------ Elisabeth Riba * http://www.osmond-riba.org/lis/ ------
"[She] is one of the secret masters of the world: a librarian.
They control information. Don't ever **** one off."
- Spider Robinson, "Callahan Touch"