SDI time

[Penelope]

Hello,

  I am a resource room teacher (and also a parent of a child in special education) with a question about SDI time.  I am struggling a bit to explain my question but here goes... 

  I have several students who are unable to maintain the pace of the general education classroom for math and reading.  They should really be following a hybrid resource/life skills program but logistically that will not work so they are strictly in the resource room/mainstream setting.  Their SDI time is less than their content class time in the mainstream setting.  For example, a reading block is 60 minutes but their SDI time is for 30 minutes.  However, they are truly unable to maintain the pace of the general education classroom instruction because they are so far behind grade level so when they are sent back to the mainstream classroom during that content time, they are completely lost.  The mainstream teachers I work with are fantastic and are knowledgeable about differentiating but our students require much more than just differentiating; they need repeated, consistent, targeted instruction.  I understand the law and needing the LRE for every student but ethically I am struggling with sending them back to a classroom where they are completely lost and unable to do the work.  My administrators have scolded me for suggesting that we extend the SDI time to match the length of the class time , which I understand is illegal, but I don't know how else to support my students while following the law.  Any suggestions or recommendations you may have would really help me, my colleagues, and our students.

Thank you!  

[JSD24]

There are a lot of things that come into play with what you describe.  Students need FAPE with the stress on 'appropriate' in this situation.  They need access.  The IEP needs to be followed too.

It sounds like when they are in the general ed classroom, they don't have access because their skill set is behind.  If they are lost/cannot follow what's going on, that is not the access to LRE that IDEA says they should be getting.  Is a student in a wheelchair watching the gymnastics module in PE really in LRE and getting meaningful benefit?  These students are physically there but they are not getting meaningful benefit.

Without knowing these students, it's hard to say what can be done so they do have access.  Do they need to be pre taught so general ed is a 2nd dose of the same info?  And if they need 2X the amount of exposure to a topic to get benefit, where is that illegal?  What law does this break?  I know of no law like this.

So let's circle back to FAPE.  What is appropriate math & ELA for these students?  Sitting in a room where high level engineering is being discussed isn't going to be appropriate for every college student but they can take a class that covers this but has less need for technical expertise to understand the material and do OK.  This is what it sounds like they need.  Until the IEP says to do something different, you have to follow the IEP - gotta stay in compliance.  Keep in mind that placement is an IEP team decision.  If the IEP isn't FAPE, the team has to rewrite it so that it is.

Are are the student's needs described in the evaluation report?  Does the general ed teacher see that they have access via how they participate?  Does exposure to grade level material have to be in a general ed classroom if the student is so far behind that they don't understand what's being taught in general ed?  If the school doesn't have the support they need, is this the right placement for these students?