Behavior supports in classroom

[Guest guest]

Dear Ladies,

I need help. I am Noah's grandmother. Noah is almost eight, and he

is finishing his year of kindergarten. It would take a book to tell

you about this year. It has been a struggle with his school. There

have been days that I have wanted to step out in my yard and SCREAM.

What it comes down to is behavior issues. At the beginning of the

year he simply dropped to the floor and would not comply with the

requests of his aide...teacher, whomever. Because the school

reacted incorrectly this behavior worsened to pushing over things and

pulling things off the wall and running away. The first semester was

horrendous because the plan they devised increased his transitions to

17 (YES 17!!!)and placed him with his untrained aide for most of the

day out of the classroom.

Finally help arrived--Easter Seals sent two education consultants and

made wonderful recommendations and well, to make a long story short,

the school did not implement the recommendations so we asked E.S. to

return. This time they asked among other things for a state dept. of

educ. behavior specialist to be assigned to Noah. This resulted in a

shortened day for Noah where most of this short day is spent in a

resource room. He is in the reg. classroom for 30 min--15 of those

minutes are at the computer playing an educational game and the other

15 min. are spent in preparation for lunch. He goes to lunch with

classmates and then to recess. After recess he goes to speech and

then home. His day starts at 9:20 and ends at 12:40. This was to

be a temporary solution in order to get his behavior corrected. When

his behavior was under control for two weeks in a row 15 minutes

would be added to his schedule.

For next year it has been determined that he will start with a

shortened day--8am to 12noon. Again very little time will be spent

in the reg. classroom. Ladies: I need suggestions of supports that

will enable him to be in the reg. ed. classroom successfully. He is

moving on to first grade. I am not sure that is best, kindergarten

is not what it used to be. Our school is a Reading First school and

K is more like first grade used to be.

Please ladies, I need help. If someone has experienced a situation

similar to mine or because of your knowledge of resources, please, I

would love to continute this conversation privately. I must also add

that I live in a small town in a southern state, and I have heard the

following words so many times I could SCREAM: " This is the way we do

it. "

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Debbie Henry

Noah's Bebe