Mainstreaming

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 9/19/00 7:32:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

KenandJane@... writes:

<< Now she has a new teacher and she tells me that the Harrington

Park school that Meg would be mainstreamed in wants to have an in-service

before any of the kids come over. It seems to me they're not too thrilled

about it. Meghan is definitely ready for mainstreaming. I have a videotape

of her from June at her sister's b'day party at Tumble Bee and she did

great, following directions. You wouldn't be able to pick her out from the

crowd. In fact, she did better than many of the NT children!! Academically

she is at or above age level. It just seems they're dragging they're feet

and I don't want her to miss the boat. I think they sometimes underestimate

her (probably not only her). I don't know what I can do to speed up the

process. It's sort of just floating out there in theory, but nothing

concrete.

Jane >>

Jane:

I think you're going to need to be a little pushy to get this going.

First, do you have any written evals for Meg from the last 6 mos. or so? If

so, this would be helpful. If not, I would get something in writing as soon

as possible from her current teacher outlining the concrete objectives that

Meghan has met and can generalize (i.e.: following general directions,

responding with a group, age-appropriate academics, etc.) After you compile

some written reports or evals, I would suggest that you request a meeting

with your Child Study Team as soon as possible. Present the information, and

indicate that it's in both the district's best interest AND Meghan's best

interest to get her into a mainstream classroom. (You can conjure up the

legal term " least restrictive envronment " - that ought to ring some bells with

your CST.) It would also seem to me to be cheaper to move your daughter back

to a mainstream Kindergarten than to keep her where she is (?)

The in-service idea is a good one, and I would even recommend that they

also provide a shadow for Meg for at least the first few months, then assess

how she is doing in the class. Unless the Valley program is willing to

provide this person, it might take the school district some time to locate,

hire, and train an appropriate person to do this.

I would also strongly advise that you request to have a " Transition

Coordinator, " someone who can supervise and monitor the mainstreaming

process. This is similar to an ABA Coordinator in a home program, and in

fact, someone with ABA experience might be useful here. When you mainstream

PDD and ASD kids, there are a lot of " balls in the air " at once, both from

the point of view of the affected child, and the " receiving " classroom

teacher and students. You need someone with some expertise in mainstreaming

PDD/autistic chidren to work with the general ed. teacher to establish your

daughter's goals and objectives, advise on how these might be met and how

this may involve the other students in the mainstream classroom.

Good luck with this.

[Guest guest]

I think we're going to give it a try.

[Guest guest]

I read on a previous post that there is a seminar on mainstreaming children into a regular classroom. I believe that I read that the meeting was going to take place in November. If someone could let me know about this topic, I would be most grateful.

Thanks in advance,

Maureen

[Guest guest]

I attended the " Everyone Together " meeting last night in Post Huron

where Dr. Jill England presented. The flyer was posted to this list

in the files section. There is also the WIN conference coming up in

Grand Rapids on November 21st and you can see that info on their

website at www.winmi.org.

Hope this helps,

Carolyn Gammicchia

> I read on a previous post that there is a seminar on mainstreaming

children

> into a regular classroom. I believe that I read that the meeting

was going to

> take place in November. If someone could let me know about this

topic, I

> would be most grateful.

>

> Thanks in advance,

>

> Maureen