Re: School Admin - Who is who's boss

[Guest guest]

I don't know about Texas, but in land the principal can only recommend the special education staffing. I learned this when an aide was approved for my 7 year old. I called the principal to ask what her criteria would be for the position to be told in turn that I had to call the board of education.

( ) School Admin - Who is who's boss

Hi all. I have not posted in a very long while. My question is probably kind of unusual. At least, I have never heard it before on the lists I am on.

My 15yo AS son goes to a nationally-ranked high school. Very good school! But the SPED Dept sucks. Honestly, you could read an advocating book, look at all the lists of "bad practice" and go down the list. At least for autism. I'm in Texas, where the entire spectrum is classified as autism.

Needless to say, I've been at this for 9 years, and I never been close in agreement with the school district on my son's "program". Constant, time-consuming, draining battle. I know, what else is new.

This is a large suburban school district with multiple high schools and a separate overall SPED department, as well as SPED depts within in each school. We have a SPED director that has made it her business to dismantle a very good autism program (happened several years ago) and keep it that way. The way things are now, there really is no program. Each parent has to duke it out with the schools and build an autism program for their individual child from scratch with untrained teachers. Of course, most give up. From what I can tell, most with AS kids in our area are homeschooling or doing private therapeutic school if they are at all in a position to do so. Some parents with resources have hired legal help and done lots of private evaluating to supplement the schools to push through programs for their own child specifically. (As an aside, in those cases, typically the SPED director shows up at their team meetings, everyone is intimidated from talking much, and she does her best to keep that budget down. I know parents trying to extricate her from their meetings.) Unfortunately, I am not in a position to do any of these things.

It has occurred to me that it would be helpful to know who is who's hiring manager, so I know who is going to listen to who, who I should push for what KWIM? The building principals and special ed director are both hired by the school board. I assume the school board hired this director specifically to do things like she is doing since there has been no stop to her antics despite public complaint, law suits and publicity over the several years she has been here. Nothing has changed.

ANYWAY, I know building principals hire most of the people that work in their buildings. But what about the special ed staff? SPED teachers, diagnosticians, etc. Who picks the building SPED chair? The principal and the SPED director have the same hiring manager, so they are sort of on the same level--do they just have to kind of duke it out?

Anybody know? I am sure it may be different in different states, different districts, but I think it would be helpful to get ideas from how other districts are divvying up such hiring.

Thanks in advance!

Ruth

[Guest guest]

In NJ, the school board hires a superintendent of the school

district. The school superintendent hires principals and often

the school superintendent will hire a director of special

education (for many years our superintendent was the special

education director).

The superintendent works for the school board and sets the

direction for what kind of programs and support will be allowed.

It is such a shame to hear your story. I am so sorry to hear this.

I think it is a complex mix of issues. Some school boards

want to focus attention on improving overall test scores on state tests and

their focus will be there. Some schools reduce

overall costs by hiring very young special education staff

and keeping services down. Some towns though in NJ are focused

on meeting the needs of a larger population of kids at risk and

will have services in place and they are not the affluent towns.

This is hopeful, it means that it can be done when the community

wants it down. It is such a community based issue that reflects the towns values

and interests.

In schools that are not very supportive and affluent what I see is that kids

with behavioral issues are sent out of district and that leaves the more

compliant kids to struggle. Parents with resources can advocate somewhat to get

services that leaves a lot of familes really struggling.

What I think is this. Since families with kids with dyslexia have struggled for

the last 30 years to get better evidence based programs into schools and still

struggle I think we are in for a long struggle

too. We really need an evidenced based program for teaching

social skills and addressing the executive function disorders

these kids have. Then we will have to advocate as a group for

these programs to be in place. For the kids that have severe

anxiety issues like mine nothing short of a very small supportive

setting will work. The cost are high for such programs.

best of luck,

Pam

>

> Hi all. I have not posted in a very long while. My question is probably kind

of unusual. At least, I have never heard it before on the lists I am on.

>

> My 15yo AS son goes to a nationally-ranked high school. Very good school!

But the SPED Dept sucks. Honestly, you could read an advocating book, look at

all the lists of " bad practice " and go down the list. At least for autism. I'm

in Texas, where the entire spectrum is classified as autism.

>

> Needless to say, I've been at this for 9 years, and I never been close in

agreement with the school district on my son's " program " . Constant,

time-consuming, draining battle. I know, what else is new.

>

> This is a large suburban school district with multiple high schools and a

separate overall SPED department, as well as SPED depts within in each school.

We have a SPED director that has made it her business to dismantle a very good

autism program (happened several years ago) and keep it that way. The way

things are now, there really is no program. Each parent has to duke it out with

the schools and build an autism program for their individual child from scratch

with untrained teachers. Of course, most give up. From what I can tell, most

with AS kids in our area are homeschooling or doing private therapeutic school

if they are at all in a position to do so. Some parents with resources have

hired legal help and done lots of private evaluating to supplement the schools

to push through programs for their own child specifically. (As an aside, in

those cases, typically the SPED director shows up at their team meetings,

everyone is intimidated from talking much, and she does her best to keep that

budget down. I know parents trying to extricate her from their meetings.)

Unfortunately, I am not in a position to do any of these things.

>

> It has occurred to me that it would be helpful to know who is who's hiring

manager, so I know who is going to listen to who, who I should push for what

KWIM? The building principals and special ed director are both hired by the

school board. I assume the school board hired this director specifically to do

things like she is doing since there has been no stop to her antics despite

public complaint, law suits and publicity over the several years she has been

here. Nothing has changed.

>

> ANYWAY, I know building principals hire most of the people that work in their

buildings. But what about the special ed staff? SPED teachers, diagnosticians,

etc. Who picks the building SPED chair? The principal and the SPED director

have the same hiring manager, so they are sort of on the same level--do they

just have to kind of duke it out?

>

> Anybody know? I am sure it may be different in different states, different

districts, but I think it would be helpful to get ideas from how other districts

are divvying up such hiring.

>

> Thanks in advance!

>

> Ruth

>

[Guest guest]

I can't answer your question about who picks the Spec Ed staff or decides who

gets to be in charge of that department, but I know that it is our tax dollars

paying their salaries.

I'm in California where there always seems to be a budget crisis in education

and my experience has been the same as yours when it comes to asking for help

from the schools and continually being turned down.

I think that most families in our local district give up in frustration, which

is what the school district wants them to do. Some families move elsewhere, try

to transfer their kids to another district, hire an advocate or lawyer, try to

home school or send their kids to private schools. I personally know of a family

whose son just dropped out of high school and waited until he was old enough to

take his GED and get his high school degree. I have a relative who just got so

overwhelmed that she just stopped asking for help for her son. Her son graduated

barely from high school, but he left high school thinking that he is stupid and

worthless. He loves to take things apart and figure out how they work and with

the right help could be a great engineer or mechanic. He is in his mid 20s now

and rarely leaves his room.

[Guest guest]

Thanks for sharing this. If it is that way in MD, it may be that way in TX. That

would explain why we could have a nationally-ranked HS with a very poor SPED

department, i.e., they are being managed by different people. Ruth

>

> I don't know about Texas, but in land the principal can only recommend the

special education staffing. I learned this when an aide was approved for my 7

year old. I called the principal to ask what her criteria would be for the

position to be told in turn that I had to call the board of education.

>

>

>

>

>

> ( ) School Admin - Who is who's boss

>

>

>

>

> Hi all. I have not posted in a very long while. My question is probably kind

of unusual. At least, I have never heard it before on the lists I am on.

>

> My 15yo AS son goes to a nationally-ranked high school. Very good school! But

the SPED Dept sucks. Honestly, you could read an advocating book, look at all

the lists of " bad practice " and go down the list. At least for autism. I'm in

Texas, where the entire spectrum is classified as autism.

>

> Needless to say, I've been at this for 9 years, and I never been close in

agreement with the school district on my son's " program " . Constant,

time-consuming, draining battle. I know, what else is new.

>

> This is a large suburban school district with multiple high schools and a

separate overall SPED department, as well as SPED depts within in each school.

We have a SPED director that has made it her business to dismantle a very good

autism program (happened several years ago) and keep it that way. The way things

are now, there really is no program. Each parent has to duke it out with the

schools and build an autism program for their individual child from scratch with

untrained teachers. Of course, most give up. From what I can tell, most with AS

kids in our area are homeschooling or doing private therapeutic school if they

are at all in a position to do so. Some parents with resources have hired legal

help and done lots of private evaluating to supplement the schools to push

through programs for their own child specifically. (As an aside, in those cases,

typically the SPED director shows up at their team meetings, everyone is

intimidated from talking much, and she does her best to keep that budget down. I

know parents trying to extricate her from their meetings.) Unfortunately, I am

not in a position to do any of these things.

>

> It has occurred to me that it would be helpful to know who is who's hiring

manager, so I know who is going to listen to who, who I should push for what

KWIM? The building principals and special ed director are both hired by the

school board. I assume the school board hired this director specifically to do

things like she is doing since there has been no stop to her antics despite

public complaint, law suits and publicity over the several years she has been

here. Nothing has changed.

>

> ANYWAY, I know building principals hire most of the people that work in their

buildings. But what about the special ed staff? SPED teachers, diagnosticians,

etc. Who picks the building SPED chair? The principal and the SPED director have

the same hiring manager, so they are sort of on the same level--do they just

have to kind of duke it out?

>

> Anybody know? I am sure it may be different in different states, different

districts, but I think it would be helpful to get ideas from how other districts

are divvying up such hiring.

>

> Thanks in advance!

>

> Ruth

>