I could go on at length but will try to keep this as brief as possible.
New teachers,certified or not,share many of the same problems. Unfortunately one of the biggest problems,at least in my opinion,is that the lack of experience makes dealing with special needs children even more difficult than it is for seasoned teachers.
More below the fold...
Para-educators work their butts off to help these kids and are the ones who ultimately end up implementing IEP's and special accommodations. Therefore it would make sense for parents to communicate with these para-educators. Well that might be true when hell freezes over. The para-educators are not allowed to give parents any information. All they can do is refer the parent to the teacher,real helpful...not!
Now let's talk about budgets. Oh that's right,many school budgets did not pass. This includes the school that my children attend. This coming year we're looking at trying to function on 80% of what we had this year. We have 4 para-educators whose contracts were not renewed,kindergarten classes will no longer have a class para-educator,another one has retired,and yet another is going to work for his family business as he can no longer afford to work at the school. The remaining para-educators hours have been cut by 2 1/2 hours per week and the cost of their health insurance has increased. They even tried to cut the assistant librarian position. They of course have no clue that the three of us {head librarian,assistant librarian,and myself the library aide} can barely get everything done as it is.
The school administration,ha what a joke! The principal....ummm er the new "planning administrator" is making $84,000 a year in her demoted position. She failed miserably as principal thus the demotion,yet she is being paid the same. Nice eh? Now a new principal has to be hired,another $84,000 a year right? Now let me remind you that the budget did not pass. There had to be cuts,that much is certainly obvious. As mentioned above,the para-educators were the ones who got the ax. How nice for the higher ups not to be touched while the ones who actually work their asses off get to pay the price for other peoples screw ups. Naturally this can and will have a huge affect on the kids.
There is also the matter of the missing million and half bucks that disappeared. This has not been accounted for and I highly doubt it ever will be. The tax payers are obviously angry about this so naturally they voted down the budget. I get it,I really do. I am not in the least bit happy myself but having the budget shot down twice is quite enough. Point made already!
This is about giving our children the best education possible and we're failing. Don't you dare try to tell me that the well being of these children is a damned straw man,it's friggin' reality. I say we write letters,make phone calls,attend town meetings and demand some changes. In the mean time,quit punishing the kids and those that actually dedicate their lives to educating them!