Let’s Remove the Barriers

Recently, I was connecting with a parent who shared that school keeps stating that since their child isn’t failing yet, there is no need for concern or to look into Special Education.  Let me be clear, our children do not need to fail to have a disability!  What happens to students who always struggle with school and continue to “almost” fail? We typically begin to see behaviors including, but not limited to: work refusal, becoming verbally or physically aggressive, or even refusing to attend school.  

As adults, we need to intervene. Now, I’m not proposing that just because a student is failing or almost failing that they should be classified as having a disability.  However, there is a reason why a process exists to evaluate students and we have to allow the process to work.  Even if a student is not classified, we can learn from the evaluation.  

In my heart of hearts, if we are differentiating and teaching to meet the needs of all our students, many wouldn’t need to be classified as having a disability.  Part of our role is to support all students, not just the easy ones.  Remove the barriers and see what happens!

Imagine if school for you always seemed like an uphill battle and after a while you figured “what’s the point?”  Your self talk or what you hear from others makes you feel stupid or incapable.  So you make a decision that instead of being labeled as dumb, you’d rather be labeled as the “bad kid” or “troublemaker”.  As adults, when we have a job where we feel mistreated or disrespected, we can leave and find a new one. Unfortunately, for many of our students this isn’t a choice and they have to wait out their years in school. As I’ve said in previous posts, we can and must do better!  Our students deserve better!  

#standreadytosupport