The new school year has started and things are already starting to get dirty.
The program I work for decided to change things up a bit with how the classes are broken up. Since I have been with the program, the total communication classes were broken up like this: (1) kindergarten, (2) 1st-3rd grade, and (3) 4th-6th grade. The two older classes departmentalized meaning that one teacher taught language arts to all the students and one teacher taught math to all the students. When I started at the school, the total number of students between those two classes was around 10. Last year there were 18 students ranging from 1st-6th grade. With 4 students going to middle school and 4 kindergarten students coming up to the mix, the program was able to get another teaching position and separate the students into smaller classes. The set up now is: (1) kindergarten, (2) 1st-2nd grade, (3) 3rd-4th grade, and (4) 5th-6th grade.
While I understand that the school wants the kids to be separated by grade level, with Deaf and hard-of-hearing children, grade level can be very arbitrary. With such a variety of levels of communication skills and support systems at home and overall background and language exposure, even within a class of two grade levels, there can be a lot of variability.
The 1st-2nd grade class is currently the largest class with 8 students: 4 1st grade and 4 2nd grade. The teacher of this class has not had her own class/classroom since she started working as a teacher 6 years ago and she enjoys the change....so far. Most of the 1st graders are pretty prepared for 1st grade curriculum so it's not a problem separating the class into two groups to cover grade-level curriculum with this group. The 2nd graders on the other hand display a lot of variability. One student has multiple health problems and misses a lot of school. When she comes to school she has no motivation to do any work and relies completely on prompting from the teacher to complete any work. Another student is new to us this year and has very good communication skills since his parents actually sign at home. However, academically he is very dependent and functioning somewhere closer to the 1st graders. Another student is the class clown. He has a lot of skills and is very cute and funny (hard NOT to laugh at him sometimes when it's just not an appropriate time to make jokes), but his time in school is devoted to obtaining and maintaining the attention of the entire class and teachers to tell a story or make a joke of some sort....not doing academic work. No one at home signs with him so this is the only opportunity he has to communicate his ideas and he wants to keep all the attention he can get for those 6 hours everyday!! The other student in the class is a little boy who is on-grade-level for 2nd grade and is motivated to learn. He is the top performer in the class and doesn't really get the push he needs because all the focus from the teacher is placed on the other 3 students in his group who aren't doing any work.
The classroom teacher noticed this discrepancy within the first two weeks of school and asked other teachers/service providers (including myself) what would be a good solution to this dilemma. The teacher for the 3rd-4th grade class mentioned this student going over to her class for language arts since she only has 4 students and 2 of them are functioning closer to a 2nd grade level and he would fit right in. Everyone seemed to think that was a good idea. The problem with this is when he would be instructed for math. The two classes have opposite schedules with the younger class having math in the morning and reading in the afternoon and the older class is switched. This is from the master schedule for the entire school so that all the requirements can be met for the appropriate number of minutes for each content area daily. The next thought was sending the student into the mainstream 2nd grade classroom with supports since he is on-grade-level. This is where it gets sticky.
It has been a stated fact by members of the IEP team that this is a student that we can see going mainstream. He is a very bright little boy who is a motivated learner and is starting to advocate for himself when he doesn't understand something. He came to us in pre-k and basically sat in a co-taught auditory-oral classroom for several months after the family relocated from out of state. The progress reports indicate that he did not make very much progress mostly attributed to significantly delayed communication and language skills. For the next school year, the IEP team recommended he join the total communication classroom. When I first met him, he was very shy and relied completely on watching what his peers to know what to do within the classroom. After a few months, he starting using signs independently to express simple ideas and eventually picked it up and used it every time he wanted to communicate (he use to only attempt spoken language that was very unintelligible). He has bilateral cochlear implants since before he came to our school and he has had the opportunity to also learn how to hear spoken language and produce spoken language (we are still working on eliminating articulation errors). He is pretty independent with the use of his devices and speaks up for himself if a battery dies or something is malfunctioning.
I remember a cute story that happened with him as a kindergartener. One of his devices was not functioning correctly and he requested to go to the audiologist's office to see if she could fix it. A few weeks before this happened, I had been teaching the kids about Deaf culture as a part of Deaf History Month. When we got to the audiologist's office, he took off both his devices so she could make sure they were on the correct ear and check both of them. I spoke to the student (who can have one-on-one conversations with his CIs without signs), but forgot that he took both his devices off. He looked at me and said as a very confident 5 or 6 year old, "I can't hear you! I'm Deaf! Remember?!" I couldn't help but chuckle and it touched my heart that he was already getting comfortable with who he is and starting to develop his identity as a Deaf person.
I have been working with this student for over 2 years and I remember what he was like when he was in a classroom without sign language. With discussion of him going to the 2nd grade mainstream classroom for math, I have concerns about regression of skills if we do not provide him with a qualified interpreter who can sign at the level to match his signing skill level with the appropriate vocabulary needed for the math class. Our school has an educational interpreter (a former Deaf educator) who comes in the mornings and interprets for the morning announcements, assemblies, and "specials" classes (music, P.E., library). She would be an ideal fit to go into the class with this student--it's a plus that he already knows her and is comfortable with her. However, she already has commitments with other older students that are set until the end of the semester in December. For this reason, we would either need to find a replacement to come for the full day every day (which is not optimal since we don't want to lose the fabulous interpreter we have now) or find some way to get an interpreter to come for two hours in the middle of the day each day (not likely).
We had a team meeting two weeks ago and agreed to try and have things set up by the next week. Nothing happened that week and now we are starting the next week and still no sign of hope to find an interpreter to fill the position. The back-up plan was to place a paraprofessional who has signing skills inside the classroom with the student. I am not a fan of this plan because the paraprofessionals that would be used for this position do not have the signing/interpreting skills to meet the needs of the student. Being able to sign and being able to interpret are two different skills and I think sometimes that line gets blurred and decisions are made based on resources and budget and not what's in the best interest of the student.
In the past, a certain paraprofessional that is being suggested for this position has served as a very similar role with two other Deaf students. There was no interpreting going on and basically what would happen is that after the classroom teacher gave the lesson, the two students would get tutoring to help and complete the classwork. Long story short, last year we decided to bring both these students back into the self-contained class full time since they had gotten so far behind grade-level they needed more support from a teacher who could use their primary language for their instruction. I have heard the quote, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." In my opinion, by definition, it would be insane to set up this situation again with this 2nd grade student and expect different results.
While trying to pick a date for the meeting to discuss the possibility of changing things up, this situation was thrown out there as a solution and an easy way to solve the staffing problems with this kind of change. I immediately spoke with other members of the IEP team and discussed my concerns and everyone was on board with me. Everyone agreed that this student doesn't need a babysitter to sit next to him and hand feed him information; he needs someone to provide access to 100% of information within the classroom.
With this, I made a phone call to the mother of the student. I explained what the team was considering with classroom change and how we are trying to figure out how the schedule would work to make sure that her son would get instruction in all the content areas every day for the required amount of minutes. We had already developed a line of communication in the past regarding other matters associated with the CIs and parent education meetings so I felt comfortable providing some details to her so she would be informed throughout the process. Discussion of supports within the mainstream classroom came up and I explained that we were still trying to figure it out, but ideally, the IEP team informally agreed he would have the best potential of success with a qualified interpreter. There was also discussion of having assistance from a person who was not serving the role as the interpreter to ensure that he was able to get all the work done and keep up with his peers. I explained that we really don't know yet what's going to happen, but I proceeded to explain what has historically happened with the use of a paraprofessional as the support. She asked me in my professional opinion if that person was qualified for the position and this is what would be best for her son. I told her that it has not always ended in the way we would hope and I believed that whoever goes with him into the classroom needs to make sure he has 100% access to communication, receptively and expressively. She proceeded to ask me if I had any recommendations for an advocate. She explained that a friend of hers has a son with a disability who attends their neighborhood school and has had to put up quite a fight to make sure her son gets the services he needs to succeed academically. The friend eventually hired an advocate and things got settled. The mother of my student expressed that she did not want to have to go through the hassles of that and wanted to bypass all the headaches and have an advocate to guarantee everything would be set up with her son's best interest considered. I told her I would investigate and get back to her.
Since that conversation we have spoken twice. One time was to discuss what the team proposed as a solution--to see about getting the educational interpreter to stay for the full day or find someone to come in for the two hour period each day. I explained that there was still more investigating to do and it would still be a few days before things got straightened out. I explained my concern with making sure that her son has 100% access to communication with whatever happened and that this should be something for her to advocate for. She again asked about advocacy services and mentioned she was concerned with not having someone there with her son to make sure he was moving along with the class. I mentioned that I would see about finding information online that outlined the rights of her son so if she was unable to find an advocate, she would have the tools needed to be her own (and her son's) advocate.
The most recent time I called her, I wanted to tell her about some information that I got from a Cochlear workshop about children with CIs in mainstream classes. While on the phone, she asked if there was any change with the interpreter set up and changing classes. I told her we were still trying to find someone for the position. The mother expressed her frustration with how long it was taking a Deaf program to find an interpreter and that she could understand the delay from a mainstream program who wouldn't know how to find the right resources, but it was ridiculous for a Deaf program not to be able to find an interpreter. Before I had the chance to run this idea by her (a friend recommended it to me a few days prior to this conversation), she asked if we had thought about finding interpreting interns who need hours/experience. I explained that I'm not sure about how that works but I can run it by our program coordinator and see if it's a possibility. I also got her email address so I could forward the links that I had come across if she wanted to read more about the special education process and services for Deaf and hard-of-hearing children.
At the end of the day, I sent an email to my supervisors asking if I could go ahead and investigate the option of getting an intern for this position. Now this email has come back to bite me in the butt! The mother later emailed the classroom teacher with the same concerns she discussed with me and the classroom teacher in turn discussed what the mom had mentioned to my supervisor. Then the red lights started flashing in her eyes! Now I have become the bad guy. I'm the one who has some how planted the ideas into the mother's head about services she should demand and this has caused (as I quote) "a mess!" My supervisor not so nicely told me that she was upset with me for making what she perceives to be a unilateral decision about what the student needs and telling the mother what I think when it is suppose to be a IEP team decision. I should not have ever reached out to the mother to discuss any of the details regarding this matter until the school had come up with a plan and made a decision. This went on for about 30 minutes as I sat there and explained my side of the story and she blasted me for things that she could have only assumed and not had any evidence to support her arguments. She is upset with me because now the parent has already made up her mind about what she wants for her son and now we are going to have to clean up the mess to give him those services. I said in response, "If we were doing what is truly best for the child, then what do we have to worry about? If we were doing our job and not trying to cut corners, this would be a non-issue!"
There were many things said by her today that came across as a bit immature as if she was trying to get me down to that level, but I remained calm, collected, professional, and consistent to my story. At one point I even said that I didn't feel I had done anything wrong and she got even more upset and loudly told me that I was wrong for feeling that way. I apologized that she was upset, but for nothing else. The conversation ended with her telling me that I am now responsible for cleaning up this mess and that I should call the local interpreting programs to see about getting an intern. I stood up from the table, gave her a nice smile, and told her to have a good day. Walking away I thought to myself, isn't that what I asked for when I sent you the email last week?!
I know this isn't over yet and there will be more bumps along the road with regards to this student and I'm sure any student that we both sit at the IEP team meeting table for.
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