If there's no special educator involved in the provision of services, how is it special education, after all?
Exactly. Trying to argue that, is rather futile though.
I went through the other local English board which boasts of being super inclusive.
- 42100 students (all grades)
- 388 children in special education classes, 50 of which are a half day
That translates to 0.92%
For the rest of spec ed students they have
- 173 spec ed teachers (pretty much 1 or 2 per school depending on the size)
- 436 Educational Assistants (they support behavioral or physical needs, the classroom teacher is responsible for curriculum). I should say that the other board has these as well but I couldn't find their numbers. Anecdotally, the other board has less.
- 33 board level staff (psych, social work, speech, etc). Again, the other board would have these as well, it was just not easy to find.
All that adds up to gifted needs falling off the radar most of the time. It is also rather awkward to try to advocate when you look around the room and see what the teacher is dealing with on a daily basis.
