The special ed at my school sucks.

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My school's supposed to be a place where Aspies can be themselves (though there's also a lot of NTs I'd have to say the amount is even), but the actual Special Ed sucks. It's in this small room that used to be a janitors closet (I'm not even kidding) with NO A.C. and hardly enough room to fit the 2 special ed teachers and me and the other 4 aspies/people with ADHD in my class. I took a science test today and all they did was give me the answers, they never actually let me DO the work. It's like they think I'm stupid or something. All the other kids in my special Ed class agree with me. Well except for the dude who's lower functioning than us. Why do they have to do this to us, though? I mean I don't need to be in special ed, I just need to be reminded to pay attention. That's it. Is there a way to get the school's attention about how bad the special ed is?

Special Education can be an absolute joke at times,I know this first hand. To much of the time they just lump kids in a room and do absolutely nothing helpful or constructive with them but then claim they are doing something so they can absolve themselves of responsibility.

At my high school, the special education was really strict and was frustrating to deal with sometimes. Whenever I had a problem with something, I'd get blamed for things that they were supposed to be helping me with, even when I was trying a lot harder than they thought I was. For example, being yelled at for not being able to understand something or not being able to focus because of my ADHD, even after I would spend hours trying to study and learn it. It seemed like they were mostly just concerned with following the rules, and they made a lot of things more difficult and complicated than they really needed to be, rather than actually being helpful.

This sort of thing bothers me......I remember a few times the teachers wanted to put me in special ed, but I tried my best to keep my weirdness on the DL so they wouldn't because I knew it would probably be even worse then the regular classroom. It disgusts me how kids put in these classes are treated its like their just segregated and forgotten about while facing mental and even sometimes physical abuse from the teachers in the special ed department.


That is even the impression I got when my mom had a part time teacher aid job in the special ed department..and would talk about how one of the other teachers had a really nasty attitude towards the kids she was supposed to be helping. Also in highschool, there was a special ed student in my math class and her aid or whatever always seemed to be snapping at her. I feel like that kid would have done better without the nosy special ed aid or whatever they call them.

Special ed? Try Special K

I'm sorry about that. I had virtually nothing in elementary school, and was overwhelmed when I came to high school. I was super lucky to have a great spec ed in my old high school, and they showed me how to assert my rights so in my new high school, I can get what I need. They can't really deny you something if you state it just so, especially if you need extra time for an exam or a computer for an exam.

Special Ed was crap for me. They never taught us anything and it was nothing more than a glorified babysitting service. Also, you can forget about dating/having a social life once people find out you're in there.

The teachers weren't worth that much and even they picked on the students from time to time. It was wasteful to be there, considering no matter how bad you were at your work, (you could even miss half of the damn school year) you'll still get passed on to the next grade.

I have many issues about my school, especially since they claim to be the best school out there (which is defidentally NOT the case, a lot of my friends transferred to new schools and loved those schools WAY more than mine) It's really just trying to be the center of attention and get funding, especially if that means make all the "special" kids look better at school than they really are to raise the test scores. My algebra teacher disrespects me, my Physical Science teacher is racist to all my friends and tried to get them expelled for nothing, and the aids dont help me AT ALL. I don't write down the answers they give me, if I fail, I fail. I'm no cheater.

As a special ed teacher myself, this thread is really disturbing.

Special ed teachers are supposed to help students with special needs to be independent. Being independent means working on your own.

Doing work for students or giving them answers is the opposite of what teachers should be doing.

Have you told your parents everything you wrote here? Do they know what's going on? It sounds like your friends had the right idea getting out of there.

I had great special ed teachers when I was a kid. They never gave us answers. They never picked on us. They never made us feel different.

I learned more in one year in special ed than in four years in a regular classroom.

I guess I was lucky but that's really how it should be. If it's not then there is something wrong.

Picking on students is wrong and teachers should know better. But getting passed on to the next grade is not really up to the teachers. We have rules about who we have to pass. General ed teachers have even less choice about this than special ed teachers. It's sad but there's no getting around this. It's the law.

They try to raise the scores to make it look like everyones smarter than they really are I think.

Ah. That's different. Schools do that because it helps them get more money. Hopefully that money helps pay for the things you have in your classroom.

It's still not fair to the students. And teachers still probably don't have a choice about it.

I was never put into special ed classes until high school. i was in a private school for people with autism and other things. During the four years I went there, I saw it go from a great school to one full of corruption. I ran for student council vice president and president during my last two years there just so I could put a stop to some of the ridiculous rules there. hated that place, but I learned more than I would have at a public school.

Nope, you're pretty well f*cked. I had the almost exact same problem with my special ed in high school, I just wasn't learning anything, it was an actual classroom mind you, but basically they just put kids with behavior problems in there. You wouldn't learn much of anything, you'd never complete more than like a page and a half out of a history textbook, and on Fridays we spent the entire day watching movies.

I protested the only way I knew how, by not going to school, then I got charged with truancy (again) and had to go to court where they threatened to send me to a residential (basically juvie) for 18 months for simply missing school. f**k school.

But uh, really, when I brought up how ridiculous the SPED program was, their response was, I'd have to basically, work my way out of SPED, the next year after this happened, and I started begrudgingly going to school everyday, they switched me to like 2-3/8 classes being mainstream. SO, you can request mainstream classes again, but since you're in SPED, you're kinda already f****d.

So basically, honest solution to this problem is 2 things. Either get home schooled, and take your GED as soon as the state allows you (the GED is about as hard as the 7th grade state standardized tests) and passing the GED should be pretty easy for you anyway, just get a book and study, the practice tests at least for CT's GED were harder in the practice books than the actual test.

But, barring you not wanting to do that rather drastic thing, you must express your wish to be out of SPED, but play nice. The more pissed about it you get, the more reason they see to keep you in SPED. But, you'll probably never be COMPLETELY out of SPED, you'll probably still have the case manager and all that fun stuff through at least a few more grades.

Sorry, not too optimistic of a response, but that's my experience. You're gonna have to tough it out until you can leave it one way or the other. Like prison, the more you fight it, the longer they keep you.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeSJ9loxFgI[/youtube]

I got sent to a place like that for up to a year (they released me after 8 months) just because I skipped a lot of school. I also had to do a 30 day evaluation in a mental hospital for skipping school. It's not like I did anything else wrong. When I skipped I just stayed home. I wasn't out running the streets and getting in trouble.

Most special ed I was in wasn't very good either. It just seemed like a place to hide the stupid kids and the troublemakers so they wouldn't bother the rest of the kids.

Yep, exact same thing I did, just skipped school and stayed home. But they thought my "purposefulness" in it was really bad I guess.

OP, if you want a quote to sum up what life is going to be like, here...