Special Education Challenges

Assistant Principal Interview:

When asked the about difficulties regarding 504’s and IEP’s there were two circumstances that stood out in our conversation. 

The first was a situation unique to our school.  Our school is an IB magnet therefore students have to meet certain requirements to be accepted into our school.  One of the requirements is receiving scores on or above grade level on end of grade tests.  Due to the fact that many EC students struggle on EOG’s we only a few students with IEP’s per grade level.  Because there are few students we have only one person who serves the entire school for all of the following responsibilities: Oversee all IEP’s, testing/eligibility for IEP’s, compliance facilitator, meet the needs of all EC students, and is the teaching assistant for all inclusion class settings.  This is a lot of work for one person to do.  Due to the amount of work placed on one person the administration must be well informed about EC and all of the accommodations and oversee the EC teacher is doing their job in order to meet compliance by law.

The second situation was regarding the testing modifications students require per their IEP.  More students are needed to be testing using the following accommodations: separate room, small group, read aloud, mark answers in book, etc.  Due to theses accommodations staffing the help necessary can be quite troublesome.  A student who needs these accommodations for EOG’s are now able to receive the same modifications during normal formal assessments throughout the year.  Needing all of the extra staff to do this is not funding by anyone and has required the administration to add more work to others case load.

Overall, my assistant principal discussed other challenges they face due to EC accommodations and I’m sure all other responses will vary greatly. Meeting the needs of all students is not easy; however it is absolutely necessary not only morally, but legally due to FAPE.