I teach K/1 resource in an elementary school. My students are mostly mild/some moderate learning disabilities but all are in the gen.ed setting for a majority of the day and just come to resource with me for reading/math/writing/social skills. We also have a moderate/severe needs class at my school and a self-contained autism class.

We have a new student this year who was registered the first day of school and came in with no iep. The student is 6, nonverbal, most likely has autism, and extremely aggressive and defiant. They are unable to feed themselves and screams/stims most of the day. After talking to the parents, we learned that the family knew early on that something was “different” about the child, and being from another culture, they chose to ignore it and keep them at home and away from the public until they had to start school.

They are rushing the referral through so that the student can start to receive services, but I was told yesterday that the student will most likely be on my caseload because the family doesn’t want to put them into a self contained classroom. I used to teach moderate/severe needs, so I’m prepared to work with them, but I have no idea what their schedule should look like. Obviously they’ll need more than a 30 minute reading group, but I don’t know how to structure their day to fit in with my established schedule and groups.

Any ideas? Hope this ramble makes sense!

[checkerjane]

Will he have a para? I’m in a similar situation, but a self contained classroom isn’t an option because we don’t have one. I don’t do any push in services, all my kids are pulled.

I try and create schedules so that he’ll be out of the room with his para when I have my big groups. Like when my 3rd graders, a group of eight who have attention issues come in, he’ll be somewhere else.

He has a work station where his sensory items and task boxes are.

I’m probably going to sped teacher hell for this, and you’ve got severe experience whereas I don’t, but trying to make sure my pull out kids get what they need while my autistic kiddo is melting down and being loud in general for about 75% of the day is very frustrating. I don’t think it’s fair to your SLD kids when a self contained classroom, which sounds like would be the LRE for him, is available. I get that’s what the parents want, but still.

[Haley23]

If this is at all an option for you (i.e. if your P would support you), I would NOT change your whole program/schedule to basically make your room a self-contained room for this one child. I would provide a similar resource time as to what other kids in your program get. If that's a 30 minute reading group, then that's what he gets. If parents/admin/whoever else want self-contained like services, then he can get those in the appropriate placement.

We are often told to let students "try" resource, especially in K. Is is so frustrating but I just kill my director and the self-contained program with documentation and then they usually relent. Luckily my P is pretty supportive of me in this matter. In my program, I do give needier kids more hours, but only up to the point of being right at 80% in gen ed. If we're looking at having them spend less than 80% of their time in gen ed then we look at programs that provide that placement.

Again, if you can get any support with this, I would explain to parents the services you think he needs and why. If they throw a fit, offer to see how he does in your placement. Explain in detail what those services will be like. At my school, my P/AP would be calling that parent each and every time the child tantrummed, had a bathroom accident, hurt another child, etc. Severe behaviors would result in suspension, IEP or not. And each and every time, they'd be explaining that whatever they were calling about would be a need able to be met in the appropriate placement.

If you have no support, I would pitch a fit about getting a para for this student. Explain in detail (and in writing) how you will not be able to meet minutes/needs for resource students if you are spending all day with this student.