<p>Last night was open house and Daughter was in a group that went to each classroom to make an announcement about PTA fundraising. When she got to her assigned classroom, the teacher said, “I don’t think anyone is going to be here. I only have one student in this class and he doesn’t speak a lick of English. This is ESL Physics.”</p>
<p>So, a junior enrolls in school with no English and the school is required to educate him, so he ends up in classes all by himself. Meanwhile, each of my kids is in at least one class where there aren’t enough desks/seats for the number of students in the class.</p>
<p>Say what you may about our public schools…they have a tough, tough job.</p>
<p>Interesting my parents were born to European immigrants who came through Ellis Island. English was not spoken in the homes and neither learned to read or write English until they were plunked into public schools. This isn’t new, what’s different is that back then it was sink or swim…now we straddle the fence more and try help these young people along. People had it alot tougher 80 years ago than they do now.</p>
<p>So the students possibly don’t have private classes?</p>
<p>About three years ago, the Sal. of our HS was a girl who had moved here from China in middle school with little English…that impressed the heck out of me.</p>
<p>We have to pour a lion’s share of our money from already strapped education budgets, into ELL and Special Ed. It’s great that some kids get a private class, or an entire soundproofed room, or $100K private placement.</p>
<p>The rest of the kids get to share textbooks (which are outdated anyway) in classrooms of 30+ other students.</p>
<p>One of the things that I think has really suffered is Speech Therapy. I had it at school when I was a kid…no meetings, no IEPs…the school said you were going and you were just pulled out of class for 15 minutes a few times a week.</p>
<p>Now, it’s under special ed, so there has to be an “educational reason” for the services. Doesn’t matter if you won’t make it past the interview stage in your future job search. I know one girl in 10th grade and another in 7th with pretty serious, never addressed speech impediments that would have been taken care of easily back in the day. (We finally paid out of pocket for private speech therapy for Son, but no everyone has the means to do that.)</p>
<p>As a speech therapist you are right that we have to go through the special ed red tape and that we have to justify that there is an education need for services. However, I can easily justify that a speech problem that impacts communication in the classroom or with peers is an educational need.
As far as the private ESL classes, that would never happen in my district in CA. We have lots of non English speakers plunked into regular classes and expected to sink or swim.</p>
<p>Actually, missypie, my kid was one who needed private placement. I don’t consider that “great.” The school system actually didn’t, and doesn’t, have a suitable place for him; the private placements didn’t provide an education, mainstreaming doesn’t provide the assistance he needs.</p>
<p>And my prior comment, beginning “It’s great…” was definite sarcasm. I don’t consider it great that 20-30% of the budget goes to educate such a small (relatively) number of children. The vast majority get left behind, literally.</p>
<p>I view private placement as admitting failure, as in, “we agree that we cannot provide your child a free and appropriate public education” or “we are not going to go to the trouble to try to provide your child with a free and appropriate public education.”</p>
<p>Gee my kid just got back from France. He did sophomore year abroad – in French public high school. Granted he had three years of high school French before going to France, but all his courses, except English and Italian, were in French. He passed everything – including European History, Chemistry, Math … and is now fluent in French. </p>
<p>It’s called …um… total immersion. What a concept. [/sarcasm]</p>
<p>missypie, a school district rep acknowledged that the district had no place for kids like my son, because even the private placements weren’t appropriate. Our choices were: kid gets the help he needs, or the kid gets an education. There is no place which provides both.</p>
<p>I don’t know what your son’s needs are (and am not prying to find out), but there are placements that offer both…just very hard to find, and generally extremely expensive.</p>
<p>Allmusic, the private placements were extremely expensive anyway, even with the not-even-at-grade-level classwork offered, and there weren’t any that offered classes at S’s level.</p>
<p>Public education is tough! When I was student teaching at a state school for the deaf, I was told not to cross or provoke a certain high school student. It seems the boy had some serious (and frightening for a 21 year old!) mental issues, but there wasn’t a psychiatric hospital that could accomodate a deaf minor. It’s so difficult to “do right” by everybody, but the states are supposed to not only figure out the best placement but pay for it, too. Just a difficult issue.</p>