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More elementary children with learning disabilities would get help in special classes if a change proposed by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is approved.
Students chosen for the special classes should spend less time in them, allowing more children to be accommodated, suggests a report to be debated by trustees Tuesday. Segregated classes for students with learning disabilities would be reduced from full to half days, with children integrated into regular classrooms for the other half of the day. There would also be a limit of one year placed on the amount of time children spend in the special classes.
The board now runs 16 special classes that help about 180 children in grades 4 to 8, which represents only a small fraction of the number of children with learning disabilities of various kinds that make it difficult for them to read, write, do math or develop good work habits.
Once children are in the special class, they tend to stay there for years, says the staff report.
The change is long overdue, says trustee Lynn Scott. She said many kids in the special classes already spend part of their days in a regular classroom because they join their peers for gym, art and other subjects throughout the school day.
“The goal should be to support students so they develop the ability to function in a normal classroom,” says Scott, who says the educational pendulum is swinging away from early labelling and segregating of kids with special needs and toward recognition of the value of studying in a regular classroom with extra help for kids who need it.
“We want our kids to be able to be with their friends,” says Scott. “We want them to have other kids whose behaviour they can model on and learn from. We want them to have the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned to as wide an audience as possible. You have a lot of things that come together when you have a group of kids in a regular class.”
The board would devote more resources to identifying kids in kindergarten to Grade 4 who might have learning disabilities, and training regular teachers and special-ed staff to help them, said the report.
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Students chosen for the special classes should spend less time in them, allowing more children to be accommodated, suggests a report to be debated by trustees Tuesday. Segregated classes for students with learning disabilities would be reduced from full to half days, with children integrated into regular classrooms for the other half of the day. There would also be a limit of one year placed on the amount of time children spend in the special classes.
The board now runs 16 special classes that help about 180 children in grades 4 to 8, which represents only a small fraction of the number of children with learning disabilities of various kinds that make it difficult for them to read, write, do math or develop good work habits.
Once children are in the special class, they tend to stay there for years, says the staff report.
The change is long overdue, says trustee Lynn Scott. She said many kids in the special classes already spend part of their days in a regular classroom because they join their peers for gym, art and other subjects throughout the school day.
“The goal should be to support students so they develop the ability to function in a normal classroom,” says Scott, who says the educational pendulum is swinging away from early labelling and segregating of kids with special needs and toward recognition of the value of studying in a regular classroom with extra help for kids who need it.
“We want our kids to be able to be with their friends,” says Scott. “We want them to have other kids whose behaviour they can model on and learn from. We want them to have the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned to as wide an audience as possible. You have a lot of things that come together when you have a group of kids in a regular class.”
The board would devote more resources to identifying kids in kindergarten to Grade 4 who might have learning disabilities, and training regular teachers and special-ed staff to help them, said the report.
查看原文...
