Charly: I work as a special education teaching assistant and my student needs a touch screen laptop computer due to his disability. I have asked now for a second year for one. The ex ed department tells me that the autism classes have them and they don’t have any left. The resource teacher that I work with tells me that there is a long process that we must use before we can ask for one. I have already tried to different things with this student and they don’t work. He is non verbal with cognitive issues. He loves technology and he does well when he uses the teacher’s ipad. Also, my school district bought millions of dollars of technology and they are giving it to different schools for their pilot projects but nothing for the special education students. Non special ed students don’t have to go through this process to get a laptop but my student has to go through all these hoops to even apply for one and in the end they may still say that they don’t have one. This is discrimination and I need to find out what my next step is. Thank you for reading.
Schools are to consider the need for technology for students with disabilities & provide needed technology. Providing additional devices does not appear to be a priority with your school. Sharing a device with another class might be an option. A complaint to the state agency or the office of civil rights, might help, but would not make you or the parent popular with the school. Someone could start a go fund campaign for a device. The publicity might cause the district to get involved to show that they are not discriminating against some students. Even if this did not happen, enough funding might be generated.