Chris: What, if any, laws are there concerning this:
I work in a school in which the special Ed classrooms are divided more on convenience, eg one class has 10 kids of various abilities, many different behaviors:
child who is Low functioning, Down syndrome with behavior (throwing etc)
Child who is Low functioning, nonverbal
Children who have Higher functioning autism
Non ambulatory with cp, non verbal.
With the range of behavior and need, I see the teacher struggle to spend any time with the quiet non disruptive child. It’s a chaotic class that should be divided further so each child’s need can be met.
Sadly, there are no laws regarding this. The biggest thing that the teacher needs is a very structured schedule where is child is seen on a rotating basis. Hopefully, she has paraprofessionals that are really good that can help with the schedule and structure of the classroom.
This would all depend on each child’s IEP and their individual classroom needs. If a child is obviously suffering due to environment at school, I would consider requesting a review and clearer guidelines for what the child needs based on clearly stated specific reasoning.
Because of the chaoticness of the room, the para turnover is very great,DG.