Kimberly: Our son has a reading and writing disability. He is mainstreamed in a private school with support and will be transitioning to our public high school. The public school reevaluation report stated that our son “…continues to exhibit a moderate degree of need for specially designed instruction in reading fluency/reading comprehension and written expression. His needs in these academic areas exceed the resources available in the regular education environment.” Does the statement “His needs in these academic areas exceed the resources available in the regular education environment” mean the district will not put him in classes with peers? We found this statement disturbing as we would like our son in classes with his peers.
Is it legal to keep him separated from his peers because of lack of resources?
First, ask the public school to clarify. What type of private school did he attend–one that specializes in learning disabilities or a private school that has pull-out time to help him-public school is different in many ways. Is he young or in middle school, etc.? I think the school is simply saying that they cannot fully mainstream now as he may need more specialized services to meet his needs to remediate. My child (dyslexic) was not fully separated from peers in all classes but did take a separate specialized English class, SBRI. That specialized instruction(away from the mainstreamed crowded classroom and stressed staff) resulted in academic progress-still had time with peers in other classes, extracurriculars and gained confidence due to academic progress and now headed for college.