For those of you who don’t know my story… yet (and for those who do, sorry, you’ll have to suck it up and read it again), My beautiful Boys are a matched pair who also happen to have an extra copy of the 21st chromosome. Yes, my amazing 5-year-old identical twins have Down syndrome. That and my sometimes [I’m told] fanatical inclusionist perspective landed them a most-of-the-time spot in a general education setting for their first official year in public school, Kindergarten. A “split schedule” affords them the opportunity to get their academic training via Discreet Trial Training (an ABA methodology effective in addressing short term memory issues), and their related services including Speech, Physical and Occupational Therapy via the “self contained” class (don’t even get me started on that term… ‘Cause ”containing” our special children has some wonderful connotations, doesn’t it? Another post, maybe). Anyway, sometimes in between and always after those services are implemented, My Boys go to their “typical” classroom with 19 of their “typical” peers and get their inclusion education – with the assistance of a 2:1 aide. They participate in all activities… ALL activities that their classmates do. Not just art or lunch. They do Science, Math and Library. They raise their hands to answer questions and go about their day as just another two faces in the crowd. THIS is what we’re here for… because research shows that the best social, emotional and academic outcomes are achieved when children with special needs are educated side-by-side with their typical peers! (Hence the Least Restrictive Environment laws.)
This is REAL inclusion, right? I sort of almost totally agree. Almost… But not quite!
The Head of the Yearbook Committee called me recently to ask why My Boys are not included in their “contained” class activity photos. I explained that they spend most of their day in the gen-ed class. As such, the photographer from that class captures them participating in holiday activities over there with all of their typical classmates. She then informed me that according to the “rules”, the boys’ individual and class pictures were taken and would be published in the yearbook with their “contained” class because they’re on THAT class roster, but NOT with their gen-ed class because they’re NOT on that roster. The roster drives the back-end of inclusion. Can you say “NOT! HAPPY!”
You see, we are MOSTLY doing inclusion but the paperwork, apparently, hasn’t caught up to the practice which affects some really important back-end aspects of inclusion. On a piece of paper, My Boys are in the “contained” class (Gosh I HATE that moniker). That might be for budgetary reasons so the school district gets “paid” appropriately for educating my children with special needs. I know and don’t begrudge them receiving more for educating a child with special needs than they do a “typical” child. SO, they list My Boys in the (ugh) “contained” class. Honestly, I don’t care what they tell the state. Yes, the district is educating my children with special needs so pay them the exorbitant fee they’re entitled to BUT…. Make sure they’re listed on the roster for that general education class they’re participating in. So many OTHER things flow from that roster. Like being included in classroom activities planned by the Class Mothers… who, until I opened my big fat inclusionist mouth, didn’t know I even existed. And, the yearbook is another one of those places where My Boys’ names MUST be on the roster to get their pictures INCLUDED with their gen-ed class.
How illogical for My Boys — and for their 19 classmates who KNOW them well as they see them everyday — NOT to have their photographs appear with their classmates in the yearbook? When they open that book and look back at their first year, My Boys will be EXCLUDED in print. Thier gen-ed classmates won’t remember that they went to school with a nice kid (or two) with Down syndrome. I know it sounds like a technicality. But, in truth, inclusion is as much about My Boys as it is about their peers. Full-blown inclusion backed up with the appropriate paperwork tells us all that children with special needs are more like their typical peers than not. Exclusion tells them they’re too diffrent to be included.
Got my pen out. Writing a letter asking for a meeting to address the situation. Gonna make sure this changes. I guarantee you, at the end of the year My Boys’ pictures WILL be listed in that yearbook with their gen-ed class. If I have it all-the-way my way, they’ll also be listed with their (oy) “contained” class too. And, every one of their classmates with special needs who have an inclusion component to their educational program will be cross-listed in the yearbook with their gen-ed class as well.
If we’re doing inclusion, we need to do it all-the-way!