BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!!!!

Holy cow!!!! We just got out of school and it's time to go back! Okay, okay calm down, is what I keep telling myself because I am excited, nervous and looking forward to Anthony starting this school year!

As some of you may recall there were some issues that in the classroom Anthony was in last year with his teacher. The details I will not get into here right now, for those who may want to know there is a little information on the blog. Anyway, because of the issues we were having we decided that we really needed to explore what we should try with Anthony and what we kept going back to all summer was inclusion.

For those who don't know, inclusion is when children with disabilities are in a general education class with their typically developing peers, some students will have pull-outs to a resource room for some subjects, some will not, some will have a one on one aide and some will only have an aide in the classroom.

Anthony was in a DLC room which stands for Developmental Learning Center. In his room the grades were Kindergarten thru 2nd grade and all different kinds of disabilities and behaviors. We had to travel 8 miles one way to get home to this school because our neighborhood school does not have a DLC in it. Anthony's IEP (Individual Education Program) stated he would be pulled out of the class 35% of the time to attend the gen ed room, this did happen, but stopped towards the end of the year, by the teacher's choice, which by the way is wrong. Anyway, Anthony was learning behaviors in the classroom just by watching the other students, saw the attention they were getting and so he has tried them too, but gets no attention for them at home so the behaviors are short lived in our home, but not at school were they have to give him attention to maintain control, because of the attention they get children will often continue with such behaviors and than it all becomes a vicious circle.

Anyway, Anthony will attend our neighborhood school with all our neighborhood children. We have decided to repeat the 1st grade and he will attend Gen Ed with some pullouts to the resource room and the only service I want continued will be Speech therapy. I was almost in tears when I was talking with the school officials planning, because they were so excited, open and wanting Anthony to be part of the school, which is rarely the case without a fight.

Yes, there will be bumps in the road, there will be lots of work to be done, there will be celebrations and there will be tears, but the benefits for Anthony and all is peers will be very enriching life lessons that no book or teacher can teach our children. Anthony will learn from his peers what all children learn and Anthony in turn will be teaching his peers all that he has taught many of us, real compassion, trust, unconditional love, acceptance of all human life and he will be included. I once had a mom of a little girl with Down syndrome tell me of their fight towards inclusion "It was a fight, but well worth it. It took all of first grade to get things in place, but entering 5th, but birthday parties, play dates, sleepovers, AND great academic progress every year, it has been well worth it!!" and what parent doesn't want their child to be "included" in all that all other children are included in.

On Tuesday, September 7th 2010, Anthony will no longer be part of a "segregated community", but a member of "all community" and my heart skips a beat at how wonderful that will be, as he deserves to be "included", to be part of the community he will live in for the rest of his life.

In 1963 the great Martin Luther King gave a speech that forever begin the change of the world we live in. "I have a dream, one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed...that ALL men are created equal" We as a society joined a social movement towards acceptance, for the most part, accepting of different nationality's and different religions, of which I am thankful for. It was because of this social movement that I can choose to have meaningful relationships with ALL people. Yes we have lots more work to do and there are many in our world who will never be accepting of all people, but we have made great strides.

We have made great strides for all people but people with developmental disabilities. In today's world there are many states (Washington is one) who have not made much progress from 1975 when children with disabilities were first accepted into public schools. Children with disabilities are still being segregated from their peers leaving many parents fighting for their children's rights with many of these fights ending up in a courtroom, costing the families and school districts thousands of dollars.

Before Anthony I assumed all children were included in the public school system, but since having Anthony and being in the work that I do, with a heavy heart I have learned our children are not being "included." Sure the public schools have special classrooms for children with disabilities, but is that really including all children? If the schools were "including" all children then why do parents have to fight to get their children out of the special ed rooms?

Anthony is one of the lucky ones, we live in a district who knows the benefits of inclusion. There are many families in Washington who are not so lucky. Washington state needs to learn from states such as Oregon and Hawaii, just to name a couple who do practice inclusion with pullouts for ALL Students who need it, there are many states who do nothing but inclusion because it works.

I have a dream.....that someday all students will be included equally into their community and all segregation will be no more!