Special Education: a parents fear

Question:
Recently we had a meeting at my son's school and they said they want to test him for special education services. I don't think he has a disability I think he is lazy and being a pain in the ass since my wife and I divorced. If we do this testing is he going to be labeled as a SPED kid. I'm afraid he will use whatever they come up with as a crutch and the school is not going to challenge him, they will just give him the easy classes and the easy way out. Am I just being paranoid?

Answer:
I was a history major and one of the things I learned early on is that if you want to figure out some person or nation's motive for something, follow the money.

Testing your son and giving him special education services and supports is going to cost the school a lot more money than leaving the situation as it is. In general the testing that schools provide to determine eligibility for special education can cost $9-15 thousand dollars if you were to pursue it on your own. Consequently, schools try everything else they can first, in fact now they are required to by law.

Illinois (where I work full time as a school social worker) requires RTI (response to intervention) before granting a student special education supports. That means if a student is struggling they have to try research based interventions and they have to measure how those interventions worked and only if those interventions indicate a need to move forward would they offer more support.

Notice I say offer rather than put a kid in special ed. Special Education is not a punishment, it is not a failure on any one's behalf, it is an acknowledgement that some individuals (up to 20% in some schools) are put at an unfair disadvantage by the way we teach and unless we do something to level the playing field they will not learn to their capability.

Your son may be lazy. He may be a pain in the ass. He may also have a disability that is making either of those factors worse. If you try special education and you think they are dumbing down the curriculum for him you can call a meeting at any time to insist that they ratchet things up and give him an appropriate level of challenge. If you really don't like the way they handle things you can always sign him out of special education completely.

No one outside the school will ever be told that he receives special education supports unless you tell them. Schools have this thing about not getting sued (hard to find space for a law suit in the budget) so they do not risk revealing ANYTHING about kids without parent permission.

If he does have a problem, particularly with reading or processing speed and you are hoping to get extended time on national college entrance tests like ACT or SAT the sooner you have documentation that these problems are legitimate and that he has been utilizing supports the more likely it is that he will be granted extended time. A better score on the ACT can mean entrance to a college or thousands of dollars in scholarships so it is worth finding out.

To be frank I wish every kid could have an IEP (individual education plan) where staff at the school got together with parents at least once a year to make sure we were doing things right for that student. To be honest I find the meetings to be terribly boring and we just don't have the time or the resources to give that to all students. If, however, you get the chance for that level of service from your local school don't be nervous, you just hit the jackpot.