"Severe" Shortage in Special Ed. Here is Why.

[SweetSue92]

This is all you need to know.

When Mary Tackitt first took a job as a teaching assistant for students in special education, it seemed like a good opportunity. She enjoyed the time with children — like the little boy who would hold her hand and tap it on the desk to keep rhythm with music. But working with students with severe disabilities was tough. She took them to the bathroom and changed diapers. And she was hurt on occasion by those who struggled to regulate their emotions.

Tackitt, who worked for Indianapolis Public Schools, made just over $15 an hour.

“The more I had to be bit by kids and the more I had to take them to the bathroom and get fecal matter on myself, the more I just kind of realized that it wasn't enough,” Tackitt said.

She resigned this spring, after less than a year in the job.

Why Indiana schools compete with McDonalds for staff to teach students in special ed

When schools dont have enough special education paraprofessionals, its a problem for the whole system.

www.wfyi.org

 

[Confederate Soldier]

rupol2000​

is in need of a special needs teacher. Let's hope we can get him one soon.

 

[Woodznutz]

These kids belong in a private school, where teachers are better paid.

 

[SweetSue92]

These kids belong in a private school, where teachers are better paid.

I think we're gonna have to get back to this. Better equipped and better paid. Yes.

 

[Disir]

There is no shortage of special ed teachers. Those exist. The districts don't want to pay for them. Teacher's assistant is a Para. They don't make jack and the school districts love them. Para's do not have near the education level that the actual teachers do. They just need a high school diploma. That is how the district can circumvent paying them the same salary or benefits.

 

[Woodznutz]

Low paid workers are necessary for many businesses to keep their doors open. Much of American large agriculture was built upon cheap immigrant labor, not any demand for their product. Demand came last through marketing on a vast scale. Even the USDA lent a hand by building a nutritional 'food pyramid' that included those products. Dieticians and nutritionists jumped in as well, parroting each other in promoting "leafy greens" and other such foods as necessary for health.

 

[Seymour Flops]

There is no shortage of special ed teachers. Those exist. The districts don't want to pay for them. Teacher's assistant is a Para. They don't make jack and the school districts love them. Para's do not have near the education level that the actual teachers do. They just need a high school diploma. That is how the district can circumvent paying them the same salary or benefits.

Yep! Paraprofessionals are a huge benefit to students and teachers (and principals).

In Texas they raised education minimum for paras to 60 hours and raised the pay by. . . .nothing.

 

[Disir]

Yep! Paraprofessionals are a huge benefit to students and teachers (and principals).

In Texas they raised education minimum for paras to 60 hours and raised the pay by. . . .nothing.

Well, that is an issue. You can't demand them to become more qualified and then refuse to pay them. They have to be able to survive otherwise it was meaningless.

 

[Woodznutz]

The real solution is to reduce the future number of special needs kids through changes in lifestyle and thinking. Such changes could be encouraged by teachers.

 

[bodecea]

I think we're gonna have to get back to this. Better equipped and better paid. Yes.

 

[bodecea]

The real solution is to reduce the future number of special needs kids through changes in lifestyle and thinking. Such changes could be encouraged by teachers.

What?

 

[Woodznutz]

What?

Develop programs to reduce the future number of special needs kids rather than developing programs that anticipate yet more special needs kids in the future. Why encourage human failure?

 

[Seymour Flops]

Develop programs to reduce the future number of special needs kids rather than developing programs that anticipate yet more special needs kids in the future. Why encourage human failure?

I think I like your thinking, but can you give some examples? I work with special needs kids, and I can tell you any one of them would be happier if they were not special needs.

 

[Unkotare]

These kids belong in a private school, where teachers are better paid.

Wrong.

 

[SweetSue92]

Yes to the layperson it just seems cruel. But I am here to tell you that if children saw at home what they see in my classroom--due to children with emotional/behavior disabilities--they would be taken from their home. They would be removed from their home by CPS for an "unsafe environment".

But we keep them in these terrible, violent situations because oh, the poor special needs children. I get that, I do. But at some point the needs of ALL the children must be balanced.

Here is an image of an event that necessitates a "room clear". The special needs child is left in the room to do this, and the other children must clear the room. It happens at my school multiple times a week.

If you support education and teachers, at some point, this below needs to be addressed. It's a BIG reason teachers are leaving the profession.

 

[SweetSue92]

Another room clear. This one is a doozy:

 

[Woodznutz]

Another room clear. This one is a doozy:

View attachment 684921

If schools actually accommodate this behavior they've got bigger problems than they realize.

 

[Woodznutz]

Wrong.

Based on the "room clear" pictures above they belong in an institution, not a school.

 

[Woodznutz]

Yes to the layperson it just seems cruel. But I am here to tell you that if children saw at home what they see in my classroom--due to children with emotional/behavior disabilities--they would be taken from their home. They would be removed from their home by CPS for an "unsafe environment".

But we keep them in these terrible, violent situations because oh, the poor special needs children. I get that, I do. But at some point the needs of ALL the children must be balanced.

Here is an image of an event that necessitates a "room clear". The special needs child is left in the room to do this, and the other children must clear the room. It happens at my school multiple times a week.

If you support education and teachers, at some point, this below needs to be addressed. It's a BIG reason teachers are leaving the profession.

View attachment 684915

Are the other kids in the room special needs kids as well? If not it seems that one special needs kid throwing a tantrum can interfere with the education of an entire class of normal kids. This can't be right, can it?

 

[Woodznutz]

There is no shortage of special ed teachers. Those exist. The districts don't want to pay for them. Teacher's assistant is a Para. They don't make jack and the school districts love them. Para's do not have near the education level that the actual teachers do. They just need a high school diploma. That is how the district can circumvent paying them the same salary or benefits.

How much education (or pay) is necessary to babysit a bunch of deranged kids?