Social Development students-- should they be placed in alternative schools or not?

Question

I have a project to do in my AP English class where I must choose a topic with two distinct sides and present both sides to the class. My issue is whether social development children (bipolar, schizophrenia, autism, turrets, etc.) should be mainstreamed into every day classes or should be moved to a seperate school.

I have to have 4 to 5 sources, and I'm having troubles finding them. A lot of my information will be coming from my head because my younger sister is a social development student and we are currently trying to figure out how to plan her education. If you have any suggestions for sources, please offer them.

AP stands for Advanced Placement. It's a college level course you take in high school, at the end of which you take test. If you score well enough, you can be exempt from various college credit (different schools require different scores).

Currently, my little sister is in the Social Development class, which is a branch of the special education department. We have tried mainstreaming her, but it has proved unsuccessful.

Answer 1

try NAMI
www.nami.org/template.cfm?section=About_NAM
I substitute in inclusion classes and it is hard to teach when the kids have such special needs...I would make the suggestion that half day hospital programs that are geared toward school is one of the best things I have seen...it gives the special help to succeed without making the kids feel ostracized due to special needs

Answer 2

We don't have a term like that in Canada that I know of. We have "special needs". What's an AP English class?

I think that the info must come from your head because the assumption should be that anyone should be able to access the public system unless there is a demonstrable reason as to why not. In some cases, it is an invasion of privacy to provide that kind of medical information to the school system. It should be on a "need to know" basis only.

Your thesis seems to be that "planning her education" allows her no autonomy. If she is disabled to the point where she cannot make her own choices, professionals should be involved in this, if you are thinking of excluding her from participating in mainstream education.

Answer 3

The term "social development students" is a new one on me. When I was a kid, we had "the ungraded class," and the kids with developmental problems (retarded, to a kid's way of talking) and kids with behavior problems (brats, to a kid's way of talking) were in the ungraded class. It was indeed ungraded in the sense of not being divided up by age, and also in not having ABC grades reporting on their progress. Instead, their parents came to school every couple of months and discussed the kid's progress with the teacher in private.

So it was not an alternative school, but it was not mainstreaming, either. They saw the rest of the students at recess and before and after school, but they had lunch together, because otherwise the rest of the students would get as rowdy as them and throw food. Also, the big kids tended to steal the treats the "retarded" kids had brought.

It seemed to be pretty effective, actually. When they could fit into a regular class, they were transferred in. The teacher usually gave us a little lecture before the transfer about how we were getting a new student who had "graduated" from the ungraded class. We were warned not to tease or take advantage of them, but to make them welcome. And we mostly did.

Answer 4

my daughter has had some definite problems handeling being in regular school. I'm a social worker and my clients are children who often require higher level education placement.

the main focus in on how the child responds to his environment. for example, my daughter was struggeling terribly in high school. she became sympomatci, always sick without really being sick. she had anxiety attacks and finally I put her in a community school where she does just fine. It's a calmer atmosphere for her because there is more structure and the faculty know how to respond to her in a more sensitive manner.

My clients' needs vary. Some who are eligible for special education, higher level education settings, like alternative school, non-public schools, etc are able to mainstream into more regular classes as they develop confidence enough to respond to the environment in a beneficial manner.

What's important is how the child is responding. If the child is struggling, stressed out, losing confidence in his abilities, etc then alternative school settings might be more apropriate. If the child is progressing well, confident, overcoming difficulties of the environment without struggling, I say allow him to be in less restrictive settings and enjoy being in regular schools.

Answer 5

Go to Google, Yahoo, and other search engines & type in pros of alternative school and cons of alternative school
Good luck!!!!