I am a special education teacher working at a middle school with a co-teaching model of inclusion. My district is beginning to discuss looking at other models of delivery such as a consultant model. My initial reaction has been that the co-teaching model is "best" b/c a special education teacher is right there in the general ed setting which in my mind offers the highest quality of programming for the inclusion student. Overall, the co-teaching model has worked well in our district; however, if I am totally honest, with some general ed partners, the efforts of the special education teacher end up primarily going into keeping the teacher-to-teacher relationship afloat... losing the focus from the needs of the special ed. students. What is your opinion?

Before I vote, what is the Consultant model?

Our school is struggling with co-teaching and the kids are not being served nearly as they should. Problem is, neither side wants to change their adversarial attitude. It has been a bit of a head ache for me.

The below info is from the state website in NY. I am under the impression that things could be very different state-to-state. All my work experience has been in the co-teaching model.

Consultant Teacher services are defined as direct and/or indirect services provided to a school-age student with a disability in the student's general education classes, including career and technical education classes, and/or to such student’s general education teachers.

Direct CT ( Consultant Teacher) services mean specially designed instruction provided to an individual student with a disability or to a group of students with disabilities by a certified special education teacher to aid the student(s) to benefit from the general education class instruction. Direct CT can be combined with indirect CT services.
Indirect CT services mean consultation provided by a certified special education teacher to a general education teacher to assist the general education teacher in adjusting the learning environment and/or modifying his/her instructional methods to meet the individual needs of a student with a disability who attends the general education class. Indirect CT can be combined with direct CT services.

The new memorandum on the Continuum
of Services for School Age Students with Disabilities in New York State can be found below.

http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/pu ... inuum.html
and also at http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/timely.htm

I don't have a vote in response to your question, but this topic is the reason I have joined the forum. I am the "general ed" teacher at my school. We are moving toward the co-teaching model and I have been asked to be the "inclusion" classroom for 3rd grade this year. However, they are throwing around words like inclusion, push-in, and co-teaching like they are interchangeable. As I have been reading on-line this summer, I'm finding myself overwhelmed. Can you explain the differences between these terms?

Ideally, what they want to do is put all the identified special ed students in my room...not including behavioral issues. Then they want all the teachers who serve these students to "push-in" to my room at various times of the day. They have never serviced students before either. So it is the blind leading the blind. Is there a good book or other resource that will help us set up this model that I can get my hands on quickly to share with my collegues as we start planning and meeting next week?

Thanks for your help

Sorry, I meant to say:

They have never serviced students with this model before.