Thread: Suspected problem with student... what to do?

I think the procedure is, that the teacher can ask the spec ed folks to get involved, but the testing involves specialists, such as a psychologist who gets $90/hour. If tested, then the kid gets all manner of labels and other spec ed paraphernalia, eligibility for mods, and if the disability is severe enough, and you are lucky, then a separate setting. Look at it this way- after he runs through whatever you can do with him in class, you can send him to the office and clearly leave it to the administration to deal with him, and you have already indicated, in your professional judgement, what you think the problem is. You are correct in assuming that your principal wants to toss this under the rug- its going to be all paperwork, red tape, and other crap, and won't do diddly if nothing positive is going on at home. If you want to irritate your principal, press the matter. That choice is yours. As far as the drug testing, only if the kid is involved in athletics, in some states, or if they are on probation and one of the probation requirements is to stay drug free (then you get in touch with the parole officer).

Originally Posted by JohnBoy

If you want to irritate your principal, press the matter. That choice is yours. As far as the drug testing, only if the kid is involved in athletics, in some states, or if they are on probation and one of the probation requirements is to stay drug free (then you get in touch with the parole officer).

Thanks, John. I suspected this was the case. I'll leave it alone then.

The problem here is probably not that they don't want the paper work...the law states that a school in responsible for testing for all areas of suspected dispected disabilty. Your statement created a suspected disability the school is responsible for.They probably don't want to spend the money. It is not you that has to do the paper work, other than a referral to special ed and a behavior rating scale (if he is tested). It lies in the hands of special education.

How does the child do academically? Even with a diagnosed disabilty, he won't qualify for special education services unless there is a significant discrepancy between ability and achievement. If you think there is a discrepancy, by all means refer him.

I would suggest; however, that in the future you shy away from "naming" any disorder you think a child might have... instead, make a referral to sped and state the behaviors that are causing the difficulty. I once saw a school have to test for tourette's syndrome because an ed tech stated in the records that she thought he had it. He didn't.

Sounds like my "O"
is ti possible that he has tourettes?

That was the first thing that popped in my mind too Xyphir. Lord knows, don't throw that out to them though OP.

Originally Posted by Xyphir

Sounds like my "O"
is ti possible that he has tourettes?

I must have missed this post - sorry for not responding sooner.

Tourettes was actually the first thing that I thought of, and before any of this happened, I went to the counselor to see if he had any kind of disorder that I should know about. I mentioned that sometimes it seemed like he had tourettes or something, which caused the counselor to giggle. She said he didn't have any disorders that she knew of, just that he is from a family that has a lot of problems.

So that's that. I'm fairly sure that he'll be sent to an alternative school soon (I'm hoping he will, actually, as horrible as I know that sounds. He just makes every class period a huge struggle, and I don't know how to help him). I feel bad, but I'm really not qualified to guess what might be wrong, and I definitely don't want to irritate the administration, especially since I'm starting to think his problem is drug-related more than anything else. So I'm just going to let it go.

In the state I teach in it is actually illegal for a teacher to even suggest a possible medical disorder such as ADHD. We are not qualified to do so. Also, mentioning it makes the school responsible for the testing of the child. I'm glad you decided to leave it be. Also, seeing as mainstreaming is the current trend it might be good to take a SPED class at your local college so you can learn about the different disabilities and specific strategies on working with them.

What procedure is in place to delve into the student's needs? In our district, we would have filled out the paperwork to refer this student to our SAP committee, and the team would have met with the teachers involved to see what concerns exist, how much they overlap, and what each teacher has tried with the student and what has worked and not worked. We would try out different suggestions over time, and referred for evaluation if it progressed that far.

Have you checked out the student's cumulative file in the office to see what has been done in prior grades?

An aside, I have had students who beg to have one more chance to show good behavior after they have gone through my sequence and earned a detention. Some things must be universal. I tell them that they have earned it and they already made the choice. The only time I have put off a detention is when a few students have acted out because of special circumstances, such as having their father in surgery and they were worried. I let them know that if they had told me in the first place, I certainly would have understood their inability to do their work.

Originally Posted by Bananas

What procedure is in place to delve into the student's needs? In our district, we would have filled out the paperwork to refer this student to our SAP committee, and the team would have met with the teachers involved to see what concerns exist, how much they overlap, and what each teacher has tried with the student and what has worked and not worked. We would try out different suggestions over time, and referred for evaluation if it progressed that far.

That's our process, too. And it is clear that no one wants to do it (read my posts above for more information). I'm not willing to irritate the administration. I'm a new teacher and really don't know what is best, so if they want to leave it alone, I'm leaving it alone.

Have you checked out the student's cumulative file in the office to see what has been done in prior grades?

I don't know how to check it, and again, I think I would just get on people's nerves if I tried to find out. I was basically told to drop it.