My child had been placed in special education reading classes last school year with no success yet he is at the appropriate level in all other academics for his grade level. I just received mail today stating that he will be placed in special education classes this school year and transported to school via special education busing. I do not want this for him as I feel he is capable of more that they will offer him. His teacher, year before last, also felt that Jonathan did not need full time special education, just remedial reading classes that were offered through special education. We were assured last year that he would only be placed one hour per day in special reading and the remainder of the school day would be in his regular class. Now we get this letter. This child is my grandson and I have legal custody of him. I am in my late 50′s and his grandfather is in his early sixties, I don’t know how much we can afford but something needs to be done for this otherwise bright child that has difficulty in reading only.

It sounds like you need to have a good one-on-one sit down with the teacher, special ed teacher, the school psychologist, and the principal of his school. Express your concerns and have the teachers explain and justify why they are classifying him in all of these areas if he is only struggling in one. Have them show you test scores, class placement scores (where he is on all subjects as compared to other children in his class), and what data they used to classify him as special needs.

The trouble might be that they are trying to teach him to read the same way that his regular teacher tried to teach him, and he just didn’t get it. A different method might work better for the type of learner that your grandchild is. Doing the same thing over and over again won’t help him read if he doesn’t understand it in the first place. There are many ways to teach a child to read, if one way didn’t work, try another, and another, and another until they get it and can read. A special education teacher should be able to do this, should have several methodologies available for her to use.

A good forthright discussion might help answer your questions and give you direction for your grandson’s school choices and options. There is a Federally mandated law that requires publicly funded schools to analyze, evaluate and determine the best course of educational action for any given child. Good luck to you and bless you for loving this boy enough to take him into your lives and help him learn.