District 64- wants to segregate 5th grade special needs kids

I do not believe this approach is the best solution for the children in question.

General Ed and Special Ed students both benefit from being together. Please keep policy as is.

By your side all the way.

please do not do this to these children! As an aunt of a child with special needs the most important thing for these kids to be around kids that are normal as it will help them learn more.

Imperious and absurd, but unfortunately quite typical of District 64. It is a shame that parents of special needs students are treated so cavilierly and are being put through this emotional upheaval.

Glad to sign

I love u Seanie! ❤️

Do what is right for the children!!!!!

This is not in the best interests of these children to separate them from there peers.

Please do not move the special needs children to the middle School one year earlier. They should treated the same as the other kids in their grade.

As a previous educator of special needs children, I strongly support keeping our children with special needs together with their peers through 5th grade.

Was it not the practice of Nazi Germany to banish special needs children and treat them differently from neurotypicals?

The IEP process under Boyd’s administration was a joke. They have no regard for parental input and only hold meetings because they must do so.

I am parent of a special needs child who currently attends Lincoln and has received services in D64 since pre-K. In fact, our child has been described a “pioneer” for D64 providing equal access to home schools, rather than directing all special needs students to Carpenter or Franklin, as was the practice when our child entered D64. The current proposal, without notice to parents, is not surprising and typical of D64’s lack of sensitivity to special needs families. I strongly disagree with Dr. Heinz’s statement that D64 provides superior special education services. That had not been our experience of late. The proposal to uproot fifth graders into middle school is unwise for many reasons, but primarily because the level of special needs services, at least at Lincoln, is not very good. Since attending Lincoln, my child has experienced name-calling by multiple teachers, including one teacher saying he wanted to “defenestrate” (which means assissinate by throwing out a window) the class. While complaint was made, it was swept under the rug by D64 officials, including Ms. Boyd, and my child was required to remain in the class with this teacher. Moreover, the school has shown a marked inability to protect our child who is regularly bullied and physically assaulted by peers. Despite complaints, the school’s attitude essentially is to blame our child for not understanding personal space. Even after another student punched our child in the face at an after school activity, resulting in the shiner, nothing meaningful was done in response. Placing 5th grade special needs students in a middle school setting with older and bigger kids, who generally lack empathy for peers who are “different” — as this is something that D64 does not teach or teach well — is potentially dangerous, discriminatory, and not inductive to their well-being. I hope this proposal is quashed.

All this will do is set the students up for failure. Aren't we past this archaic model already?

This idea is a bad one with no benefit I can see for the children.

Shame on District 64.

I believe in inclusion. Our community is blessed with resources and we can keep these children with their peers. It’s important to them, to the people they go to school with, and to our community to ensure they can represent as who they are. These children will be 5th graders - not sixth.

I have more than one friend who will be impacted by this, and not one of them supports this plan. Please reconsider.

This is appalling. Socialization is part of school, as much as math and science are. Everybody benefits from inclusivity. Jane doesn’t realize this.