"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Friday, March 01, 2013

New Jersey Targeting Special Ed Child Study Teams

Looks like Governor Christie and his voucher pushing, charter cheerleaders and profiteers have found more ways to suck the life and last breaths out of the New Jersey Public School System -- cutting school child study teams. This includes psychologists, social workers and other professionals.

Who will replace these services? Teachers of course. They will just have to fit it in between lock down drills, and target practice.
And, if the teachers don't go along with this latest scheme, those frivolous and unimportant services can be outsourced to private for profit companies. Here's an idea, just get rid of the for profit, private companies already running the cafeterias and the janitorial services and let the teachers take over those jobs too.
That's what's known as "efficiency." Sounds like a plan.

As New Jersey Jazzman points out, it worked for Halliburton. 

From New Jersey Jazzman


Why Is NJ BOE Targeting Special Ed Case Workers?

As I reported earlier, the NJ State Board of Education, acting on recommendations from 
the Education Transformation Task Force, isproposing a change in state code that
 would allow teachers and other staff to become case managers for students with
 special needs.

I've received a white paper dated February 22, 2013, from a coalition of stakeholders
 opposed to this change (I don't yet have a link to get my readers a copy, but I'm working
 on it). Members include:
  • Disability Rights New Jersey (DRNJ)
  • Education Law Center (ELC)
  • NJ Association of Learning Consultants (NJALC)
  • NJ Association of School Psychologists (NJASP)
  • NJ Association of School Social Workers (NJASSW)
  • NJ Association of Speech Language Specialists (NJASLS)
  • NJ Parent Advocates
  • New Jersey Education Association (NJEA)
  • NJ Special Education Practitioners
  • Special Education Clinic at Rutgers University School of Law - Newark
  • Special Education Leadership Council of NJ
  • Statewide Parent Advocacy Network (SPAN)
  • The Arc of New Jersey
 Will the stakeholders opposed to the latest torpedo
 aimed at the heart of the state's public school system
 convince the greedy, lying corrupt politicians and 
 corporations this is not in the best interests of 
 New Jersey's children or the communities they live in?

Ask the shareholders of Enron. 


4 comments:

  1. It will be much easier to overlook the things done to "other people's children" receiving special ed services when those things are done by outsiders. New Jersey's neediest students can say goodbye to whatever civil rights remain in this test-driven madness of NCLB and RTT.

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  2. Anonymous7:09 PM

    Just pointing out that many special education teachers and teachers who have inclusion classes are totally unaware of this pending change. Why isn't this front page news?

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  3. Anonymous6:07 PM

    My understanding at this juncture is that Bloomfield NJ is the first district to test the waters. They have let go all of their Child Study Teams and now they are trying to find professionals via out sourcing. I hope and prey that they are unsuccessful for both the special ed population in their district as well as the professionals they fired. Where is the union ? What a joke!

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  4. Anonymous7:31 PM

    Hello, I would like to spread this message around. Child Study Team is crap. I am a graduate from High School now off to College and I can tell you from experience in my district that they can care less about your learning. They say they are there for you but are never a big help. The teachers never teach you the material you need to learn because there is never enough time, so you miss a huge chunk of it when it comes to finals, and some have NO idea what they are doing and are teaching us the wrong thing, making it easier for us to do but slowly ruining our futures, so we think we are going to be ok when we are not.

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