Welcome back, friends. If you know my practice as a school psychologist, you know I love three groups: culturally/linguistically diverse students and families, families and children from low income backgrounds, and kids with big behaviors.
I want to take a moment to talk about where behaviors come from, and what behaviors look like in the public schools. In a public school behavior looks like refusing to work, isolating yourself from peers, crying quietly, crying loudly, cursing, slamming items, leaving the classroom, leaving the school, throwing things, hitting self, hitting peers, hitting staff, biting, spitting, hair pulling, head butting, etc. Once behavior gets to a certain point we need to reevaluate what the least restrictive environment (LRE) is for a child. Right up to the hitting, we should be able to manage things in the general education setting. Even when we get to the physical aggression, I think we can work it out in most cases.
Including the behaviors described, I've never met a child that liked to misbehave or to be punished. Every child likes to get attention, be loved, valued, and often to earn praise to develop a sense of value. The kids that are displaying these behaviors often don't know how to get the positive forms of attention. Students may come from homes where the only way to get attention is to act up, or they don't see studentship behaviors modeled. If we teach these kids clear expectations, teach the skills to make other choices, and positively reinforce good choices for everyone these kids can be successful. There is no question that positive reinforcement works.
We established in post two, that every child has the right to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE), provided by the local education authority (LEA/school district). Even kids with big behavior have a right to FAPE. Kids with behavioral needs, for myriad reasons, show up frequently in urban/low income settings. Charter schools also like to show up in urban/low income settings.
But charter schools do not like working with kids with big behavior, even though they still like to take that sweet district money.
There is story after story after story about the over disciplining of students at charter schools. These students are disproportionately boys of color. Once these students are excluded (read: kicked out) of these schools they comeback to their public school. The money doesn't.
To recap:
1. Charter schools disportunately punish students, particularly students of color.
2 These kids get the added joy of being kicked out of school, are welcomed back to their public schools
3. Charter keeps the tax payer's money.
I'm still looking for a winner on this one... oh wait, its the charter school's bottom line.
I want to take a moment to talk about where behaviors come from, and what behaviors look like in the public schools. In a public school behavior looks like refusing to work, isolating yourself from peers, crying quietly, crying loudly, cursing, slamming items, leaving the classroom, leaving the school, throwing things, hitting self, hitting peers, hitting staff, biting, spitting, hair pulling, head butting, etc. Once behavior gets to a certain point we need to reevaluate what the least restrictive environment (LRE) is for a child. Right up to the hitting, we should be able to manage things in the general education setting. Even when we get to the physical aggression, I think we can work it out in most cases.
Including the behaviors described, I've never met a child that liked to misbehave or to be punished. Every child likes to get attention, be loved, valued, and often to earn praise to develop a sense of value. The kids that are displaying these behaviors often don't know how to get the positive forms of attention. Students may come from homes where the only way to get attention is to act up, or they don't see studentship behaviors modeled. If we teach these kids clear expectations, teach the skills to make other choices, and positively reinforce good choices for everyone these kids can be successful. There is no question that positive reinforcement works.
We established in post two, that every child has the right to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE), provided by the local education authority (LEA/school district). Even kids with big behavior have a right to FAPE. Kids with behavioral needs, for myriad reasons, show up frequently in urban/low income settings. Charter schools also like to show up in urban/low income settings.
But charter schools do not like working with kids with big behavior, even though they still like to take that sweet district money.
There is story after story after story about the over disciplining of students at charter schools. These students are disproportionately boys of color. Once these students are excluded (read: kicked out) of these schools they comeback to their public school. The money doesn't.
To recap:
1. Charter schools disportunately punish students, particularly students of color.
2 These kids get the added joy of being kicked out of school, are welcomed back to their public schools
3. Charter keeps the tax payer's money.
I'm still looking for a winner on this one... oh wait, its the charter school's bottom line.
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