Our Inclusion Story

Our inclusion story begins with the unbelievable joy of adding our daughter to our family. Despite the challenges of being new to parenting, there was no doubt that having our daughter would make life fulfilling. Little did we know that an autism diagnosis would test our abilities as parents to think, work hard and be creative. Although she met those typical milestones, my daughter's communication skills seemed to fall behind those of other kids. With nowhere else to go and no knowledge of what our options were, we felt we had no choice but to accept a placement in a special ed segregated class. She was loved and nurtured in this school. But, in my eyes, this was not enough to get her to achieve her highest potential. No matter what the evaluations may have shown, I believed in my child's intelligence. She had it in her but someone had to come up with a method to bring that to the forefront. Someone other than her parents needed to believe in her. I found that in Myra Rodriguez, the inclusion coordinator, who was crucial in opening an inclusion program at the elementary school we eventually moved my daughter to. A new program will always have kinks that have to be ironed out. This school was no exception. But the positives certainly outweighed the negatives. Having the program in place is not enough. Parents' involvement is a big factor that contributes to the success of the program. Fortunately, we had that in this school (Thanks to the tremendous efforts put in by my wonderful friends Sandra and Joe.). My daughter did wonderfully at the inclusion program in elementary school. She had to work very hard to keep up  with the academics. This included an average of 3 to 3-1/2 hours of studying every day. With the opportunity to socialize, her language skills improved by leaps and bounds. This development was almost inevitable. Her language skills had to get better if she was to make and keep her friends. And she definitely wanted to make friends. In fact, to this day, she keeps in touch with friends she has had since elementary school. In terms of academics, with tutoring and help from the inclusion teacher as well as the general ed teachers, she was able to stay on top of the curriculum. She did all her homework and passed all the tests required. Before the end of 6th grade, even with some trepidation, we felt confident enough to take her out of inclusion and make her part of the general ed population.
Middle school transition was not easy. Then again, transition for our kids, mine in particular, has always been met with great difficulty. The much bigger population and hectic schedule was something she had to get used to. It took a while to do that. Once again, she was fortunate enough to have supportive people in school. The principal, assistant principal, guidance counselor, resource teacher, all her teachers and the staff looked out for her and did everything they could to ensure her success. Graduation from middle school led to high school at Frank Sinatra School of Performing Arts. My daughter is currently a senior at this school and is looking forward to college. She has already passed all the tests required to get her regents diploma and has had an average of 85 throughout her years in high school. She is in the drama studio in this school which means they are required to perform in front of an audience. Part of her extra curricular activities includes writing for the school newspaper. She writes reviews of Broadway shows. The school was originally in Long Island City until last year when they opened their new campus in Astoria. This means she has to commute via subway on her own. Outside of school life, she continues with dance classes and is on her 12th year in this dance academy. Where she is now would never have been possible without the foundation provided by the INCLUSION PROGRAM. Inclusion gave her the chance to move into the general ed setting without making it too drastic of a move. It also provided the crucial support system needed for success at the same time pushing her to reach for that seemngly impossible goal. Inclusion was the stepping stone to a more independent general ed situation where, hopefully, success would continue. This journey is not over and will continue to be one that will require a lot of effort but the foundation that inclusion has provided makes me feel confident that the future is bright. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO MADE INCLUSION POSSIBLE IN OUR SCHOOLS.

Inclusion Kinks

Getting into an inclusion setting in a New York City public school means having 2 children with special needs in a general ed setting. Along with the general ed teacher or teachers, a special ed teacher and a paraprofessional were provided. This was the kind of setting my daughter was in from first to sixth grade. It provided a whole host of opportunities to hone skills that were needed to move into decertification and becoming just "one" of the general ed students. But inclusion is not without its problems. One of the very first issues I have had to deal with is the attendance sheets. When she was a first grader, my daughter was asked from time to time to bring the folder that had the attendance sheets to the office. She brought to my attention the fact that her name was not on that sheet. It so bothered her that I had to question her special ed teacher about it. She explained that because inclusion is handled by District 75, the attendance for inclusion kids is taken separately by the special ed teacher. Other parents apparently noticed this too. There is no good way to explain this to the children. We don't understand why the attendance sheets cannot be done jointly and shared by both District 75 and the district the school belongs to. This separation of the attendance sheets does not serve the idea of inclusiveness well. It may probably be the source of other problems. One of the kids who graduated ahead of my daughter had his name omitted from the graduation program. His parents are very good friends of ours. When she relayed the story to us, we felt the pain as if it was happening to our own child. We were not exempt from a similar incident. When my daughter was in sixth grade, the kids all got t-shirts with their names as graduates printed on the back. My daughter's name was not printed on the shirts. This made my blood boil because it hurt her and made her feel less deserving despite her unbelievable achievements and efforts. It was actually a mistake that originated from not having her on the roster. The people in charge of the t-shirts did make an effort to correct their mistake. The solution was to print her t-shirt with her name at the bottom of the list, making her name much larger than the others. I applaud their effort. But think about it. This is not an ideal solution. The other kids' t-shirts will not have her name on it. This school displays one of the t-shirts for each graduating year on their wall and my daughter's name will not be on that one. I accepted this solution although I feel I should have taken a stronger stand about it. Another friend of ours has a son who just graduated from middle school. This is an artistic and talented young man who has put a lot of work into fulfilling all the academic requirements. Much to her shock and surprise, her son's yearbook did not contain his picture. Sure he is in the group picture. But what good is the yearbook if your individual picture is not in it. He graduated in June and she has been trying to get this resolved since before that. It is now October and, to this day, she has not heard about a solution. The yearbook is an important document that symbolizes a very significant turning point in a young person's life. This parent and her friends feel that the only acceptable solution is to specially print a yearbook with her son's picture in it. Our children's self-esteem is at stake when mistakes like this are made. I hope all schools make greater efforts at correcting these issues. Despite events like these, inclusion is still, in my opinion, one of the best educational settings available as an option to us. It just needs some tweaking. The kinks need to be fixed. Mr. Klein, are you listening?