Week 3 Journal

This week I think the most interesting part of what we learned was doing the activity we did Wednesday with arguing the Cedar Rapids case brought up a few things I hadn't thought of before. I was on the family side, and I could definitely understand their reasoning and opinions for asking the district for funding. As a parent myself, I got a little aggressive with the district people, and I can see how emotion can help AND hinder a case. It makes it difficult to see everything logically because you want whats best for your child. In this case, the family had already paid for the first five years, and now were asking for help. As a mother, that seems quite reasonable to me. 

On the other hand, as a future teacher, I could certainly sympathize with the view of the district. Schools have budgeting problems all the time, and most can barely support the schools and their programs without adding in a special needs child who can cost upwards of $18,000 extra a year to have in their schools. They are in a difficult position because they are bound by laws such as IDEA, FAPE, and LRE that require them to allow all student into the schools, but then they are limited by funds. 

From everything we've learned this week and discussed, it seems as though there are many programs today to help support families that were in the situation Garrett was, but the amount of paperwork and steps that a parent much go through can get tiring. On the districts side, they are bound by so many rules and regulations that they often have a hard time giving all the aid and support to the student who require it. As my group member Lisa mentioned, I think it's important that we become as knowledgeable as possible about the laws and procedures concerning our students with disabilities.