Hello, I live in the state of Rhode Island in the United States. As of right now, having worked with the child I mentor/tutor, I believe as does his mother to the best of me knowledge that he should have a 1:1 aide for school. Her reasons are purely academic while mine are both academic and behavioral. He's distance learning now so nobody actually sees the behaviors that occur when normal school is in session. I won't go into too much detail except to say that last year the office was called 4-5 times per day on average for anything from elopement to self injurious behavior to just plain old disruptive behavior. This child is currently going for an IEP now and is in the general ed classroom. I don't want him placed in a self contained classroom down the road as I almost feel like that would be worse for his self esteem. I feel like even if he had a 1:1, he might feel funny about it at first but the 1:1 wouldn't have to sit on top of him all day. While they would be assigned to him to help with problem behaviors and to offer academic support, the 1:1 could circulate around the room and offer help to the other kids or even just go up to a gen ed kid and say "good work. Let me know if you need anything." or something just to make it seem like they are there for everyone. I do have a couple of key questions though. First off, how does a person go about asking for a 1:1 aide for a child. In my district where I work we only have one 1:1 aide for the 3,7000 kids in total. She works with an adult with down syndrome in a transitional life skills program. As you can see, they don't like to hand out aides willy nilly. They may consider putting a TA in a classroom for multiple kiddos but even that's a long shot. Everyone says get a doctor's note but I read something last night that said doctor's note aren't really super effective when requesting that and that being overly dramatic won't help either. Another major problem is attendance. This child rarely attends school now because he gets sick (tummy aches, headaches etc.) I'm almost thinking though that if he had a 1:1 to help him when he needs it, he would feel less stressed and thus some of the physical symptoms would go away and he would be able to attend school more. Or, at least he could come to school with mild symptoms (Not during covid obviously) because the aide could monitor him and pull him out for relaxation breaks as needed so he wouldn't be missing an entire school day. Another concern I have is how would the child feel having a 1:1. Is there anyone out here who had a 1:1 aide. How did it make you feel? I don't want him feeling more embarrassed but on the other hand, I don't want the office called 20 times a day for his behaviors which start because of his academics. Can anyone shed some light on what I should do to get this process going in March, or at least help the parent get the process going?
06 Feb 2021, 8:08 pm
