Do the schools benefit by having therapists/providers?

tweety1

Wed, May 08 2024, 8:10 pm

Just.dont.get.me.started.on.this.one!!!! Dc principal was down my throat that dc needs therapy. Now, I knew dc has an issue but I wasn't sure what it is. I was in contact with many professionals and therapists outside of school. I have some connections to people I know irl. They all said to leave it alone. Very often these things change with maturity,as the kid gets older. BUT the principal wouldn't hear any of it. Punchline: dc was denied services. Not by a little but by a significant amount.

amother

Bellflower

Wed, May 08 2024, 8:26 pm

I work in a frum school out of the tristate area. Students are referred to me when the teachers have specific concerns regarding their ability to keep up with the academic and/or social/emotional demands in the school setting. Nothing to do with personality Confused

The school does not benefit in any way, but the students do.

amother

Bluebell

Wed, May 08 2024, 8:30 pm

amother Bellflower wrote:

The school does not benefit in any way, but the students do.

I have had the opposite experience in a chassidish school in the tri state area. Therapy is being shoved down the throat of majority of the parents and yes, the school benefits a lot.

amother

Babyblue

Wed, May 08 2024, 10:22 pm

My experience is that the teachers are overwhelmed by the amount of students getting therapy and the rotating door of therapists coming in and out of classrooms. It must be so hard for the kids to concentrate.
Teachers want the kids to be in class. They reluctantly let kids go out because they know it benefits the kids to work on the underlying skills (or because the child is so lost/in their own world that they're not necessarily benefitting from staying in the classroom either way).
The more the teachers can see directly that the specific therapy will benefit the child ,the more willing they are to let the kid go out. (So SEIT/p3 is no problem, OT they give a harder time unless it happens to be during handwriting cause a lot of teachers are unaware of how the underlying skills will improve academic performance. Actually, they really just want it to be worked on outside of school).
As an OT in a mainstream school, the only time teachers are thrilled to send a kid out is if they are acting up, need a sensory break, are being disruptive or have had a few melt downs that day. Or doing fine motor projects or handwriting.

Otherwise it's like taking bad tasting medicine. You do it cause it's needed. If it wasn't you'd stop ASAP.

(Some playgroups/smaller schools want kids to get SEITs or paras and plan on using them as assistants. That's not really fair to the providers or children that really need help. Most providers are happy to help, especially during play time if they're working on social skills and play skills with their students. But they are focused on their student first and foremost and cannot be counted as a classroom Morah.)

amother

Maple

Wed, May 08 2024, 10:30 pm

Teachers generally don’t gain anything from referring a student. They actually incur additional work related to the process. Unfortunately, though there are schools whose partnerships with special Ed companies involves access to funding that may color the opinion of administrators. But these are not educators and they should NOT be involved in the clinical aspect of therapy services.

Every school needs a professional on salary who does not EVER benefit from a referral who is responsible to coordinate these services. If the two are kept separate, the system should work to the students’ benefit.

On the other hand, parents cannot be completely objective about their child and what one parent may consider merely a personality, a teacher may find too challenging to manage in a mainstream classroom.

Our system is far far from perfect but parents and schools all need to work together to make it work.

Hatzloche!

amother

Bluebell

Wed, May 08 2024, 11:44 pm

amother OP wrote:

Do you know in what way does the school benefit?

I'm being as vague as possible, my intentions aren't to harm anyone, but what I saw was the administration asking the teachers and principals to up the amount of kids in therapy groups so that they can receive additional funding. It could be that these additional children would have benefited from therapy, I just hated the way it was done with the schools best interests and not the students.

amother

Smokey

Thu, May 09 2024, 11:44 am

I have a daughter whos had therapy in school and a son who currently gets therapy in school now. Although it’s beneficial and the therapists work with the teachers and rebbeim too, the teachers/rebbeim and principals seem to find it disruptive to the child’s learning when they get pulled out and aren’t thrilled about it. Mind you my son is not exactly an easy child to have in class, I thought they’d be thrilled to get a short reprieve from him lol. That wasn’t the case. They actually wanted him to be there!