Impact of SE placementon college entrance | ADHD Information

This is what I have heard:

The school will tell you there are colleges that will accept your child, and that
the college can't discriminate legally (which is true), but the colleges will reject him on the basis of his not having their required prerequisites.

If your child has an IEP, they will not give him the normally required high school units (i.e. four years of math (through Algebra 2 for graduation, and at least through Trigonometry for college applicants), four of English, three to four of science, four of history, and three to four of foreign language).

Colleges will reject him if he does not have these. And high schools will make allowances and reduce requirements to graduate him, and will not push him to achieve.

NoTellin, I hope you're not worrying about this with your son because he's only in first grade, right? 

An IEP does not have to be forever.  An ARD stands for Admission, Review, and Dismissal, with dismissal being the goal for kids who do not have some type of cognitive impairment (autism, mental retardation, brain damage) that will impair them their entire lives.  Even for the LD high school kid who does not exit Special Education, hopefully the child will be mainstreamed in the regular education classroom enough to receive full credit for his/her high school classes.  My son has an IEP, and he is in regular education for all his classes.  I don't see any reason why he won't be taking all the high school classes you mention, as well, and, therefore, receiving full credit. 

As far as pushing a child to achieve, a child who is LD is not going to achieve by being "pushed."  S/he is going to achieve by having his/her needs addressed through remediation and accommodated and modified, until the remediation "catches him/her up."  A true LD child cannot be pushed into achieving with the regular curriculum.  If s/he could, the child wouldn't be LD.

Does anyone know how an SE placement affects college applications? And about an SE placement with remedial classes vs regular classes?

Yes, he is in first grade.

If the school receives extra funds for an SE child, what is the motivation to dismiss them from SE? Especially if they are SE but only need classroom modifications and therefore aren't costing them any extra money?

Can the parent make the determination on their own that the child no longer needs SE services and simply decline any further SE services, discontinue the IEP, and state that they no longer want the child classified as SE?

NoTellin, who have you been talking to   ?

The schools are not getting rich from SPED.  Anything but.  They get extra money for SPED kids because it costs extra money to educate these kids.  All SPED kids have to be evaluated and re-evaluated periodically.  That means the school has to have a diagnostician.  There are different classifications for SPED, which means the school has to have specialists, who understand these classifications.  Parents get angry and sue, which means the schools have to have big law firms to protect them.  Some childeren need to be in pullout classes, which means the school has to have teachers for these classes.  Some children need OT services, which means the school has to have an OT.  Some children need specialized medical services, which means the school has to have a nurse for these services.  Some students have behavioral issues, which means the school has to have psychologists to evaluate these children.  Because there are all these specialists, the school has to have a central office to administrate these services.  SPED is very, very expensive for schools. 

A friend's daughter is about to graduate from college in engineering. She had a 504 plan through college for things like notes. Apparently getting class notes online is not difficult at many colleges. She also received psychological counseling through the college. She graduates in May and already has a job!

Anyway, it would be great if our kids don't need any accommodations in college, but it is nice to know that some things can be in place if they need them.