I am heartened to see what seems like a growing desire to accommodate special needs where possible; and I agree with you about the the infeasibility of providing the level of services public schools are legally obligated to provide (barring major restructuring of how schools are financed)
But I have also seen Catholic schools that are so …
I am heartened to see what seems like a growing desire to accommodate special needs where possible; and I agree with you about the the infeasibility of providing the level of services public schools are legally obligated to provide (barring major restructuring of how schools are financed)
But I have also seen Catholic schools that are so used to thinking "we can't accommodate special needs" that they refuse accommodations that are free and very minor, simply because they don't want to open the door to doing ~anything at all (like, "this kid is still getting used to operating their wheelchair; if they come in quietly and non disruptively, is it okay if they're a few minutes late to class?" --> "No, there's exactly 5 minutes transition time between classes; any kid who is late gets detention; if we start giving exceptions, how could we enforce any school discipline at all??")
Thankfully, our principal was already pretty reasonable for accommodations like that. Part of the purpose (we felt) of having a special education program is to teach the general student body charity towards people with different needs from their own. That has to start from the literal adults in the room saying "they need this, so in the virtue of justice we will give it to them". So yeah, it definitely begins with extra transition time and not making a big deal about absolute, identical conformity from every student on things like that.
I am heartened to see what seems like a growing desire to accommodate special needs where possible; and I agree with you about the the infeasibility of providing the level of services public schools are legally obligated to provide (barring major restructuring of how schools are financed)
But I have also seen Catholic schools that are so used to thinking "we can't accommodate special needs" that they refuse accommodations that are free and very minor, simply because they don't want to open the door to doing ~anything at all (like, "this kid is still getting used to operating their wheelchair; if they come in quietly and non disruptively, is it okay if they're a few minutes late to class?" --> "No, there's exactly 5 minutes transition time between classes; any kid who is late gets detention; if we start giving exceptions, how could we enforce any school discipline at all??")
Thankfully, our principal was already pretty reasonable for accommodations like that. Part of the purpose (we felt) of having a special education program is to teach the general student body charity towards people with different needs from their own. That has to start from the literal adults in the room saying "they need this, so in the virtue of justice we will give it to them". So yeah, it definitely begins with extra transition time and not making a big deal about absolute, identical conformity from every student on things like that.