Letter: Majority of students forsaken for benefit of few

Friday, Aug. 17, 2007 | 7:28 a.m.

Not many people know federal regulations mandate that individual education programs (IEPs) are required for special education students. The laws specifically require that anytime an individual special education student's program is in need of planning or modification, that student's needs are a priority over all others.

In addition to parents, often with their attorneys, the student, counselors, an administrator, school social and health workers and all of the individual's classroom teachers must attend the meeting. Meetings may take anywhere from one to four hours out of each individual classroom teacher's instructional time.

A teacher may be absent from one to four class periods on a given day because of the mandated meeting required for an individual student's IEP. The teaching responsibilities and obligations of individual instructors toward other students are secondary in importance and are not considered in these situations. Entire classes are left in the care of a substitute adult, be it another teacher, counselor, librarian, teacher aide, hall monitor or administrator.

The rights of regular students are negated by application of mandated federal laws for special-needs students. Classes of 30 to 35 regular students are relegated to second-class status as a result of these regulations. The accumulated effect of lost teacher-student class contact time for all regular students depends on the number IEPs required for each special needs student per course. Multiple conference periods may be required per year.

It is a sad commentary on American education that guaranteed federal benefits for the few end up forsaking the needs of the majority.

Virgil A. Sestini, Las Vegas