“I love drawing cats, dogs and friends,” says Chandler
Cash, a first grade student at Nickajack Elementary School in Cobb County.
Thanks to her school’s practice of including all children, Chandler
has plenty of friends to choose from. Her two best friends are classmates
Catherine and Jamie, who recently had a sleepover at Chandler’s
house.
“We go outside and play together, and we go to the movies,”
says Chandler. “My favorite thing about school is playing with Chandler,”
says Jamie. “If she wasn’t here, I’d be bored!”
Catherine adds, “I’ve been with Chandler for two years already.
If she wasn’t here, I would think about her and see how she was
doing.”
“Chandler has a great story,” says Holli Cash of her 7-year-old
daughter. “At the beginning of last school year, we almost took
her out of school and put her in a self-contained class. The problem was,
Chandler’s needs weren’t being met as well as they could be.
The teachers wanted to meet her needs, but they weren’t sure how.”
So Mrs. Cash, who is a member of the PTA and active in her daughter’s
school, requested a meeting with her daughter’s teachers and the
school specialists. “At the time, Chandler was doing the same work
that her classmates were doing, but we realized she needed more breaks
in order to be successful. That was written into her educational plan.”
“Another thing we put in place was the opportunity for Chandler
to meet her next year’s teacher and see next year’s classroom
before the end of this school year. That way she will already know her
teacher and her teacher will know her before her IEP meeting in the
fall.”
“We have the same expectations for all of our students,”
says Amy Roberts, Chandler’s first grade teacher. “Before
I taught here, I observed some classes. I was told, ‘You may have
children in your class with severe disabilities. Do you want to be a
teacher who includes students?’” “Yes!” I said.
“It is amazing to see how loving and accepting everyone is. The
kids don’t see a difference [between themselves and others].”
“I have found that both the teachers and the students treat Chandler
as a child, not as a child with a disability,” says Mrs. Cash.
“We don’t have ‘special needs’ week at Nickajack.
We don’t treat our kids differently! That’s fine by me.”
From the smile on Chandler’s face, it’s fine by her, too.
Reprinted from “The GAO Advocate,” Volume XXV, Number 2, July 2002.