During my 30 years as a special-education teacher, serving in three different districts, I spent thousands of dollars of my personal income to provide instructional materials for my students.
Whenever the district purchased new curriculum, it was always for general-ed classrooms. When I asked if my special-education program would receive new materials, the answer was “No.” The first time my special-ed program received a new, special-ed appropriate reading curriculum was as a result of President Obama’s stimulus. The only problem was that the materials received were designed for instruction only through the second-grade level. I served students through the fifth-grade level. I asked my special-ed administrators and my building principal for reading materials for third- and fourth-grade levels. The answer was, “no.” Just before I retired in June 2015, I wrote and received a grant from the local Rotary International club to purchase these materials.
The state does not provide adequate funding for special-education instructional materials. I think there needs to be a law mandating that when a school district makes a new curriculum adoption, new, appropriate curriculum must be purchased for both general-ed and special-ed programs.
Christy Robertson, Seattle