It's called mainstreaming and the requirement is "least

by AkRay, Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 18:50 (4360 days ago) @ Byron

restrictive environment" for everyone, especially for this type of messed up kid. We have Special Ed. kids in our main population, and S.E.D., or severely emotionally disturbed students in our schools. The very worst are kept away from the schools, but the ones that are not quite to that level are still available to cause mayhem where it isn't wanted. They've come up with terms such as Oppositional Defiance Disorder to describe those who habitually misbehave and misuse their classroom time but otherwise don't qualify as S.E.D. They don't qualify for extra help so they're placed in a classroom with the normal kids and the classroom teacher deals with them as best they can.

In my district, there are programs that are self contained within classrooms in some of the schools and they begin with the primary grades all the way through high school, and they house those with the tendencies you've described above. I once stood outside a former principal's office and watched a 3rd grader landing haymakers on her. Up to this point she was in denial about this kid's behavior in his classroom and actions towards his classmates and was reluctant to recommend him for an S.E.D. program. She saw the light after he beat on her for a while though and he was gone soon after. These S.E.D. students stay in their classrooms for most of their instruction but join a class of their age level for physical education or music or recess. Even when they have aides escorting them, they cause problems. It's just the way they are. This doesn't even count those who are on medication for other reasons such as ADHD.

A special education degree or endorsement will get you to the head of the line for a job, but from what I've seen, not the type of job that makes for a long career in education. As you've pointed out Byron, there used to be special places for these bad apples, but now they're typically right there with the rest of the students as much as possible and they tend to cause disruptions and bring everyone else down. We'll never see good results from the majority of these kids and their special requirements take a big bite out of our education dollars. The philosophy is a free public education for everyone through high school and we've been paying the price for it for about the past 40 years. It's a mess.