Good morning,
I have a been a preschool director for 2 years, before that I taught Head Start for 3 years and have worked in a variety of preschool classrooms over a 10 year period. As a director, I have had to let go 2 children in 2 years. Those children would spend the majority of their days in the office "calming down" as they became aggressive towards teachers and/or other children and even myself at times . The owner became increasingly frustrated over time as he felt that I could not do my job properly as I was constantly trying to tend to these behaviors.
There is a group here in Hamilton county that has been working toward this issue, I have attended several meetings of discussion on the topic.
There is also something here called Child Care Answers which provides an inclusion specialist that will come in and observe and work with teachers AND parents. The problem is it can be months before she is available.
When parents are not compliant, this can also be difficult. Of the 2 children we asked to leave our facility - the first one had been asked to leave another facility and now has a nanny and attends a developmental preschool 1/2 day. The other attends a preschool with smaller ratios 1/2 day and a developmental preschool the other 1/2.
I think more training for preschool teachers would be excellent - but I'm not sure that would even solve this issue. I would love to have a licensed therapist in house - but we all know there isn't funding for that in a small private preschool - we only have 21 employees. Also in children so young, of course we WANT to meet their needs, but the majority of the time they are to young to officially diagnose so it also takes a lot of time and trial and error to figure out what exactly those needs are.
Yes our teachers need more training and support - but so do directors! WE NEED MORE RESOURCES!!
------------------------------
Corinne Baker
Director
Stony Creek Early Learning Center
Noblesville IN
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 06-24-2019 01:23 PM
From: Lori Mertes
Subject: Preschool Suspensions and Expulsions
I teach Special Ed Preschool in a public school setting and I have found that private as well as other preschool centers are not equip to handle children with severe behaviors. The teachers do not have the education or the training to do that. They feel bad that they are not able to handle those children however they are not alone. Many reg. preschool centers are not fully trained to handle such situations that may come up. Also parents are not able to have their special needs children in those centers as they are rejected before they even start. It is a hard situation. Some take them and then the child sits all alone as they are not going to interact as they see the child getting upset so their way of dealing with it, is to just leave the child alone and without interactions as it keeps the peace which is not the solution either. The parent thinks the child is doing well in that setting but in reality is not getting any interactions due to explosive behavior if they do. So who gets left behind but the child instead of getting the teachers training. Also the people who run the centers at the top will tell you " we are not equip to handle this so we do the best we can.
We need more training for everyone so that children are getting their needs met everywhere.
------------------------------
Lori Mertes
Special Education Preschool Teacher
Fairbanks AK
Original Message:
Sent: 06-21-2019 09:36 AM
From: Tonya Satchell
Subject: Preschool Suspensions and Expulsions
We're are diving in at the new Black Caucus Discussion Group. Here is one of our topics. Please share on this thread your thoughts.
"Every year, as many as 8,710 3- and 4-year-old children may be expelled from or pushed out of their state-funded preschool or prekindergarten classroom. A disproportionate number of these children are African American boys and girls, and these early childhood expulsions are happening at a rate more than three times that of their older peers in grades K–12. In child care centers, expulsion rates are 13 times what they are in K–12 classrooms, with as many as 39 percent of child care providers reporting at least one expulsion in the past year" (NAEYC,n.d.).
What are your states, jurisdictions, and territories doing to reduce and prevent preschool suspension and expulsion? Share any resources you may have.
------------------------------
Tonya Satchell
Johns Hopkins University SOE
Columbia MD
------------------------------