My first two-and-a-half years of my teaching career were spent in a school for severely behavior-disordered students. It was a unique setting for the area in which I lived and taught, the only school of its kind that was actually part of the Area Education Agency. This school was entirely segregated from other schools and honestly, only the worst of the worst from the surrounding public schools were sent there.
Every student who came to the school was staffed, at the time, as 3.6 Behavior Disordered. This weighting meant that these kids had the most severe behavior problems than any other students. Weightings ranged from 1.7 to 2.4 to 3.6. All of the students at this school were special education students and all of these students came to our school with IEP’s, or Individual Education Plans, in place.
Why were these students sent to our school? An old run-down school with no curriculum and an intense behavior modification program? These students were sent to our school when they were kicked out, for the last time, of their public high schools, middle schools and yes, even elementary schools. The public schools had tried everything possible to keep these kids in their schools, but their behaviors just became too big to handle in a setting like that. Therefore, these students were sent to our school, and if they didn’t make it at our school, many were on their way to jail, detention or placement.
You may be wondering how these kids could possibly be sent to jail or detention if they didn’t make it at our school. Simply put, every student that came to us also came to us with a probation officer. Every student knew if they weren’t successful at our school and weren’t able to get their behaviors in check, their probation officers had no choice but to take it to the next level. In reality, the school in which I started my teaching career was a last chance school for kids with big behavior problems.
My students lived on the streets, ran on the streets and made extra money on the side selling drugs, stealing and even prostitution. We had students die in gang fights, gang initiations, and drive-by shootings. It was a tough school for some tough kids, and I loved every second I was there teaching those students.
Not every student made it in our school and I saw more than one student leave for detention or jail and never return. It made me incredibly sad, but for many, this last chance school was just what they needed to make it.
Does your school district have a last chance school? What do you think of it? Read more tomorrow about what a day was like teaching these students.