something very small but good.  the wonderful room parents at my kids' school have arranged an end of the year celebration to which were invited "all third grade families", but i noticed that this group did not include the kids in the 2nd/3rd special day class.  i mentioned this to the planners and within a day they had sent out the invitation to those families as well.

the way things are set up for kids in special day classes there are big obstacles for them and their families to be part of the school social community.  most kids come and go on buses, which decreases opportunities for their parents to interact with other school community members.  most of the kids are not very verbal, so they are not going to arrange their own play dates which is how most elementary kids get the out of school social time they love.  and if your kids are not going to have fun with their buddies it is a lot less tempting to put them in the child care at pta meetings, bring them to community building events, etc.  the bottom line is that kids make connections from being together, either in the same classroom or on the same soccer team, or through their parents being friends, and the kids in the special day classes are mostly just with the small group of kids in their own class.

so there need to be more times that kids in the special day classes are with kids in other classes.  with support, of course, to be successful and make friends.  and there needs to be more effort for parents of kids in the special day classes to be included.  i would like to see a lot more of that going on at my kids' school.  i know it is hard with all the other needs.  i was happy to see that ALL the third grade kids were invited to this celebration and i hope they all come.  it will take a whole lot of little steps to make this kind of change, but it should happen.