Today there was a substitute teacher in my son's class. She didn't have a clue

The only requirement for subs in my state is that they be highschool graduates and over 18 for the lower grades and then a 2 year college degree or equivilant amount of hours and 21 for the upper grades. I agree that there should be more qualifications for students with special needs but to be honest in schools where the special needs students are mainstreamed the majority of the teachers are not qualifies to help your son. I graduate in December to teach and I have only had one class that covered students with special needs. I do not feel that I am in anyway qualified, but if I get a job in a school with full inclusion (where all students are in all classes) I will have to learn by on the job training. Special Education teachers are amazing and have a heart for their work, but it is not a job for everybody. Please keep this in mind if and when your child is put into a mainstream classroom; and never hesitate to educate your child's teacher, I personally would be thankful for the expert advice.

My son's in a regular class, so no doubt they have subs who don't know much about autism. I would hope they wouldn't have those people sub over in the resource room though.

My goodness... you seem to be having a lot of problems with this school... I think you need to go over their heads... I bet its frustrating... I would of hit the fan by now. I'm not saying its the substitutes fault, but the systems it sure is. How dare they think they can get away with things like this... I guess they feel its no big deal, our kids can't go home & tell mommy & daddy that the new teacher did everything wrong... Hmmm.. Glad the aid was there to help though... They should really inform these subs about the situations...

Substitute teachers only need to have any type of college degree. My friends sub as a way to get some extra money. But I doubt if the aide wasn't there they wouldn't let someone unqualified be in that classroom with handicapped children, at least I hope they wouldn't otherwise that would be very irresponsible of the school system.

You and I know how eccentric these kids can be at times. I don't think enough SPED teachers are being instructed on the mannerisms of autistic children. I have a feeling this substitute went into the classroom with absolutely no preparation. Sometimes even the ones who work with these kids are just as clueless. I've seen it time and time again when my daughter was in elementary school. It's frustrating having to continually get calls because the staff did something they have been told over and over not to do.

As a teacher, I think this person was obviously put in a difficult position. In the UK, u dont need special training to work with special needs children. A parent cannot legally take a class. Just because they have experience with one child, doesnt mean they can manage a class, its a totally different experience. She should have been left vague instructions as to what the childrens routine is as SEN children in particular do not like changes to routine. If you were put in a different role at work with no experience and no guidance, do you think it would take you a little while to settle in?

I agree with you very much but the problem is that "aides" can be anyone...they can be parents. A substitute can not be a parent or a volunteer. The substitute actually has to have the credentials to be a teacher. Unfortunately most teachers do not excel in most fields. How often a history teacher will be substituted by an english teacher and maybe even a gym teacher. I am sure the school tries first the teachers most qualified for the particular class. It is better than no one at all and luckily you have aides. back in my day...we did not have aides. If a teacher was out..we were stuck with whoever we got....teacher almost NEVER knew what we were working on and pretty much just took over the class for a day...it is just a day. She is not affecting the child's life long term...she just took over for a day. It doesn't happen often that a sub takes over a class...I'd just let it go and not worry about it. If she were much more qualified....she would not be a sub.

I think that they will let anyone who is willing to sub and meets the minimum requirements set by the district sub. I know the only requirement at my district is that you completed 60 credits of college. They also have you fill out a questionnaire to see what your skills and abilities are and I don't remember what else I had to fill out. They also wanted three references. I finally got the last one done recently. I was not able to sub last year because I didn't have the references. When I subbed as a teacher's aid many years ago, I preferred the special ed classes because I had difficulty dealing with the larger classes. I agree that it was ridiculous that the sub knew nothing of handicaps. I would hope that I am given at least some basic information about my students if they do allow me to sub in the schools. Thanks for bringing up the topic.

I have worked as a substitute teacher - but we call them supply teachers here. I dont know how it works elsewhere but you cannot be a supply teacher without a teaching qualification, membership of the GTC (General Teaching Council) and an enhanced CRB (criminal records bureau) disclosure. You have to be cleared by this process to be allowed to work with children or vulnerable adults. Some of my assignments were through an agency who would match the requirements of each assignment to the qualifications and experience of the teacher. In your case, I would say that the school,- in particular the person with reponsibility for placing substitutes - was at fault. I imagine the subs desperation to get work there was matched by the school's desperation to find cover. There is an increasing tendency for the classroom assistant to be given responsibility for the class if the regular teacher is missing here in England. This is a far cheaper option for the school but IMO is an exploitation of the assistant by giving him/her the responsibility of a sub teacher for about half the pay.

Sometimes, I do encounter this kind of situation. The school management has to choose somebody to replace the regular teacher, and as it seem harder to find the teacher with the same qualification, so they pick anyone that they can find whether that person really qualified or not. Moreover she knew, and she will learn as time goes by. We need to give a chance to people.

I ever tried to be a relief teacher for just a day, and that was the most horrible day! It was just after the examination, and the regular teacher was sick or something, anyway absence from work, no aide or assistant around. I couldn't ask the students to do their homework, since it's just after examination, and they did not have any homework to do. I had no teaching tool either to entertain them. So just ask them to keep quiet, stare hard at the noisiest kid and let them did whatever they want.

Honey, if everyone were qualified they wouldn't have to call it "Special" Ed. Just be grateful she wasn't mean and impatient.

I remember a few of my ignorant teachers. One suspended a id with turettes for cursing. He gave me detention for telling him he didn't know a thing when he stated that autism and aspergers were both fake and that everyone with either condition was just a brat who didn't get punished enough as a kid.

There is a substitute teacher here that receives services from the community mental health department. This is something that I've know about for years from when I worked at an answering service. Because of confidentiality reasons, I couldn't say anything. I had always wondered how she became a teacher. It was just in the newspaper recently. This woman has to go to the health department every day to receive her medication. She is not capable of giving herself her meds, but she can teach our children? They say that because of restrictions all the school system can do is run a criminal background check. She isn't a criminal, she just isn't mentally stable.

Wow, I find that sort of scary. You are right, thank goodness for the aide. Think of how much damage the substitute could have done with the kids. My youngest grandson (I live with them) would not be able to get into a chair if a stranger told him too. He might do it if I or his mom told him but even that's pushing it. I am amazed the school would put an unqualified substitute into a special needs class.

well this kinda applies to even the "regular" kids. substitutes in general dont really understand the need of the kids. i reemmber when iw as at school and every time we had a substitute they were really just there to babysit us for the day. they didnt know what they were talking aobut, all they did was sit at their desk and waste our time. i could image how bad it was for the special classes to have an unqualified substitute. if you are really furious, you should contact the school that he is attending. school can deal with mad kids, but they cant deal with mad parents. so stand up for a better substitute.

I remember when I was a T.A in high school for the special ed, we had a week long substitute when the teacher went on her honeymoon. The Sub was a speech therapist, so she had an edge, but there were seve wzral "problem childs" that sent her into a nervous frenzy, like your son's class, she had never dealt with anyone with autism before either, there was one point where one of the boys with Autsim was having a melt down and she went to him and said "oh its okay" and put her hand on his shoulder, just as a nice gesture and trying to calm him, she knew no better and that works sometimes with DS kids, but the boy FREAKED out, and it just made her nervousness skyrocket, and all the kids could sense it, and thus, that made them nervous.................it was fortunate that there were aides, teaching assitants (like me :)) and other teachers to help her out and show her how to do things.

the substitute should have been someone who knew about the various handicapped kids and knew how to handle them. I have been out of this loop for years but hope that other substitute teachers are not as clueless as the one you described.these kids need all the help and encouragement they can get. they must know what they are dealing with.

that was a really bad idea, i think the former teacher should have lecture the new teacher of the ways she had been handling the class maybe he would not have problems dealing with the students, but all the same i do believe that with time your son and other students will get use to the new teacher

That is pretty unfortunate. I wonder if they even explained to her about the class. There is a shortage of teachers out there, and subs (I should know, two of my classes in high school had regular subs and they were both the football coaches who had no actual degrees for teaching classes or the subjects they were subbing). So maybe it was a mishap, but I do think that it was lucky the aide was there. She may have bee dumbfounded because, well most times you can't really set apart the kids with autism from normal kids at a first look. Sometimes kids with autism, when the parents don't know, go to school and end up deemed troubled or troublesome, because no one realizes they have autism, and it can be hard without knowing about autism, or any clues as to what to look for, and I doubt many teachers are taught that, and maybe they just figured they could throw anyone in there. I don't know, do they have certain rules or regulations about the qualifications for someone to be able to teach the differently abled students?