As a parent of two LD children, it really angers me when I see articles that are directed at school systems for letting children with Learning Disabilities mainstream in classrooms with children without learning disabilities. I read an article in a local newspaper and the parent was complaining that having a teacher's aide in the classroom to help the LD children took away from the education of her child. Her complaint is why are these children in the school system to begin with? My response is REALLY!!!! Look I believe that all children have the right to the public school system, and quite frankly so does the public school system. The reason they believe they should teach them is that they get state and federal subsidies for these children which help hire and pay for teachers and teachers aides. Believe me this is quite a lot of money for the schools. Unfortunately, the people that are hired to work as teacher's aides are not educated in the newer and more difficult disabilities that children now have. I say this because in the school system my daughter went to they had no idea on how to work with or design a program for Non-Verbal Learning Disability. They literally had to hire a consultant to help them map out a plan. Once they had the consultant she opened their eyes to quite a lot of information and so much so, they educated the psychologists in the entire district that summer. So my response to the parent complaining about our children in the school system, "You are correct!", these children should be in programs that can deal with their disabilities. But there is one huge caveat, the school system does not want to let them go!!!!!! Think of the money they would lose!!!! We are not thinking about the learning ability of the child, we are thinking about the funding. Now you might think my answer should be to keep them in school, well honestly some children should be in specialty schools, I took my son out to a small school with smaller classroom sizes. I really didn't want him to slow the regular children down and not be bullied for learning differently than the others. Honestly I thought the school system would help me, to my surprise I had to fight the school system to pay for my son's education. I worked to the letter of the educational law, IEP's and PPT's for years until the time he would have to be with 2,000 students, change classes every 45 minutes, try to fit in extra help and assistance, and I looked at the smart kid with a learning disability and said, no, his sanity and peace of mind in learning are more important than keeping up with the system. I did my homework with my advocate, got a good educational lawyer and I fought the system. Please note, I did not do anything bad, I didn't take anyone to the laundry, but the state allocates a certain amount of money for each child's education and that's all I requested to pay for my child. It took me 18 months before we agreed, and I'd like to say agreed to where he would be educated. We go back every two years to negotiate and see where he is, maybe in High School he can mainstream, we will see but right now he likes where he is, he is getting a good education and he works with his disability. Look I still have to work hard for outside social programs, we are still on med's but he is happy. Yes, we have a long way to go but I'm encouraged that the road need not be tough, maybe it's longer for others but it can be good and beneficial. Yes, I still want communication with the local school system, yes I still want an IEP, it's just that I want him to work with his disability and not hamper any other student. So I still say to the parent who doesn't want that aide in the classroom, yes you are right, free our children to where they need to go to learn, there are a lot of good schools out there that can teach our children with LD issues. No I don't want my child labeled in the public school system but yes I want him to learn and be happy. All the fighting does pay off in the long run, it just takes patience and perseverance, but my children were well worth the fight, and someday they will acknowledge this.