> Public schools segragate continually disruptive students in special schools......Alternative HS etc.... <
Not any more, at least from my experience. The urban school district where I taught did away with that practice maybe 25 years ago. Too many parents complained that the “rights” of their disruptive kids were being violated. So now those kids remain in mainstream classes, free to disrupt learning whenever they feel like it.
And when the bad scores come in, the teachers get all the blame. I know of one school where the principal simply fired all the untenured teachers in the school after the scores were announced. That was his “solution” to the problem. (A friend of mine was one of the fired teachers.)
Oh, and out-of-school suspensions are being minimized too. Principals are now being graded on the number of suspensions they hand out. So if you’re a principal and you want to keep your job, you had better not be suspending very many kids.
> Not a factor especially in the lower grades..... <
Sadly, it is. I have friends who teach elementary school. A good potion of their time is spent not teaching, but trying to control the one or two kids who would rather run around the room than sit down and listen. And these kids are, by and large, not emotionally disturbed! They’re just doing things they know they can get away with.
The whole mess is maddening.
Sounds like the stories that my daughter relates!