Special Education In Oklahoma
504s versus IEPs
By Emmett McKeel, Daniel Mutai, and Gavin Pendergraff
More Than Just New 'Best Buddies'
By Olivia Bloomfield, Amelia Jáuregui, Lauryn Thomas, and Esther Niang
Sitting at the pool, Carmen Hailey looks up to see her son Leyton following a group of boys around step by step, waiting for the moment they include him in the games they are playing. He sits behind them as they dangle their feet in the water, but still nothing…
Carmen Hailey
Moments like these are what Carmen and Leyton Hailey have every day. Leyton is a 7-year old boy with down syndrome and while this intellectual disability affects his day to day life, his teachers and peers at Bixby West Elementary recognize that he is capable and smart, even though it might look different compared to typically developing children.
Libby MacNamara
Bixby West Elementary is one of 1500 schools internationally with a chapter of Best Buddies, an organization focused on fostering friendship between children with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. Bixby West won Elementary Chapter of the Year, an honor that Principal Libby Macnamara attributes to all the people involved.
The Best Buddies Chapter at Bixby West Elementary was started in 2020, the same time the school was made. The educators and parents believe this helped them create a community of inclusion right away.
Libby MacNamara
At Bixby West, the way their Best Buddies chapter works is that 6th graders have the opportunity to be paired up with a younger child with an intellectual or developmental disability. Through this pairing, they create a special bond like the Bond between Buzzy Dunn and Lucas Shultz
Melody Lavender
They spend time with them, plan events with them, and even get to go on field trips together. Not only does this benefit the students with developmental and intellectual disabilities, it also benefits the older typically developing children as well
Libby MacNamara
As students move up to the intermediate and middle schools, they don’t have the opportunity to see their old buddies but they still remember them and cherish the time they do get to see them.
Kristen Shultz
This year, they have created a new opportunity where typically developing children can become buddies to their peers of the same age, an opportunity Jessica Thornton’s 2nd grader Peyton is very excited about.
Jessica Thornton
Peyton Thornton is not the only child who has questions. Special Education Teacher Melody Lavender gets questions all the time from students
Melody Lavender
The educators and parents believe that asking these questions and receiving understandable answers benefits the typically developing children a lot.
Libby MacNamara
For Carmen Hailey and her son Leyton, The Bixby West Elementary Best Buddies Chapter has created the community where children accept Leyton and do know how to include him.
Carmen Hailey
For Bixby West Elementary, Best Buddies is just the start of inclusion, they have formed a community where inclusion is expected and where typically developing children learn just as much about others as children with intellectual and developmental disabilities do.
Libby MacNamara
