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Special Needs World

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Submitted By lyack0927
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Education, Discrimination, and Politics in a Special Needs World

Education is an essential corner stone in our society. Education creates livelihood, piece of mind, a stable society, and well-rounded individuals. The unfortunate fact is that many of our children lack the proper education they need in order to become full functioning adults in today’s society. What are even worse are the children with special needs that get left behind. In order to address special needs students and others that fall behind in the education system, we need to define what special needs are, where they fit in society, and finally what the future holds for them.
What do we consider as “special” in students? Special education is identified as “the education of children who deviate socially, mentally, or physically from the average to such an extent that they require major modifications of usual school practices.” (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 2005, p.1). We can go a step further and define “special needs” to a more specific group of people. According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997,”students with disabilities include those with mental retardation, hearing impairments, speech or language impairments, visual impairments, serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities.” (Warger, 1999, p.1).
There are laws in place by our government that allow special provisions for people with disabilities. IDEA is a federal law (1975, amended by the Office of Special Education Programs in 1997) that governs all special education services for children in the United States. Under IDEA, in order for a child to be eligible for special education, they must be in one of the following categories: serious emotional disturbance, learning disabilities, mental retardation, traumatic brain injury,

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