...Introduction Special education has brought out the best and the worst in our society. Special education is often viewed as unreliable, inflated and in some causes even discriminatory. It’s the manner in which students are referred to and then placed in special education. In the past 30 years special education has grown in numbers. According to NPR.org one in seven students, is classified as having a disability. That’s 63% more than when special education programs officially began in 1976. The concern is, what happened in those 3 decades to allow a generation of children to decline mentally and intellectually. There are 13 categories of special education under IDEA: autism, deaf-blindness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment,otherhealth impairment, specific learning disability, traumatic brain injury, speech language impairment and visual impairment including blindness (nichy.org). Two categories made substaintial gains. The number of students labeled with a specific learning disability tripled and the category of other health impairment quadrupled. These categories caused an increase of students placed in special education as a whole to an increase of 86%. Special education has many issues that may hinder or accentuate our present state of consequences. According to Kaufmann (1999), special education is characterized as: Special Education: Past Historically...
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...understanding what special education is, the impact of cultural and linguistic diversity and the concepts of IDEA. Special education is educating students with special needs where it addresses their individual needs. In our textbook it states that special education is "specially designed instruction provided at no cost to parents in all settings (such as the classroom, physical education facilities, the home, and hospitals or institutions) (Hardman, Drew & Egan, 2013).” After reading the assigned readings, I learned how cultural and linguistic diversity does not mean that they should be put in a special education class. In Lecture 1 it states, cultural and linguistic diversity, while absolutely affecting a students’ academic needs, do not merit placement in a special education setting (SPE-226 Lecture 1, 2015).Many times the students just do not understand English. When a student does not speak English there is a different program for them called English as a Second Language (ESL).IDEA is a law that ensures education to students with special needs. Also known as the zero-exclusion principle, IDEA requires all public schools have special education to meet individual needs of all students, no matter what type or the extent of their disability (Hardman, Drew, Egan, 2013). Based upon my experience in education, I would apply what I have learned so far in this class. I would do so by teaching or helping out in a special needs classroom because I fully understand what it is now and...
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...History of Special Education Alisha Anderson Grand Canyon University: SPE-526 June 26, 2013 Abstract Special education will continue to be transformed in a number of different ways throughout the years to come. Special Education provide different services, support systems, and resources to help meet the needs of students that have disabilities and gifted students. The history of special education have covered many issues throughout the years. There have been many laws and regulations created to help protect individuals with disabilities. This paper will report on the past history of special education, the laws associated with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and how the current and future challenges of special education affect the laws. What is Special Education? Special Education was created to teach students with disabilities at no cost to the parents. Special Education in the past involved schools that did not support or recognize students with disabilities. Today Special Education have progressed to provide services to all students no matter what their disabilities are. Special Education is a program that establish guidelines and expectations that teachers, parents, and students follow, in order for the student to receive the proper help they need (Heward, 2009). Disabilities could be labeled as physical, mental, emotional, or gifted. Special Education are services that are put in place after an evaluation process of the student. The services...
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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...
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...All children have the right to an education, regardless of disability. However, children with disabilities have not always had that right provided to them. Research and knowledge-based evidence throughout the last century has greatly changed educators’ opinions and positions on special education. A key point that will be discussed in this essay is the enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), as well as current and future challenges of special education. The initial creation and development of our educational system disregarded the needs of children with disabilities. Because of very limited educational options, most disabled children were either educated in their homes or their parents paid for them to attend expensive private schools (The History of Special Education in the United States, 2009). Through parent-formed advocacy groups the educational needs of children with disabilities were brought to the public’s eye in the early part of the 20th Century (The History of Special Education in the United States, 2009). In 1961, President John F. Kennedy awarded federal aid to the States through the creation of the President’s Panel on Mental Retardation (The History of Special Education in the United States, 2009). Shortly thereafter, in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (The History of Special Education in the United States, 2009). This act provided funding to schools that enrolled children with disabilities,...
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...limited strength in his hands. Cerebral Palsy (CP) “is an umbrella term that refers to a group of disorders affecting a person’s ability to move” (What is cerebral palsy). “1 in 500 babies are diagnosed with cerebral palsy” (About CP). Children with cerebral palsy typically will encounter specific learning difficulties. “These may include a short attention span, motor planning difficulties (organization and sequencing), perceptual difficulties and language difficulties” (What is cerebral palsy). There are three known forms of cerebral palsy : spastic, athetoid, and ataxic. A child who is diagnosed with cerebral palsy can be affected mildly or severely depending on the amount or part of brain. Generally children who are diagnosed with cerebral palsy can attend school. Although the child may experience some learning disabilities and may require some assistant, but frequently can do things children without cerebral palsy can do. According to the Learning Disabilities Association of America, 2.4 million students are diagnosed with specific learning disabilities (SLD) and receive services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (New to LD). A learning disability is a neural condition that alters an individual’s ability to retain, develop or generate information. In 2004, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA2004) implemented the definition of specific learning disabilities. Under the...
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...Special Education Kids and Standardized Testing Special education children have trouble keeping up in regular classrooms which is the reason they have their own classes, but they are often still forced to take the same tests as regular students. The tests can benefit some students but not all. When it comes to the standardized tests for kids with special needs there are accommodations in place like extra time and having an aid read the questions. These only help kids with simple special needs, not those with severe conditions; some teachers use different testing just for kids with severe cognitive dysfunctions, but many still use regular testing. “Two-thirds of students with disabilities are performing well below grade level in reading and...
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...relating to early intervention and children with special needs. In general, the literature seems to indicate that early intervention makes a impact on the success of children with disabilities when entering school. They perform to the abilities to that of their typically developing peers. Intervention programs are set up to help children and families. The articles research the affects of these programs on children with disabilities. Introduction The purpose of this review is to further understand early intervention and its role in special education. I wanted to study this topic because it is something I work with on a daily basis. The idea for my research came about during a staff meeting with the institute’s new president. As the president was asking questions and getting to know the staff and workings of the institute, the statement that the students who leave here are not as prepared for kindergarten when they leave here as they have been in the past. As a teacher this troubled me because isn’t the point of prekindergarten to prepare a child for kindergarten? If the typically developing peers aren’t prepared for kindergarten what does that mean for the students with disabilities? Are they farther behind or are they the ones being prepared to move forward in their education? With these questions in mind I wanted to see how an early intervention program helped children with disabilities when it comes time to go to school. What was the transition like? Did student still receive...
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...SPE-350 Special Education Litigation and Law November 2, 2013 Discovering the Relationship Between the Law and Your School The legal ramifications of special education started in the late 1960’s that was derived from the discrimination and segregation of children who had disabilities and handicaps. Learning how special education has changed over the last century and decade has been very specific. Special education children were not educated in the early 1900’s, they were just locked away or kept at home because some thought they were not able to be educated. The acts and laws that have been enacted to give children with special education a chance to live a normal life has really changed the way we view education for these children today. When Congress adopted the Education for All Handicapped Children Act' (EAHCA) in 1975 and mandated the education of all children with disabilities, a key supporter of the bill noted that "[n]o one really knows what a learning disability is (Colker, 2012). When the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975 passed it began to fund states to educate special needs students in regular schools, but in separate classrooms. The courts and laws have changed to included special needs children in the public education in the LE (least restrictive) setting. In all that I have learned and in talking with the Bonnie Walston the Director of Special Education in my district I have gained so much knowledge. Mrs. Walston stated that the special education...
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...History of Special Education The field of education has been around for a very long time, but special education has not always been around. In fact, for many years it wasn’t even accepted in the world of education. In the past, students with special needs were often not allowed to go to public school because of their disabilities. However, in today’s world, they have a right to free public education and most of the time benefit greatly from some of the resources that are available. Special education has come a long ways over the years and still has room for growth and improvement. There have been many court cases that have led the field of special education where it is today. In 1892, Homer Plessy, an African American man, bought a train ticket out of New Orleans and boarded the part of the train that was designated for white people. He was arrested for breaking the Louisiana Separate Car Act and was found guilty of breaking that law. (Daigle, 2011). Even though this was a case that dealt with segregation it had an impact on education later as discrimination against those students with disabilities came into play. In Watson vs. City of Cambridge (1893), a student was expelled because the school didn’t feel like he would benefit from an education. The courts agreed with the school and felt like those with weak minds would be a distraction to others and should be denied access to school. Beattie vs. Board of Education (1919) case about twenty years later with a student...
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...HISTORY OF SPECIAL EDUCATION LAW According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), an IEP, or Individualized Education Program, is “a written statement for each individual with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised in accordance with Title 42 U.S.C. Section 1414(d).” (NAEP Glossary) Each source I studied stressed the concept of “individualized” plans because each program is tailored to specifically meet the needs of that particular student through a series of assessments, meetings and medical diagnoses. Recognizing that the content of the IEP is legally binding, it’s important to ensure that what is included in the IEP safeguards the needs of the student and that the student needs are being met? So after Further research I discovered a site that put the definition of an IEP in easily understandable terms: [An IEP] is a legally binding document that spells out exactly what special education services your child will receive and why. So by doing the IEP not only would It will include the students classification, placement, services such as a one-on-one aide and therapies, academic and behavioral goals, a behavior plan if needed, percentage of time in regular education, and progress reports from teachers and therapists. What is and we see that these plans contain information about the child’s classification, such as autism, deaf-blindness, orthopedic impairment or mental retardation for example, which requires the special support while...
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...Thompson Literature Review Special needs individuals are not different from everyone they just need a little extra help along their way. This population has to have mediation because there are many who cannot speak for themselves. They need the help from a neutral person so that they can discuss complications that they may be dealing with without judgment. Advocacy is a necessity too because that individual needs a person to stand by their side and help them fight for what is right. In todays society people only care about themselves. This hinders those that have special needs because they also need people to think about how a person with special needs can do the same task. Just because an individual has a special does not mean that they cannot do what everyone else can. Advocacy would come in at this point because they are there to be on that individuals’ side and help them. The Special Education Advocacy is located in New England. They state on their web page "I implore you to see with a child's eyes, to hear with a child's ears, and to listen with a child's heart" (Special Education Advocacy, 2009). This is a very powerful statement and draws individuals in because they want that personal experience that they are offering. For the mediation services that they offer it is stated that they have “unbiased mediation for families experiencing conflict due to family special needs responsibilities, resolution of guardianship agreements...
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...Special Education A. The six key components are as follows: 1. Zero Reject/FAPE: This says that all children ages 6-17, no matter what their physical/mental ability, are guaranteed the right to a free public education. 2. Nondiscriminatory Identification and Evaluation: This was put into place so that a child could not be placed into special education because of things such as a language barrier. Because of this component, for example, a child would not be assessed in English if their primary language was Arabic. 3. Individualized Education Program (IEP): This says that every student must be given a customized plan for their education. Each students IEP must do the following; present levels of educational performance, measurable annual goals, objective criteria and evaluation procedures, specific special education services, extent of participation in general education and explanation of non-participation, modifications to general education classrooms, and projected dates of initiation and length of services. 4. Least Restrictive Environment (LRE): This means that all children, with and without disabilities, should be education together unless it is not what is best for the child. 5. Due Process: A system of checks and balances to make sure children with disabilities are treated fairly. This includes; written parental consent for evaluation of special education, written parental permission for placement in special education, parents rights to...
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...Special Education Inclusion Jessica Thammavongsa Com/156 March 8, 2014 Diane Moore Special Education Inclusion The process towards inclusive educations is just that – a process. It can be a rewarding, yet challenging journey to create an educational system where excellence and equality walk hand in hand (Frost & Pearpoint, 2004). Throughout the last several years, the topic of inclusion has been at the epicenter of debate among educators, administrators, and parents. Inclusion remains a controversial concept because it relates to educational and social values, as well as to our understanding of personal worth ("Special Education Inclusion", 2001). Placing students with varying disabilities into regular education classrooms causes misunderstanding with educators and administrators on the advantages and disadvantages of inclusion. Inclusion is a "philosophy that brings students, families, educators, and community members together to create schools and other social institutions based on acceptance, belonging, and community."(Salend, 2001, p. 5) Inclusion is practiced in schools to establish collaborative, supportive, and nurturing environments for learners that are based on giving all students the services and accommodations that they need to learn, as well as respecting and learning from each other's individual differences. (Salend, 2001) Inclusion is not necessarily just focused on students with disabilities. When implemented correctly it is also designed...
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...Janice Nelson has been in the special education field for over 25 years. Mrs. Nelson specializes in Autism. She is the administrator of Special Education in the South Shore District in Chicago, IL. She started out as a teacher’s aid. Mrs. Nelson has had a passion for teaching ever since she can remember as a little girl. She went to Oakton Community College, a local school, to pursue a degree in Liberal Arts to buy herself a little time to figure out what she really wanted to do with her life. During this time, she took a lot of classes in early childhood. Ironically enough, she ended up loving them. She graduated with an Associate’s Degree. During the next couple of years, she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education. That did not stop her from pursuing her Master’s Degree in Special Education with Endorsements in Autism and Emotional Impairments. Janice did three semesters of student teaching while earning almost all of her degrees. The first semester she student taught in a general education third grade classroom. She then noticed that general education was not for her. That’s when Janice started to gravitate towards the students who needed extra help. She craved the constant interaction of working with kids with special needs. Lucky for Janice, her next two teaching placements just so happened to be in the same school she was working in. At that point, Janice realized she was getting closer to her goal of becoming a special education teacher. Autism is a Spectrum...
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