The English Language Learner Is Defined By The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act

There are a number of landmark court cases of special education in the country that have become the basis of how we currently provide services to students with disabilities. Diana v. California State Board of Education (1970) and Larry P. v. Riles (1984) are two of these landmark court cases that highlight nondiscriminatory assessments. Below is the analysis of the two court cases in four major sections: The Legal Cases, Summary, Future Practice, and Comparison and Contrasts.

The special education programs in the United States have been designed to help children with special needs learn easier and fit in better with the education program. Unfortunately, many minority students get caught up in the mix and don’t get the proper attention they deserve. Furthermore, minority students are seriously over-represented in the educational programs. Many minority students are misdiagnosed and put into special education programs when in fact; they do not have a learning disability. This has become a growing problem in this country because it is seen as the easy way out. Schools all over the U.S. are doing this in order to not have to properly test and evaluate students for learning problems.

Throughout the ages, people with disabilities have been hidden away at homes or institutions and were often not educated. This was common practice and as such, when the education system was designed, children with disabilities were not even considered. Then, starting soon after the civil rights movement in the 50’s, a series of lawsuits was brought against school boards and the federal government took notice. Then the Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975 was passed and these children were finally allowed the education they deserved. As time went

The right of entry to education resources is more than uncomplicated admission to a college. The right to use means to provide students with the devices they will need to be victorious in higher learning. Students with a recognized disability ought to be no omission. In reality, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, “ensure that all qualified persons have equal access to education regardless of the presence of any disability.” Objective replacement, class waivers, and revision of classroom management, testing and course necessities are all illustrations of behavior to supply access for the learner with a disability. A break down to the creation of such practical adjustments can place schools in breach of federal and state statutes, ensuing expensive fines.

The primary goal of any school district’s English Language Learner policy should be to ensure that all students receive equitable access to the curriculum. The Office of Civil Rights memorandum (May 25, 1970) requires school districts to take affirmative steps to provide equal access to instructional program for students with limited English proficiency. The Illinois Constitution guarantees every child from kindergarten through grade 12, access to a free public education; which means, regardless of a child’s home language, he/she deserves a free and appropriate education (Illinois State Board of Education, 1998).

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law that guarantees educational services to eligible students with disabilities. It establishes “people first” language for referring to people with disabilities. IDEA requires states to educate students with disabilities for transition to employment, and to provide transition services. IDEA also provides the students with a free and appropriate education If a student with a disability is expelled from school, IDEA says that he or she must still receive educational services. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandates that all students with disabilities take state and district testing. This law also requires a general education teacher to be a member of the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) team.

Over the course of this semester, I have come to the realization that above all, students with disabilities need to be treated with the respect and dignity that one would give any other child. This is why it is important to talk to and about people that have disabilities with “people first” language (Evans, Civil Rights Final Day, 9.17.16). This stems from the idea that a perceived disability is just one of a person’s many attributes. Students with disabilities are people that have individual abilities, interests, and needs. By using “people first” language, one emphasizes the importance of the individual over their diagnosed disability. According to The Arc, an organization that advocates for people with disabilities, “the language in a society used to refer to persons with disabilities shapes its beliefs and ideas about them” (The Arc, 2016). Using “people first” language not only ensures the person in question knows that they are valued, but it also helps set a precedent for the perception of people with disabilities in one’s environment. It also gives the student the opportunity to define his/herself, instead of being identified solely with their disability (The Arc, 2016).

The problem of disproportionate numbers of minority students in special education can be attributed to a report by Lloyd Dunn in 1968 (as cited in Skiba et al., 2008) even though discrimination was evident long before that in America. The phenomenon of disproportionality as it relates to students from minority backgrounds being placed in special education refers to the percentage of students receiving services being a higher rate than is expected or that differs significantly from other races. Skiba et al. (2008) discuss the history of various aspects of the civil rights movement as they pertain to the issue of disproportionality of students from minority backgrounds in special education, the measurement tools used to determine the need for special education, the current status of disproportionality, and what factors have contributed to the discrepancies in numbers. Finally, recommendations are offered by the authors on how the existence of disproportionality of students from a minority background can be rectified.

A learning disability is a general term that refers to a heterogenous group of disorders that influence a student’s ability to perform tasks. Persons with learning disabilities may often have difficulties in understanding or using spoken or written language. This condition may manifest itself as a difficulty in listening, thinking, speaking, reading, writing, spelling or performing mathematical calculations (IDEAI, 2004). Learning disability has an impact on the students academic and work performance . Research has documented challenges faced by both Latino with learning disability and other disabilities in both education and in their capacity to remain employed and complete college..

I first became curious about how ELL worked because I teach on a Special Education team. Six of my students receive ELL services. Three of the students are male and three are female. Four of the students are Hispanic and two are Asian. I see all students for regular Social Studies. The success of these students varies and though accommodations are in place to help meet ELL students’ needs, I was curious to learn more about the specific practices and the inequities that may exist due to these

The first major component of the memorandum stated that “the district must take affirmative steps to rectify the language deficiency in order to open its instructional program to these students.” ("Developing ELL Programs: HEW Memorandum, 1970) The next component indicates that language minority students could not be assigned “classes for the mentally retarded on the basis of criteria which essentially measure or evaluate English language skills” or that these

One of the biggest errors made in schooling today is placing a student who is an English Language Learner into special education because of errors made in interpreting language acquisition as a learning or language disability. There has been no single method that has proven to be fully effective when distinguishing between English language learning students and students with a learning disability. As a result, students can end up in classrooms or programs that are not suited for their needs and can hinder their educational achievement. It is important for teachers and schools to understand the process of acquiring a second language and to be able to recognize whether the student is really receiving an adequate opportunity to learn.

Disproportionate identification of minority students in special education is a major concern in schools today. This paper describes the issues in the assessment process with minority students and how we have arrived at a situation where minorities are being misdiagnosed into special education programs. Additionally, several legal cases are mentioned which show numerous actions and rulings that have tried to correct the disproportionate identification in special education. Some of the legal cases discussed include Larry P. v Riles, Diana v. State Board of Education, and Guadalupe v. Tempe Elementary School, which all significantly impacted special education today. Additionally, the Individual with Disabilities Education Act has enforced

The population of English language learners (ELLs) with special needs in kindergarten through twelfth grade classrooms has significantly increased over the past decade. Over 400,000 ELLs in K-12 were identified as needing special education services in the 2002 school year (Nguyen, 2012). With this specific population growing, it is pivotal that these students receive modified instruction in order to reach academic achievement. Teachers need to have the appropriate skills and knowledge to correctly identify and refer an ELL to special education. Additionally, teachers need to provide appropriate instructional methods that cater directly to each ELL with special needs.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) ensures that students with disabilities are guaranteed adequate education at no additional cost to them. However, the value of foreign languages in the education of a child, in comparison to the weight placed on