The Impact Of Special Education On Individual Student Needs

Before there was the 504 Plan and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, children with disabilities were denied the right to have an education. When the education for all handicapped children act (EHA) was passed, all schools receiving federal funding were required to provide handicapped children with equal access to education. In 1990, when the EHA was reauthorized, it was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The two important court rulings were the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children v. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1971 and Mills vs. The Board of Education of the District of Columbia in 1972 (ERIC Clearinghouse, 1998). These court decisions showed that “the responsibility of States and local school districts to educate individuals with disabilities is derived from the equal protection law of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”(ERIC Clearinghouse, 1998, n.p.)

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

Time is passing and opportunities are opening for more students with special needs. Many students in college are getting more interested in Special Education as career that will allow more organization to have more workers with a big potential that will have an important impact on these kids with disabilities. However, this will require more training for the students that organizations around the country can give them. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,“the career outlook for special education teachers should remain steady through 2024, with an increase of 6%, the national average for job growth in the United States. The median salary for this position is just over $55,000 annually,” (“Master in Special Education”) The approach the

When Public Law 94-142 was passed in 1975 it had a positive impact on the education for children with disabilities. Millions of children in the United States were supported by the law. These children had previously been excluded entirely from the education system.

First, Rather than focusing on the child's learning deficiencies, emphasize and reward the child’s strengths and encourage them to find new interest and hobbies. Second it is important to meet with the child's teachers, tutors, and school support personnel to understand performance levels, and attitude toward school. After the student has been evaluated they are now eligible for special education services. Special education services are provided to student to work with a team of professionals, including your child's teacher, to develop an Individualized Education Program. The individualized education program is created to provide a summary of child’s current education and future goals within education. Children with learning disabilities need to know that they are loved and that they are not dumb. They need to know that they are intelligent normal people who just have trouble learning because their mind process words and information differently. Students with learning disabilities are just like every other student they just need more focus on certain learning

In the early 1970’s parents of students with disabilities went to federal court when their local school districts did not provide services to meet their children’s educational needs. In Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1971), a Pennsylvania court ruled that all children, regardless of disability, have a basic right to an education under the Fourteenth Amendment. In Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia (1972), a federal court ruled that the District of Columbia schools could not exclude children with disabilities from the public schools. Cases like this focused public attention on the issue of educating children with disabilities. The social and political pressure then resulted in landmark federal legislation to address the educational rights of these children.

Today’s society is different in its thinking when dealing with people with disabilities. There had to be many changes made in its labeling, and approach when dealing with people who may have physical/mental differences. The ostracize behavior that people were known to disturb in society has changed a great deal, due to the many federal laws that have been put in place to insure the well-being of people that have disabilities. In 1972, one very well-known case is Mill vs Board of Education of the District of Columbia this case address how the constituted rights of students were not being meet by not providing them with a public education.” Many disabled children had been excluded from public education prior to 1975,24 Congress, through the Act, sought initially to set up a process by which states would find children in need of educational services and bring them into the system”(Kotler, p.491,2014).

In 1991 the Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was replaced by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This law was passed to provide free and appropriate public education to every child with a disability. It requires that each child with a disability “have access to the program best suited to that child’s special needs which is as close as possible to a normal child’s educational program” (Martin, 1978). The Individualized education program (IEP) was developed to help provide a written record of students’ needs and procedures for each child that receives special education services. The IEP will list all the services to be provided, the student's performance level, academic performance, and

This paper explores the concept of planning professional development to meet the needs of special education students by examining articles from scholarly journals in the special educational world, psychology in schools, and a case study. Even though teachers are given training on the importance of following a student’s Individualized Educational Program (IEP), there seems to be a gap in training when it comes to the level of instruction that special education students actually receive in the classroom. In analyzing the Texas Academic Performance Report for Timber Creek High School, there might be reason to believe that simply following a student’s IEP might not be enough to ensure the academic success of special education students as defined by results from the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam. Far too often, special education students are passed through the system out of fear of litigation yet their test scores reveal that we as educators can and must do better. After reviewing Timber Creek’s Texas Academic Performance Report (TAPR), I became interested in examining the professional development opportunities available to educators that focus on how to enhance their current teaching strategies in regards to how they modify their lessons and assignments for their special education students. In my search, it became apparent that beyond initial training or information swapping about the necessary modifications a student needs,

Special education teachers are trained to work with children who have a wide range of disabilities. One of the primary responsibilities of a special education teacher is to assess her students' cognitive abilities, and modifies the standard age-appropriate curriculum to create a custom plan for the student. This plan is called an individual education program(IEP). An IEP often includes a number of social and emotional development goals as well as specific academic areas to be taught. The special education teacher’s core task is to meet each of the goals established in the students’ IEPs. In some cases, the special education teacher is located in a separate classroom. When this is the case the teacher will creates lessons geared to meet the objectives of the students’ IEPs. In many instances, special education students are placed in regular classrooms. In that situation, the special education teacher attends classes with her students. She often will work with students on life skills and behavior modification techniques as well. Skills that special educational teachers should possess include, better than average stress management, great multi-tasking abilities, quick thinking, and creative problem solving. A special education teacher must be able to think outside the box and develop an array of teaching methods and techniques to meet the needs of each individual student. Special education requires a vast amount of detailed record keeping, so it is essential for these teachers

For most of our nation's history, children with special needs or disabilities were shunted aside. In spite of mandated education laws that had been in place since 1918, many students were denied education and

The importance of education for all children, especially for those with disability and with limited social and economic opportunities, is indisputable. Indeed, the special education system allowed children with disability increased access to public education. Apart from that, the special education system has provided for them an effective framework for their education, and for the institutions involved to identify children with disability sooner. In turn, this promotes greater inclusion of children with disability alongside their nondisabled peers. In spite of these advances however, many obstacles remain, including delays in providing services for children with disability, as well as regulatory and

The Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EHA) had an overall goal of desegregating disabled children in schools, as well as work on integrating them in classrooms with their non-disabled peers. Until the Civil Rights Movement, not much attention was brought to the fact that children with disabilities had very little rights and were kept isolated and not given a proper education, if any at all. Because of the attention brought to the poor and unjust treatment of children with disabilities and the significant court cases dealing with the fourteenth amendment such as Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia, The EHA was passed in 1975. There were high hopes for this act, including keeping disabled students integrated

According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with disabilities should be placed in a “least restrictive environment.” One of the main ideas of this act was to improve the learning experiences of students with disabilities by giving them learning opportunities outside of a special education classroom. The number of students with disabilities being placed in their general education classrooms is increasing more and more each year. The U.S Department of Education’s 27th annual report to Congress on the implementation of The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2005) indicates that the number of students with disabilities in general education classrooms has risen to almost 50 percent. This is about a 17 percent increase from the 1997 U.S