More than 6 million students receive exceptional student education services, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In 2004, the Office of Special Education Programs found that students with specific learning disabilities accounted for almost half (47.4%) of all students with disabilities, which was roughly 2.9 million students being served (U.S. Department of Education, 2004). Students with disabilities drop out of high school at about twice the rate of general education students (Thurlow, Sinclair, and Johnson, 2002). They are also less likely to go back and earn their high school diploma as compared to their counterparts without disabilities. School administrators and personnel are encouraged to create collaborative partnerships with parents and after-school programs to improve outcomes for these students. Recommendations for schools are provided in this 3-part series entitled “Students with Disabilities: Creating Collaborative Partnership.”
Tips for Schools
1. Minimize language barriers for parents and students by providing translators and translating necessary paperwork.
2. Hold a special orientation day for parents with students with disabilities before the
start of school.
3. Introduce key staff to parents and students and their respective job duties as they related to facilitating ESE services.
4. Include disability resources in the school’s student handbook. If there is not a
school specific handbook, provide parents with a packet listing relevant resources available at the school, in the community, and on the internet.
5. Support or provide general education teachers with training and support relevant to providing instructional services to students with disabilities.
6. Invite guest speakers to participate in PTA or parent meetings to educate parents about their child’s disability and/or available resources.
7. Encourage and stress the importance to parents regarding their participation in their child’s IEP meetings.
8. Encourage and allow parents to bring advocates to their child’s IEP meetings.
9. Don’t talk down or over parents. Instead of speaking in acronyms or technical language, try to speak in a way that facilitates parent understanding of the educational process.
10. Make sure parents understand the process, timeline and consequences of all decisions made regarding their child’s education.
11. Encourage parents to have their child to participate in either on or off-site
after-school programs.
12. Include a listing of local after-school programs in introductory packets sent out to parents during the first few weeks of school.
13. Network with community providers to create collaborative partnerships.
14. Invite community providers to speak with appropriate staff regarding their services to connect students with available community programs and services.
15. Collaborate with afterschool programs to reinforce instructional learning.
Resources:
Learning Disability Association of America (LDA)
4156 Library Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15234
http://www.ldaamerica.org/
National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities (NICHCY)
PO Box 1492
Washington, DC 20013
http://www.kidsource.com/NICHCY/
By: Felecia Sheffield PhD
Posts Tagged ‘High School Diploma’
Special Education Law – Overview
October 15th, 2009
Many of us, who went to school not that long ago, remember that being a special needs student meant riding to school in a separate bus and attending one class with other children of varying disabilities. These classes resembled more of a day care than school, and even the most advanced students had little hope of receiving a high school diploma, let alone attend college. Since that time, the term disability, and special needs student, has expanded to encompass much more than a person with an IQ below a certain arbitrary standard. What I have attempted to do in my first article is to give a little history of the evolution of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
In 1954 the United States Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) which found that segregated schools were a violation of equal protection rights. It would be another twenty years before this concept was applied to children with handicaps, especially learning disabilities, trying to receive an education. In fact, shortly after Brown was decided the Illinois Supreme Court found that compulsory education did not apply to mentally impaired students, and as late as 1969, it was a crime to try to enroll a handicapped child in a public school if that child had ever been excluded.
Due to court challenges in Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia in the early 1970’s things started to change. In 1975 Congress enacted the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. This was the first law that mandated that all handicapped students had a right to an education. Not only did it mandate that all handicapped students had a right to an education, it also mandated that local educational agencies could be held accountable for not doing so. Shortly thereafter, the term handicapped was replaced with “child with a disability”. Although revised in 1990 as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the most comprehensive changes came in 1997. This law required schools to identify children with disabilities to make sure that all children have available a “free appropriate public education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for employment and independent living” 20 U.S.C. ยง 1401 (d). Unfortunately, the most recent changes in 2004 made the law slightly more difficult to receive the benefits they deserve, which, depending upon the next administration and the make up of Congress may or may not be a trend that will be followed in the future.
Exactly what is a “free appropriate public education”? Under the law, it is defined as “special education and related services that (A) have been provided at public expense, under public supervision and direction, and without charge: (B) meet the standards of the State educational agency; (C) include an appropriate preschool, elementary or secondary school education in the State involved; and (D) are provided in conformity with the individualized education program required under [the law].” In other words, the school must provide services that meet the needs of a child with a disability that may affect their ability to learn. These “related services” can be services that are provided in the classroom, such as giving the child extra time to finish taking tests. They can also encompass services that can be provided outside of the classroom, such as tutoring, or having the child attend either a day or residential program outside of the school, along with transportation.
For the historical data, I relied on Wrightslaw: Special Education Law by Peter W. D. Wright and Pamela Darr Wright and Special Education Law in Massachusetts by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.
By: Paul Epstein
