Module 6 Poetry, Drama, Film, Response
13 years ago
Friday, July 11, 2008
Peer Review #5: Special Education and the Government
One of my passions is children with special needs so it will be the focus of my peer review. Trace the government's involvement in special education. Has the government done enough or not enough to aid this population. Is inclusion the best idea? Or more specifically the implementation of it?
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2 comments:
The first efforts by the government to work with children who had special needs was in the early 1800s. Before the 1950s this period was referred to as the "forget and hide." The 1950s and 1960s were a time to screen and segregate.The 1970s were a time to identify and help.
Before the 1960s, the children who were regarded as special were not educated. Programs for the handicapped were designed for children who were 6-7 years old. With the beginning of Head Start, there was attention given to the preschool handicapped and their families.
The first half of the 20th century education for the exceptional was more of a local and state concern. It was not until 1930 when the federal gevernment supported programs in a limited way. Rights for the disabled developed out of the civil rights causes. The result of the lawsuits was a number of federal laws for children with disabilities.
The Individual with Disabilities Education Act of 1990, reflected a change in philosophy by referring to children as individualss with disabilities rather than handicapped.
Inclusive programs have been limited by a lack of knowledge about the funding possibilities available under IDEA.When it comes to inclusion there are arguments that support both sides. I don't think it can be a one size fits all approach.I think the implementation has been difficult with problems often cited as money, lack of trained personnel etc. Working in an environment for children with learning disabilities, all of my learners have special needs. Many of them came from inclusive classrooms where their needs were not being met. (Not necessarily the fault of the classroom teacher.) Usually class size was the reason for the change as well as specialized help being offered regularly. I would be interested to hear others thoughts on inclusion.
Education of children with special needs has really been a “back burner” issue for most of history. Children with disabilities were the victims of infantcide. If a family had a child with a handicapping condition, he was either kept at home or sent to an institution. Education was rarely provided to these children. Lascarides and Hinitz describe the stages of special education in the 1900’s: prior to the 1950 was the “forget and hide” method, the 50‘s and 60’s was a time of ‘screen and segregate” and beginning in the 70’s a time of “identify and help” which has been our course up till the current day.
Springboarding from the Head Start project and the civil rights victory of desegregation, the federal government began to take an active role in the exceptional population. Amendments to the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA) provided funding to serve these special populations ages 3-21 as well as create the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped. Below is a time line of other important legislation for children with special needs
1958—grants to states and universities for teacher training for children with disabilities
1965—ESEA and its amendments (see above)
1968—Handicapped Children’s Early Education Assistance Act—provided funding to develop, explore and implement programs for these populations
1972—Head Start is required to have children with special needs make up 10% of its population. Here is where the originally concept of mainstream arose.
1974—Education of the Handicapped Act—extended services to birth to 21 for all children with a disability
1975—PL94-142—Preschool Incentive Grants and sets up the requirements for eligibility, individualized instruction as well as appropriate implementation. All children 3-21 have a right to a free public education
1978—monetary support for services for ages 0-3 as well as the Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP). This legislation defines “developmentally delayed” as well as the child find and referral system.
1990—Individuals with Disabilities Act is the reauthorization of PL94-192 with 8 components. IDEA includes FAPE (free and appropriate public education), LRE (least restrictive environment), IEP (individual education plan) and FIE (full individual evaluation)
1990--Americans with Disabilities Act—Under part III-Public accommodations—daycares may not discriminate due to disability (Roopnaine & Johnson, 2005)
The government has made great strides in offer education to all people. Its overarching premise is sound. Educate a child to need his specialized needs in an environment that is most natural. However as we strive towards No Child Left Behind, we as a society are leaving children behind in the dust. With such a relatively short turn around time, children are now being integrated into the general education classroom with a special education teacher. The supporting structures are weak or not in place to allow a smooth transition. Children who are 3 years behind are in classes with on-level peers while special education teachers try to get lesson plans and stake out a place of validity as a teacher and not an aide in classrooms. The focus is narrow in scope. Not everyone is meant to go to college, or be a plumber or news reporter . . . but we are pushing kids into a mold of conformity and discouraging mean who don’t feel success and taking tests ill prepared to take. Our individuality protected by the law is slipping away. Procedures need to be reviewed and implementation overhauled in order to humanely educate towards the premise.
Roopnarine, J., & Johnson, J. E., (2005). Approaches to early childhood education (4th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
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