Special Education in the United States

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Special Education in the United States

• Susie Fahey and Mario Martinez

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Today

• More than 200,000 infants and toddlers receive
  services
• More than 6.5 million children and youth ages
  3-21 receive special education and related
  services to meet individual needs.

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Access to Public Education

• Education of All Handicapped Childrens Act, EHA
  (1975)
• The right of all handicapped children to receive
  a free, appropriate public education.
• Funds provided to enable states and local
  education agencies to comply with the
  requirements.
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,
  IDEA(1997)
• Reauthorization of EHA
• Requirements for states to provide special
  education that is aligned with federal standards
  as a condition for receiving federal funds
• Entitled every student to a free and appropriate
  public education in the least restrictive
  environment

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Reauthorization of IDEA 2004Current Status

• Reauthorized several times with the 2004
  alignment with 2001s
• No Child Left Behind Act
• Established parameters for highly qualified
  teachers and assessment requirements
• Amended disciplinary procedure
• Individuals Education Program procedures and
  eligibility criteria for learning disabilities to
  include the use of general education
  interventions and progress monitoring.
• Create procedures for educating children with
  disabilities in private schools located within a
  school districts boundaries

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Funding

• Cooperative federalism model- State and Federal
  funding
• Federal Regulations and Mandates established
• Statutes and regulations occur at the local level
  by school districts under the supervision of
  their State government.
• Subject to judicial review

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Funding

• IDEA authorized Congress to contribute up to 40
  of the national average per pupil expenditure for
  each student
• Have failed to implement the original
  authorization
• Creates financial pressure for the local school
  district
• States provide 45 - Local Districts 46
• 9 through Federal IDEA funding

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Qualifying- 13 Specific categories

• Autism
• Developmental disability
• Specific learning disability
• Intellectual impairment
• Emotional and/or behavioral disability

• Speech and language disability
• Deaf-blind
• Visual impairment
• Hearing impairment
• Orthopedic or physical impairment
• Other health impaired (attention deficit
  disorder, multiple disabilities, traumatic brain
  injury)

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Evaluation Process Comprehensive school
evaluation

• Parent and/or teacher identification
• Parent approval
• Provided at no cost to family
• Comprehensive any area of need
• In native language of child
• Administered by a team of professionals
• Administered one-to-one
• Prior interventions must have taken place before
  evaluation
• Observation by person other than classroom
  teacher
• Evaluation then determines eligibility one of
  13 categories identified.

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Individual Education Program (IEP)

• Developed by team at least one parent
• Statement of the childs present levels of
  educational performance
• Describes the effects of the childs disability
  on the affected areas of the childs academic and
  non-academic school performance
• Statement of the annual goals, including short
  term goals
• Specific special education and related services
  to be provided to the child and the extent to
  which the child will participate in regular
  education program.
• Dates for initiation of services
• Annual review of IEP
• 3 year Review

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Transition Services

• Transitions services are designed to focus on
  improving academic and functional achievement for
  children. These types of services help develop a
  persons ability to gain employment and
  independent living skills. The goal of
  transitional services is to prepare students with
  disabilities for adult living. In most states
  these services extend to age 21 or when the
  student meets his/her goals and objectives, which
  will be designated in their IEP (Center on
  Education Policy, 2005).

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Current Legislation Blueprint

• The Blueprint sets a goal that, by 2020, all
  graduating high school students will be college
  and career ready regardless of their disability
  status.
• Achieving this goal will likely include
• Inclusion of students with disabilities in
  general education classrooms.
• Professional development for principals and
  teachers to improve the effectiveness of
  instruction.
• Equitable allocation of effective educators to
  provide high-poverty, high minority schools.
• Support of school principals and special and
  general education teachers to effectively address
  the academic and socio-economic issues faced by
  students with disabilities.

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Blueprint

• Enhancement of early intervention programs,
  including Response to Intervention and Positive
  Behavioral Supports.
• Identification and implementation of drop-out
  factors that disaproportionately impact students
  with disabilities.
• Increase the rate of high school graduation for
  special education students with a standard high
  school diploma.
• Continued use of accountability systems.
• Greater use of technology to improve instruction.
• Effective use of student data to monitor student
  progress
• More effective collaboration between schools and
  parents.

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Not only equity but quality!