I.D.E.A. The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act example essay topic

Mid-Term What is I.D.E.A. & How Does It Affect Students of Color? Written By Sarah PullanoED U 570 Prof. Wolfe February 26, 2004 The United States is home to hundreds of different types of peoples and cultures. We have always prided ourselves on our achievements as a nation, but now there is a problem. In the past century we have discovered that it is inhumane to hide away people that are different from us.

It is an atrocity to deny one child an education just because he / she can't see, hear, speak, walk, or even think like 'normal' people. Now is the time for change and from this time, we are introduced to I.D.E.A. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was passed so that all children might be able to receive a free, appropriate public education. We have had the law for a few decades now, but what exactly is I.D.E.A. and how is it really helping the disabled students of America? According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a child with a disability is a child with mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional disturbance (hereinafter referred to as emotional disturbance), orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities. This definition is for a general child.

If the child is younger, age 3 through 9, a child with a disability can include any child that is experiencing developmental delays, as defined by the State and as measured by appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures, in on or more of the following areas: physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development. Both of these categories include any child, by reason thereof, that needs special education and related services. (IDEA '97) Now that we know what classifies a disabled child, what exactly are these disabilities? The following will be definitions of what each of these disabilities entail.

1) Mental retardation - Characterized by IQ level below 70 and must have significant limitations in adaptive functioning in at least 2 of the following skill areas: communication, self care, home living, social / interpersonal skills, use of community resources, self direction, functional academic skills, work, leisure, health and safety. (APA) 2) Hearing impairments - permanent or fluctuating impairment in hearing that adversely affects educational performance. (Schwab Learning) 3) Speech or language impairments - includes communication disorders, language impairments, voice impairments that adversely affects educational performance. (Schwab Learning) 4) Visual Impairments - impairment in vision that even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness. (Arbeiter) 5) Emotional Disturbance - Characterized by one or more of the following conditions over a long period of time: An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; a general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

(NICHCY) 6) Orthopedic impairments - includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e. g., clubfoot, absence of some member, etc. ), impairments caused by disease (e. g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc. ), and impairments from other causes (e. g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures). (IDEA '97) 7) Autism - brain disorder that begins in early childhood and persists throughout adulthood; affects three crucial areas of development: communication, social interaction, and creative or imaginative play. (NIDCD) 8) Traumatic brain injury - includes acquired injury caused by external physical force and open or closed head injuries that result in impairments; does not include congenital or degenerative brain injuries or brain injuries caused by birth trauma. (Schwab Learning) 9) Learning disabilities - childhood disorders characterized by difficulty with certain skills such as reading or writing in individuals with normal intelligence.

(NIDCD) 10) Developmental delays - When a child has not begun certain activities by the age most children can perform the activity; they may be slow to talk, walk, feed and dress themselves, read, write or do other things; children may show a delay in one or more areas or may have overall delays. (MOF AS) All of these are classified as disabilities because if a child has one or even more of these serious problems, that child will have a much harder functioning in life. I.D.E.A.'s main goal is to allow all children to have an equal opportunity to learn. Whether or not a child is disabled, all children alike have a right to learn. Not all disabilities are created equal. There are two groups of disabilities, which are defined as high-incidence disabilities or low-incidence disabilities. High-incidence disabilities are also often referred to as mild disabilities.

Included in this category are all learning disabilities, mild mental disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Emotional Disabilities or Behavioral Disorders. By far, students are faced with more learning disabilities than anything else. Approximately 51 percent of students with exceptional needs are identified as having a learning disability. (PGPBSU) The next category is known as low-incidence disabilities.

These are the more complicated ones including moderate and severe mental disabilities, autism, and multiple disabilities. (PGPBSU) Also included in this list is orthopedic impairments, however, the majority of the time, these students do not require academic adjustments, but rather physical adjustments to the classroom environment. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has done much to reform the American system so that all children might receive a good education, but times are always changing. At this time, I.D.E.A. is up for reauthorization. One main issue that the House and Senate are looking at is monetary compensation for schools. U.S. Senator Robert Byrd of W. Virginia is asking that more Title I funding be granted in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act.

In the NCLB Act $18.5 billion was allotted for the Title I education program, but the program budget only calls for $12.4 billion. Unless the money is given in full, 2.1 million disadvantaged children will not receive that proper education that they deserve. (American School & University, 2003) Another amendment that would be passed would be a democratic amendment that would 'include provisions for homeless / foster children and research into the environmental causes of developmental disabilities. ' (FCSN, 2003) There are also advocates for changing certain language and definitions in the act itself. All of these amendments would work to improve I.D.E.A., but no matter what, some things are going to have to change if we hope to improve our education process.

We do not have a system of education that matches, in quality, the economic and political position of the most powerful nation in the world. (Hilliard, 1992) When we look at children with disabilities, it would be nice to know that every time a teacher felt a child had a disability, they were correct. This is not the case; how ever, and many children are misdiagnosed during the years for lack of teacher education and, sadly certain minorities are singled out when it comes to diagnosing. One group, specifically, is students of color. African-American children, especially males, make up a higher proportion of the special ed rolls than they do of the general student population.

The numbers are most pronounced in the areas of mental retardation and developmental delay, where 34.2 percent and 30 percent, respectively, are black. (Education USA, 2002) The American public school system is facing a severe problem. There are many students that need special education and there are too many teachers assessing African American males as those students that need special education. According to Daniel Losen, editor of Racial Inequity in Special Education, most minority children don't receive high-quality instruction early on, which causes them to be misidentified with learning disabilities when they have just fallen behind in reading. (Hicks, 2002) Many studies have been done to assess why exactly African American males are placed in special education in such high numbers. Many scholars feel that the main element is the lack of teacher appreciation of the African-American culture.

Several traditional features of African American males' behavioral profile exacerbate the average White female teachers negative view of them. First, the high physical activity level of African-American boys, as compared to girls and whites, then the historical tension arising from American Whites' fear of African American male physicality, and finally, the patterns of language learning and usage of African American males are generally devalued in schools, these all combine to make the average teacher quite uncomfortable in the classroom. (Harry, Anderson, 1994,610) A large number of African American students are assessed as learning disabled because of a notion known as 'self-concept'. According to different scholars, our traditional view of self-concept (a highly integrated perception of the self) does not adequately address the specific and unique characteristics of African American students. (Obiakor, 1992) Many teachers classify these students as learning disabled because they are failing and because they are failing academically, teachers feel that these students have a low self-concept, which in turn makes them not want to succeed.

It is a vicious illogical circle that needs to be stopped. In agreement with Losen, students begin to fail when teachers fail to teach. These are some of the problems that the students of color are facing, but what is being done about it? As mentioned before, the I.D.E.A. is up for reauthorization, and this is another issue that is being scrutinized. Daniel Losen and co-editor Gary Or field, co-director of the Civil Rights Project, recommend that accountability measures similar to those in the No Child Left Behind Act be added to the Individual with Disabilities Education Act when it is reauthorized.

(Hicks, 2002) Schools with special education classes would be required to gather data on achievements and display that for public knowledge. In association with this, the idea of state monitoring is being looked at. Too many states are doing a poor job of administering IDEA Part C programs, as well as guiding high school-aged disabled students toward college or the workplace. (Education USA, 2002) The following list is also a few recommendations for schools that find themselves with a disproportionate placement of African-American males: 1) Label services rather than the students. 2) Direct restructuring efforts toward the creation of a unified educational system. 3) Restructure schools to emphasize the prevention of student failure.

4) Conduct assessments for the purpose of guiding instruction rather than determining program eligibility. 5) Implement curricular and instructional reforms. 6) Replace the current age-based annual promotion system with a system based on heterogeneous, smaller, and less time-limited classroom groupings. 7) Create community schools and alter the parent-professional communication process. (Harry, Anderson, 1994,615-616) There needs to be changes in the way teachers are teaching.

Instead of teachers adjusting to the behavioral learning styles of the students, we see students having to conform to the style of the teachers. Rather than build on children's repertoire of behaviors, teachers typically aim to extinguish and replace these behaviors with conduct more acceptable to them and to move quickly to find deficit in those children who prove less malleable to conformity. (Harry, Anderson, 1995,611) Schools are also attempting to hire special education-trained teachers. Either our special services must have the high probability of being successful or there is no need for such services at all.

(Hilliard, 1992) We must reform the system before any more students are lost in the shuffle of special and general education. The reauthorization of I.D.E.A. is imminent and we can only hope that the changes that will be made will benefit all exceptional children.

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