S. Office of Education (Osgood 1999).
Each federal act preceding the Education for All Handicapped Children Act freed up funds for special education training programs and for special education programs themselves. Moreover, the legislation raised awareness about the breadth and diversity of the disabled community and helped to reduce stigma. President Johnson followed well in the footsteps of his predecessor by establishing the Committee on Mental Retardation and helping to pass Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, PL 89-10). The Act opened up funds to be used at the state level for special education and lead to the creation of the Bureau of Education of the Handicapped. Although focused on the needs of the mentally disabled community, the Johnson era legislation was integral in providing precedent for the Education for All Handicapped Children Act.
Osgood (1999) also suggests that impetus for the Education for All Handicapped Children Act came from public awareness of the failures of private institutions to care for the disabled. Public outcry called for the "dismantling the dependency on segregated institutions and instead encouraging a more normalized, community-based approach to caring for and educating this particular population of persons with disabilities gained significant ground," (Osgood 1999). Thus, the table was set for a reasoned discussion about how to integrate disabled children into the mainstream public education system. When the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed, the discussion paused at leveling the playing field in terms of access to public education funding. As the Act evolved, inclusiveness became its core theme.
The National Association for Retarded Children (NARC), which worked with President Kennedy on special education issues, remained one of the most powerful lobbying groups throughout the 1960s. The organization stimulated scholarly inquiry and discourse related to social stigma, " entered the mainstream lexicon (Osgood 1999).
Although much of the legislation and research on special education prior to 1975 was geared toward mental and learning disabilities, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act provided for the needs of -- as the title suggests -- all children who are disabled. Advancements in technology have revealed the ways that the physically disabled can maximize their academic and social potential in the classroom. IDEA builds upon the strong foundation of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and stimulates research into the ways technology and teaching can make the United States a more inclusive and progressive society.
References
Ford, Gerald. (1975). Statement on Signing the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. Retrieved Mar 11, 2009 at http://www.ford.utexas.edu/LIBRARY/speeches/750707.htm
Osgood, R.L. (nd). The History of Inclusion in the United States. Retrieved Mar 11, 2009 at http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/bookpage/HIUSbookpage.html
Raschke, D. & Bronson, J. (1999). "Inclusion." Excerpt from "Creative Educators at Work: All Children Including Those with Disabilities Can Play Traditional Classroom Games." Retrieved Mar 11, 2009 at http://www.uni.edu/coe/inclusion/philosophy/benefits.html
Special Education Laws and Legislation." Retrieved Mar 11, 2009 at http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Foundation/Laws/specialed.php
Woodward, a. Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence. Retrieved Mar 11, 2009 at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2602/is_0002/ai_2602000217
Worth, R. (1999) the Scandal of Special Ed. Washington Monthly 31(6). Retrieved Mar 11, 2009 at http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/1999/9906.worth.scandal.html
It is also worth noting that the evolving nature of special education can be attributed to the cultural changes, family values, and civilizations taking place. Research attitudes towards people with special educational needs exhibit considerable variation as one move from one culture to the other. Findings show that people of different culture may perceive the similar conditions differently. For instance, Yoruba perceived that albinism as a punishment from God (Wilson,
Special Education According to the Federal Laws of the United States of America, "Special Education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability [IDEA 97-300.26(a)]." The revised statutes of Arizona defines a child with disability as "a child who is at least three but less than twenty-two years of age, who has been evaluated and found to have
This plan should address the concerns of the parents and must be tailored to suit the specific needs of the concerned child. Developing an IEP involves a collaborative approach from the teachers, parents and students and other special education staff. Team effort is central to the success of the program as only when input from all the members are garnered can a successful plan be charted out. Once the
In their study, "Thinking of Inclusion for All Special Needs Students: Better Think Again," Rasch and his colleagues (1994) report that, "The political argument in favor of inclusion is based on the assumption that the civil rights of students, as outlined in the 1954 decision handed down in Brown v. Board of Education, which struck down the concept of 'separate but equal,' can also be construed as applying to special
" According to Patton (1998) the overrepresentation of African-American children in special education programs that are intended for students that have serious emotional or behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, and mental disabilities has continued to be a problem even though many researchers have recognized the problems that have occurred as a result of such overrepresentation. In fact there is exhaustive amounts of literature that explains the "causal factors that range from failure
Inclusion is thought to be a best practice. Under this philosophy most students with mild disabilities spend the greater part of their day in the general education setting with their peers. Students may be allocated an instructional assistant to help them with their work. Some students with learning disabilities often spend time in a resource room in order to receive direct instruction. The special education team may decide that this
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