01 November 2006

Educating Children Who Have Disabilities

A teacher helps this child with a motor disorder join classmates during playtime. (© AP Images)

From communication and mobility problems to cognitive and emotional challenges, a wide variety of disabilities afflicts children, just like adults. American public schools are expected to address all children’s needs and to help them reach their full potential. Programs to help teachers and parents deal with special needs children have existed for a long time, but these programs have expanded in the past 30 years.

Sign language students require special work on words with multiple meanings to prepare for standardized tests. (© AP Images)

In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed legislation that has evolved into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The law guaranteed children with disabilities access to a free and appropriate public education. Prior to IDEA, only about 20 percent of children with disabilities attended school. By 2003, the number of students with disabilities completing high school had risen by 17 percent, and their participation in postsecondary education had more than doubled.

Although IDEA guaranteed every child an education, the law did not address academic outcomes, which sometimes led to what President George W. Bush called the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” His administration’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law was designed to get all children, nationwide, reading and doing mathematics at a grade-appropriate level by 2014, but it did not include a plan to help students with disabilities attain this goal. The Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services worked with school systems across the country to begin addressing this gap. The Tigard-Tualatin School District in the state of Oregon and the Minneapolis Public Schools in Minnesota, for example, participated in pilot programs that stressed academic outcomes, early intervention, and other improvements.

In 2006, the Department of Education issued new guidelines for IDEA, adding an expectation of academic outcomes to the requirements for special needs children and providing a Tool Kit for Teaching and Assessing Students with Disabilities to aid school districts, educators, and parents in implementing the new accountability measures. Key elements of the new guidelines include flexibility in spending resources to help schools identify special needs students early and accurately and get them the support they need; a requirement that teachers of special needs children be highly qualified, not only in teaching this audience, but also in the academic subjects being presented; a streamlining of paperwork for schools; and the strengthening of parents’ involvement in their children’s education.

In the summer of 2006, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings welcomed the new guidelines, saying, “No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act have put the needs of students with disabilities front and center. We now have a laser-like focus on helping these kids.”