SPECIAL EDUCATION DISABILITIES AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

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SPECIAL EDUCATION DISABILITIES AND ITS
IMPLICATIONS

• Submitted by
• B. Michelle Maultsby
• EDAD 6300
• Multicultural Education
• Dr. Beth Christian

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INTRODUCTIONBrown
V. Board of Education mandated schools to
desegregate. However, years later re-segregation
continues to be a continued practice. African
American students have been re-segregated within
public schools via over-placement in special
education classes. Many believe that schools
classifying African American students as disabled
and placing them in special education classes is
a practice of discrimination. In fact, the
Department of Education considers over-placement
of students in special education classes a
national problem and proclaim it a crisis
because African American students are identified
as disabled under Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) in numbers that exceed their
proportion in the general population (Mallory,
2003). In fact, African-American students were
2.3 times more likely to be identified as having
a disability than their White counterparts
(Boehner, 2004). I
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OVERVIEW

• In the past, Congress has gone through
  measures to enact laws that protect students with
  disabilities and there continue to be few
  positive results. In response, for the first
  time, Congress has chosen to act on these
  overrepresentation concerns by enacting the
  Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act of
  2004 (IDEIA). IDEIA recognizes that special
  education eligibility is directly related to the
  general education system and that todays
  increasingly diversed students require a certain
  level of individual instruction in the general
  classroom, as well.

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CURRENT SPECIAL EDUCATION LAWS

• IDEA Improvement Act (2004)
• Make special education stronger for students
  and parents by reducing over-identification/miside
  ntification of non-disabled children, including
  minority youth.
• -requiring districts to operate early
  intervening programs that work
• -eliminate IQ discrepancy model
• -establish methods to reduce the number of
  students from culturally linguistically diverse
  backgrounds
• -introduce a response to intervention model
  that identifies specific learning disabilities
  before the student is failing at grade level
• -rely on positive behavioral interventions and
  supports

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Researcher Robert Garda (2005) found that
the nature of overrepresentation is the lack of
uniformity of disability categories in which
students are placed in. To be eligible, a
Child must have one of the following
disabilities

• Specific Learning Disabilities
• Speech and Language Impairments
• Mental Retardation
• Emotional Disturbance
• Multiple Disabilities
• Hearing Impairments

• Orthopedic Impairments
• Visual Impairments
• Autism
• Deaf-Blindness
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• Developmental Delay
• Other Health Impairments

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• These disabilities are further divided into
  high-incidence and low-incidence categories.
  Students with low-incidence disabilities account
  for the hearing impaired, visual impaired,
  orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain
  injury, and other health impairments. These
  disabilities are clearly defined disorders of
  the central nervous system, sensory status, or
  neuromotor capabilities that can be said to cause
  the disability (Garda, 2005). The diagnoses of
  these disabilities are typically non-judgmental
  and are identified before the first year of
  school.

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• In contrast, the high-incidence categories of
  mental retardation, emotional disturbance,
  specific learning disabilities, and speech and
  language impairments are highly judgmental and
  given without a biological cause and are first
  identified in a school setting. In addition,
  there is no uniformed test to determine their
  presence or agreement on how to diagnose them.
  Therefore, leaving them open to discretion in
  application (Dunn, 1999).

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WHAT DETERMINES ELIGIBILITY FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION
SERVICES?

• Administration of tests and evaluations
• Parent input
• Teacher recommendations
• Physical condition of student
• Social and cultural background
• Adaptive behavior
• A team composed of parent(s)/guaridan(s),
  teachers, a school psychologist, (a
  speech-language pathologist and/or remedial
  teachers analyze gathered data and determine if a
  child would benefit from special education
  services.

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STATISTICSSTATISTICS STATISTICS
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FIGURE 1.1 Children ages 3-5 served under IDEA
by disability category in 2003 in Tennessee
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FIGURE 1.1 CONCLUSIONS

• There were 680,971students aged 3-5 receiving
  special education services in the U.S. Speech and
  Language Impairment and Developmental Delayed
  accounted for the majority of the disabilities.

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FIGURE 1.2 Tennessee students aged 6-21,
served under IDEA by disability category in 2003
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FIGURE 1.2 CONCLUSIONS

• There were 6,045,053 students aged 6-12 receiving
  special education services in the U.S. The number
  of students eligible for Speech and Language
  services and Developmental Delayed services
  consistently increased. Students eligible for
  Specific Disabilities also increased.

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FIGURE 1.3 Tennessee students aged 3-5 and 6-21
served under IDEA, by disability category in 2004
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FIGURE 1.4 Tennessee children aged 3-5 served
by IDEA, by race/ethnicity in 2004

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FIGURE 1.5 Tennessee students ages 6-12,
served under IDEA by race/ethnicity in 2004

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FIGURE 1.4 and 1.5

• White students accounted for a far larger amount
  of Special Education certifications, compared to
  Black students. The problem is that Black
  students identified as disabled exceed their
  proportion in the general population.

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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF IDENTIFYING SPECIAL
EDUCATION STUDENTS?

• ADOLESENTS
• Low self-esteem
• Low expectations of student by self and others
• Alienation
• Behavior problems
• Drop out increases

• ADULTHOOD
• Possibility of Unemployment
• Possibility of Incarceration

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FIGURE 1.5 U. S. Students aged 14-21 with
Disabilities served under IDEA, by exit reason
and age in 2004
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PERSONAL AGENDAS

• Public schools across the country serve more than
  6 million youngsters with a wide array of
  disabling conditions (Garfinkel, 2001).
• The Civic Report (December 2002) stated two main
  agendas for placing students in special
  education based on unclear definitions of the
  disabilities. They are
• FUNDING
• HIGH STAKESTESTING

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Civic Report (cont.)

• FUNDING During a study period from 1991-92
  school year to 2000-2001 the following
  conclusions were made
• 33 states had bounty funding systems, which
  create financial incentives to place children in
  special education
• 16 states had lump-sum funding systems, which
  did not create such incentives.

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AS A RESULT

• There is a statistically significant positive
  relationship between bounty funding systems and
  growth in special education enrollment.
• 62 of enrollment growth during the study period
  (390,000 extra students in special education)
• With the lump-sum system, the identification of
  approximately 258,000 students and 1.5 billion
  per year in extra spending could have been
  eliminated.

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• HIGH-STAKES STESTING Schools have an incentive
  to remove the lowest-scoring students from the
  testing pool by placing them I special education,
  where they will be exempt from testing
  requirements or provided with provisions for
  accountability (Greene, 2002).

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MOST COMMON DISABILITIES IDENTIFIED AMONG COURT
INVOLVED YOUTH (Garfinkel, 2001)

• Specific learning disabilities
• Emotional or behavioral disabilities
• Developmental disabilities
• Multiple disabilities

• ADHD
• Depression
• Anxiety Disorders
• PTSD

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More that one in three youths who enter
correctional facilities have previously received
special education services

• Behaviors that contribute to involvement in the
  court system include lack of social skills,
  impulsive behaviors, risk-taking behaviors,
  susceptibility to negative peer pressure, greater
  difficulty with academics, and school drop.
• Reponses to students with disabilities may also
  contribute.

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WHAT IF IT WERE YOU CHILD?

• Difficulties understanding what going on with
  them
• Difficulties may go unrecognized by teachers and
  others
• May feel embarrassed, confused, and humiliated
  when they have to be isolated from their peers
• Behavioral and adjustment difficulties from the
  isolation

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The failure to recognize, understand, sympathize
and address learning differences has a impact on
individual lives and may one day very well have
an impact on your life.