Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

June 13th, 2011 by admin No comments »

Disability is something a lot of people learn to live with. However a lot many are unable to take proper education with a disability. There are a substantial number of ailments, diseases, problems and in general, several different disabilities which make a person quiet handicapped, preventing him or her from taking education as normal student. Learning disability, mental and even physical disability needs to be addressed with sufficient measures as it can potentially be substantially harmful for the person, especially preventing him/her from learning properly. The chief motive of this act is to remove the barriers of disability that hinder the children from enjoying the joy of learning.

Now the following provisions have been explained in a kind of summarized manner, and leads and procedures with regards to this law have been included in appropriate places.

The provisions of the act start with the definition of student who qualifies to benefit from protection and services as under this act. The jurisdiction of the act extends to almost all of the schools and educational institutes, and to any student who is in between the ages 3-21. An interpretation of the act states that any student whose disability prevents him/her from taking eduction in a proper manner or a person who needs additional, different, specialized services or any sort of help to do so, qualifies to receive benefits under the provisions of the act. Now of course, the disability would include, physical disability such as hearing ailments, psychological disability such as autism and learning disabilities such as dyslexia.

1. Individualized Education Program
The basic and also probably the best provision of the act is the Individualized Education Program (IEP). As per the act, public schools are to design an independent Individualized Education Program, which is to be implemented in the Least Restrictive Environment for the benefit of the child. The program in itself is unique and is written down so as to provide qualifying children/students with the services that they would need to overcome hindrances while learning. The program is a very detailed one and it consists of a substantial number of provisions, services and learning aids and in short, all possible help that the student would need to learn. In order to design and oversee the proper execution of the entire program, an IEP team is put together upon the detection of the disability in a student. This team consists of several people who include, the parents of the student, teachers, school counselors and psychologists, administrator or a representative of the CSE (Committee of Special Education) and any other person or expert who would be able to help the student. » Read more: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Special Schooling

June 13th, 2011 by admin No comments »

In the past centuries, school was not available for everybody. School was a luxury only few could afford, not necessarily because it was expensive but because it was selective. Minorities were not aloud to go to school, nor did women in some places, or peasants in others and in some places not even people belonging to a certain race, such as the Afro-American people. School was only for royal descendants or for the high class.

The contrary is what happens today. Almost everyone willing can go to school and moreover, there are also special schools, such as schools for blind people, schools for minorities, schools for girls or schools for boys. Is this way of specializing schools efficient? It may be for some categories, but it surely isn’t for other.

In the first place, schools for moderate special needs children have proven their inefficiency. They seem not to stimulate enough the cognitive resources of the children and in addition they don’t contribute to the socio-emotional development of these children. Being in a special school puts a permanent stigma on them and they also fail to integrate those children in the community later on. Of course, special schools are needed for severely affected children who represent a menace to other children or who are too impaired to be solely under the supervision of non-psychiatric or physical specialists. But in these schools one can find also children which have less serious impairments or problems. These are those who have physical disabilities, learning disabilities, ADHD, the Asperger syndrome or other mental impairments which the psychologists consider to be light and under control. » Read more: Special Schooling