Section 1:
SPECIAL EDUCATION AND THE LAW
IN THIS SECTION YOU WILL FIND:
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF SPECIAL EDUCATION
WHY SPECIAL EDUCATION LAWS ARE COMPLEX
SPECIAL EDUCATION, TRUST, AND GOOD AGREEMENTS
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF SPECIAL EDUCATION
Since it’s beginning in 1975 as Public Law 94-142, special education law has emerged as one of the main protectors of the rights of children with disabilities in America.
This law was created in response to complaints that children with disabilities were receiving an inferior education, often in isolation from nondisabled children.
In 1997, the special education law was updated and is now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA-97). As before, the purpose of the law is to protect the rights of children with disabilities, and make sure that they receive a Free, Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). Free means that there can be no cost to the parents, and appropriate means that the children get what they need to learn in spite of their disabilities.
WHY SPECIAL EDUCATION LAW IS COMPLEX
Special Education is, and always has been, a complex, law-driven process. It is a world with its own language full of required forms, required meetings and required participants at those meetings. It has timelines which must be met, categories of disability that students must be ‘fit into’, and precise definitions of key words and phrases.
One may well wonder why it is that so much regulation and legislation would be required for students with special needs. After all, children naturally want to learn, and parents want their children to learn as much as they can and get along well with others. This is exactly what schools were created to do.
Teachers are individuals who care deeply about children and about society in general, and who have chosen a career dedicated to helping young ones learn all they can and grow up successfully. Therefore, it seems obvious that parents and teachers have the same ultimate goal: the success of their students. If there are disagreements, why can’t parents and teachers just sit down and figure out what’s best for the child?
One answer is that it’s not always so easy to just sit down and figure out what’s "best". Teachers and parents can have honest disagreements about how to educate a child. A school may have the overall goal of serving all students equally with their available resources. Parents may have the goal of getting the best education possible for their children even if it is more expensive than normal. Educating special needs children is a multi-faceted, often complicated process which is rife with possibilities for disagreements. Parents and teachers can both become very emotional about a child’s education. After all, it is true for all of us that our children are our future. Educating children is a high stakes enterprise.
A second answer has to do with the issues of trust and communication. The more we trust someone, the less formal and detailed our agreements need to be. We simply trust that the plan will be carried out, and we trust that our ability to communicate with the other party will resolve any differences.
However, the special education laws could not be written relying on trust. They were written to cover every detail and imagine every contingency. We may regularly complain about the detail, complexity and paperwork the law requires, but in fact the law is very carefully designed to respond to important concerns and issues.
SPECIAL EDUCATION, TRUST, AND GOOD AGREEMENTS
The law does not have to be intimidating or overwhelming. If we can communicate well and trust each other, we can create agreements for educating our children in spite of the complexity of the law. What’s best for the child can always drive our decisions, rather than a simple adherence to ‘what the law says we should do’. We will find that when we make decisions in this manner, we will be able to fit our educational recommendations into the framework of special education law. Our ability to be successful in building this kind of trust will stem largely from our skill as dispute resolvers, problem solvers and communicators, as well as from our commitment to responsibly carry out what we agree to do.
| Previous |
