Today's Policy Contexts for Special Education and Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

A keynote speech from the 2008 International Conference of the Council for Learning Disabilities, held in Kansas City. The author seeks to contextualize special education, focusing first on the discrepancy model for determining whether a student has a specific learning disability and its effect on escalating costs and alleged overclassification. He turns to questions of law reform and how the reformed IDEA might counter a trend toward students becoming dependent on enhanced support in and beyond school.

Broader discussions include how special education relates to anti-poverty policy and welfare reform, how funding and teacher preparation affect results, and how meaning is ascribed to the construct "disability".