Attitude, legislature, and litigation

Special Education: Attitude, Litigation, And Legislation

The challenges and opportunities presented to educators and school administrators by children with disabilities, especially mental handicaps, have been seen from many often drastically different perspectives over the past several decades. From the legal removal of students with special needs from public education classroom into the 1970s to specialized inclusion in the No Child Left Behind Act still in effect, there has been a major shift in public policy and perception of the special education issue. The shift in attitude, among parents of special needs children and other schoolchildren, teachers, administrators, and public policy makers has been both caused by and reflected in several prominent instances of legislation and litigation. This paper examines the shifting trends in special education via these processes.

Introduction

Children with special needs present special challenges to public school educators and administrators. Such students are often overlooked and/or under-served by traditional or mainstream methods of instruction, yet the diversity of special needs in the overall population makes dedicated special-needs classrooms also ineffective. For this reason, children with disabilities were predominantly excluded from public education institutions, often at an even greater detriment to the child (ERIC 1998). Through litigation and legislation, however, children with special needs and their parents have earned the equal protection and opportunity they are granted by law, and attitudes and methods for dealing with special education have undergone major changes.

Major Shifts in Public Policy and Attitude

Though special education continues to evolve, just as traditional theories and practices of education do, a large part of the responsibility for the overall change in special education delivery in this country is borne by a handful of cases in the courts, and the passages of several federal laws mandating higher standards for, and an increased availability of, special education (ERIC 1998). Prior to the 1970s, many states had laws that specifically allowed them to deny education to children with special needs or learning disabilities, and few states had any legislation that actually ensured any form of public education for these children (ERIC 1998). The majority of children with special needs were educated inasmuch as possible by their parents or, when affordable, in private institutions; most were not given educations that were sufficient even in providing basic life skills and knowledge to these students (ERIC 1998).

In 1972, the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children, or PARC, went to the state courts to challenge a law denying a public education to children with mental disabilities and other handicaps (ERIC 1998). PARC won their case, with the court ruling that all children, including those with identified special needs, were entitled to a "free, appropriate public education" (Eric 1998). This case, and several others that challenged similar laws and/or de facto education practices, led in 1975 to Public Law 94-142, now better known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (ERIC 1998). This piece of federal legislation mandated that all children receive the "free, appropriate public education" at their local institutions.

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act also led directly to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA (ERIC 1998). This law provides direct federal guidelines for the services that state and local public educational agencies and institutions must provide to students with disabilities, including early intervention programs for infants and toddlers and school programs for children in kindergarten and beyond (ERIC 1998). Continuing amendments to both the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ensure that the needs of these students and their families are still being adequately met, and are keeping pace inasmuch as possible with the growth and changes in other areas of public education (ERIC 1998). As standards in the general area of education increase and expectations are raised, students with disabilities are likely to face new challenges, and though adjustment will always be necessary the system will almost certainly be made to keep in step with these challenges, and will assist these students in overcoming them.