This paper provides a comprehensive overview of special education in the United States, tracing its legal foundations, demographic influences, and classification practices. Beginning with federal and state definitions of special education and learning disabilities, the paper examines how shifting immigration patterns and ethnic demographics have shaped educational service delivery. It compares California state and federal methods of student classification, particularly around Specific Learning Disability (SLD). The paper then surveys the major federal laws governing special education — including IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, ADA, FERPA, and the No Child Left Behind Act — and explains how these statutes together define the rights of students with disabilities and the obligations of schools.
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According to the federal laws of the United States, "Special Education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability [IDEA 97-300.26(a)]." The revised statutes of Arizona define a child with a disability as "a child who is at least three but less than twenty-two years of age, who has been evaluated and found to have a disability and who, because of the disability, needs special education and related services [ARS 15-761(2)]." Under federal law, a student can qualify for special education services under the disability categories of mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities [IDEA 97-602(3)(a)].
According to the U.S. federal code (Section 300.7-(10) of 34 CFR Parts 300 and 303), a learning disability can be defined as "a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia." The 'Lectric Law Library defines Special Education as "specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parent, to meet the unique needs of a handicapped child, including classroom instruction, home instruction, and instruction in hospitals and institutions."
Special education is a method within the mainstream education process that addresses the needs of children affected by physical and mental disabilities. Since such children cannot always function within the mainstream educational process, a different method was developed to cater to their academic needs. Special education looks into the basic requirements of children who suffer from mental and physical disabilities and who therefore cannot avail themselves of regular education. It is a uniquely designed mode of instruction provided by the department of education at no extra cost to families, aimed at fulfilling the requirements of students with mental and physical disabilities.
Students who suffer from mental and physical disabilities typically require extra attention, greater care, and unique methodologies suited to their condition so as to facilitate a more effective educational process. A learning disorder is one in which the student lacks the psychological capacity to perform basic learning functions — such as using and applying language, understanding, and analyzing what is being taught. Due to this inability, such students require very different methods of education. Several laws and regulations under the United States federal code facilitate the application of special education. In the United States, special education programs are conducted and maintained by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in coordination with the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities (NICHCY) and the Federal Resource Center. These programs are regulated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, better known as IDEA.
A large number of immigrants enter the United States every year, and this has had a tremendous impact on the public school population. It is widely believed that within the next fifty or so years, the population of the United States will become considerably more diverse than it is today. Among those immigrating, a large majority originates from Asian and Pacific countries. The arrival of increasing numbers of students — including those with physical and mental disabilities — from these regions has given special significance to the concept of special education.
A marked impact is felt in the educational landscape with the influx of an ever-growing number of migrants. Enrollments in schools across California have been on a steady rise. The percentage of Hispanic students has grown progressively, and it was widely projected that by 2009–2010, the Hispanic population would constitute a considerable majority among student groups. Studies showed that African-American and White student populations maintained a downward trend in proportional terms. Students of Asian, Pacific Islander, and Filipino origin maintained relatively stable proportions. An ongoing development is the marked increase in special student populations, especially those who need to learn English.
Federal and state educational legislation across the United States has made it mandatory for all students with disabilities to participate in their state and district assessments. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) reauthorization of 1997 expressly declares that "children with disabilities are included in general state and district-wide assessment programs with accommodations, where necessary." The Act further requires that alternate assessments be provided to those students for whom the standardized assessment remains unsuitable even with accommodations. The United States Congress originally passed IDEA in 1975, mandating schools to serve students with physical and mental disabilities.
Since then, a large number of students have been identified under this category and assigned to receive special education. This included students from varied ethnic and racial backgrounds. Separate classifications were established — such as learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, and mildly, moderately, or severely mentally retarded — primarily to identify students requiring extra care and educational support. However, these classifications were not well received by students, teachers, or parents. General opinion suggested that such labels contributed more to failure than to progress and added to fears of permanent stigmatization. For years, this remained an unresolved issue across all educational levels providing special education.
According to studies conducted at the time, more than 14% of Black students were enrolled in special education programs, compared with 13% of American Indians, 12% of Whites, 11% of Hispanics, and 5% of Asians. This marked disparity caused widespread concern. An estimated 2.6% of Black students were identified as mentally retarded compared with 1.2% of White students, and approximately 1.5% of Black students were classified as emotionally disturbed compared with 0.91% of Whites. Educators are required by IDEA to first provide superior learning opportunities in a normal classroom environment before determining the need for special education. Special education placement is warranted only after it has been concretely established that the student undoubtedly requires extra educational support.
The proportion of children requiring special education has risen since the mid-1970s, when IDEA was introduced. The percentage of K–12 students recognized as needing special education increased from 8.3% in 1976–77 to 11.8% in 1998–99. Nearly all of this growth can be attributed to one category: "specific learning disability." This condition grew more than threefold — from 1.8% of the student population in 1976–77 to 6% in 1998–99. All other classifications of special education — including mental retardation, serious emotional disturbance, deafness, blindness, autism, and head injury — actually decreased from 6.5% to 5.8% of the total student population during the same period. Changing demographics, including overall student population growth and shifts in ethnic group composition, have undoubtedly had a wide-ranging impact on the methods and students involved in special education programs across the United States.
"SLD classifications and California promotion legislation"
Federal law defines Specific Learning Disability (SLD) as "a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations." A presidential commission report of 2002 estimated that, of the 80% of students diagnosed with SLD, two out of every five were identified as part of the program simply because they had not had adequate practice in reading and writing. An increasing number of students are being categorized under SLD not because they genuinely meet its clinical criteria, but because schools operating SLD programs receive greater funding. The belief that special education students impose a financial strain on schools has contributed to this pattern of over-classification.
Among the most common attributes used by educators to identify students requiring special education are minority status with regard to race and ethnicity, poverty, single-parent household, the educational background of the mother, and possession of a non-English language background. In fiscal year 1997–98, California enacted a legislative package that changed the way special education students moved from one grade to the next. This three-bill combination — AB 1626 (Chapter 742, Statutes of 1998), AB 1639 (Chapter 743, Statutes of 1998), and SB 1370 (Chapter 942, Statutes of 1998) — outlined new methodologies for pupil promotion and retention. The legislation was designed primarily to eliminate the practice of social promotion based on factors unrelated to grade-level content mastery. It addressed the identification and retention of low-performing students, granted decision-making authority to the local education agency, and required that student retention decisions be based on multiple criteria.
Under this framework, students' overall academic performance must be evaluated regularly, with comprehensive analysis reports incorporating teacher assessments. While all students possess individual learning needs, students categorized under special education have exceptional needs that require more focused attention and care. Other common identification methods include general observation by teachers and educators, and the administration of standardized tests.
Several legal frameworks have been enacted by the United States Congress and state legislatures regarding special education. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was enacted by Congress on November 19, 1975, as Public Law 94-142. It remains the primary legislation regulating special education policy and practice across the nation. It was not an entirely new piece of legislation; it was previously known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. Congress promulgated this law based on the outcomes of two landmark United States Supreme Court cases, as well as factual testimony presented before Congress.
Prior to 1975, there were no laws governing the provisions and principles of special education in the United States. As a result, many students with learning disabilities were unable to obtain quality education — or any education at all. The absence of a primary legal framework allowed schools to exclude children with disabilities from their rosters. Painfully deprived of their fundamental right to education, children with disabilities had no legal system to address their needs. A rudimentary form of special education did exist in which groups of students with different disabilities were housed together, but beyond state schools for the deaf, there were no established schools providing specialized instruction.
With the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and subsequently IDEA, schools across the United States were mandated by law to provide special education to all students identified as requiring it. The legal basis rested on two principles acknowledged by the Supreme Court: that exclusion from public education is unacceptable, and that separate is inherently unequal. In 1972, the Supreme Court proclaimed in two historic cases — Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens [PARC] v. Pennsylvania, 343 F.Supp. 279 [Pa. 1972], and Mills v. Washington D.C. Board of Education, 348 F.Supp. 866 [D.C. 1972] — that public education must be extended to include children with disabilities.
In the wake of these decisions, Congress conducted investigations into the education of children with disabilities. It was determined that more than eight million children needed special education, yet only 3.9 million were receiving an appropriate form of education. An estimated 750,000 children with disabilities were receiving no education whatsoever, while 2.5 million children were receiving a form of education considered inappropriate for their needs. IDEA also functions as a funding statute: in order to receive federal funding allocated by Congress, each state must develop a plan ensuring compliance with all IDEA provisions. As of the paper's writing, all 50 states had ensured total compliance. The United States Department of Education (DOE) has issued standards that states must meet and has also permitted states to formulate their own standards, which may differ from one another. Quicker and more complete implementation would accelerate the delivery of quality special education and remove the many obstacles faced by students with learning disabilities.
"Rehabilitation Act, ADA, FERPA, and NCLB provisions"
Special education has come a very long way in the United States in a span of close to three decades. The need for special education was first recognized in the mid-1970s with the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and subsequently the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This legislation provided a broad legal and operating framework, mandating all schools across the United States to provide education to disabled children. Students with disabilities could no longer be excluded from school rosters. Students were grouped into classifications pertaining to Specific Learning Disability (SLD), ranging from moderate to severe disabilities, which included poor comprehension, disturbed reading, ineffective writing, and impaired reasoning.
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