Special Education: A Summary of Legal Requirements, Terms, and Trends: A Summary of Legal Requiremen

Special education: a summary of legal requirements, terms, and trends. Responsibility: Richard F. Daugherty. Imprint: Westport, Conn. ; London: Bergin.
Table of contents

Decisions about the education of children should be made in terms of carefully individualized procedures that are explicitly oriented to children's developmental needs. To further discourage the labeling and categorizing of children, programs should be created on the basis of educational functions served rather than on the basis of categories of children served. Regulatory systems that enforce the rigid categorization of pupils as a way of allocating them to specialized programs are indefensible. Financial aid for special education should be tied to specialized programs rather than to finding and placing children in those categories and programs.

Psychological tests of many kinds saturate our society and their use can result in the irreversible deprivation of opportunity to many children, especially those already burdened by poverty and prejudice. Most group intelligence tests are multileveled and standardized on grade samples, thus necessitating the use of interpolated and extrapolated norms and scores. Most group intelligence tests, standardized on LEAs rather than individual students, are not standardized on representative populations.

In spite of the use of nonrepresentative group standardization procedures, the norms are expressed in individual scores. Most group intelligence tests, standardized on districts which volunteer, may have a bias in the standardization. Many of the more severely handicapped and those expelled or suspended have no opportunity to influence the norms. Group intelligence tests are heavily weighted with language and will often yield spurious estimates of the intelligence of non-English speaking or language different children.

A group intelligence test score, although spurious, may still be a good predictor of school performance for some children. School achievement predicts future school performance as well as group intelligence tests, thus leaving little justification for relying on group intelligence tests.

One of the most frequent abuses of group intelligence tests is the use of such tests with populations for which they are inappropriate. The Council goes on record in full support of the recommendations of the "Classification Project" Hobbs, The Futures of Children, , pp. That there be established "minimum guidelines with respect to the utilization of psychological tests for the classification of children. Until these three recommendations are accomplished, The Council encourages a moratorium on the use of group intelligence tests by individual school districts for the purpose of identifying children with exceptionalities.

While most students with exceptional needs have been assured their right to public education along with their peers, they have not been similarly assured of the opportunity to complete their education, graduate, and receive a diploma signifying their achievement.

Special Education Rules and Regulations Side by Side

There exist considerable variations and inconsistencies within and among the states and provinces regarding graduation requirements for pupils with exceptional needs and the procedures for their receiving, or not receiving, a diploma. An emerging issue which compounds these variations and inconsistencies is the minimal competency testing movement, which uses established test results as standards for the granting of diplomas or for the determination of grade placement.

Unless educational policies in this area are formulated so as to resolve these inconsistencies, eliminate potentially discriminatory practices, and assure that graduation and grade placement requirements are equitably applied to all students, many of the educational gains made by pupils with exceptional needs could be threatened or delayed. These policies should incorporate the following principles:. Every pupil with exceptional needs should have available the opportunity to demonstrate minimal competency.

Alternative methods of minimal competency testing and the demonstration of minimal competency should be available to pupils with exceptional needs to assure that the competency level is being tested rather than the exceptionality. The application of minimal competency testing programs to pupils with exceptional needs should provide for adequate phase-in periods and educational preparation time.

A minimal competency testing program for students with exceptional needs should provide successive opportunities to demonstrate competency as well as adequate and appropriate remedial programs to address areas in which competency is not sufficiently demonstrated. The successful implementation of a minimal competency testing program, including its application to pupils with exceptional needs, requires the cooperative efforts of regular educators, special educators, and parents in its planning, application, and evaluation.

The Council condemns the inappropriate use of surgical and chemical interventions to control the behavior of human beings. Although these procedures often simplify care and maintenance, the integrity of the individual must transcend any institution's desire for administrative convenience. The Council recognizes that in certain circumstances such interventions may be appropriate; however, they should never be used without the approval of the individual to be treated, or the individual's parents or guardians, or, in circumstances where the individual is a ward of the state, the approval of an appropriate review body before which the individual or his or her representatives are guaranteed all legal due-process rights.

The Council recognizes the right to the most effective educational strategies to be the basic educational right of each special education child. Furthermore, The Council believes that the least restrictive positive educational strategies should be used, as it relates to physical intervention, to respect the child's dignity and personal privacy. Additionally, The Council believes that such interventions shall assure the child's physical freedom, social interaction and individual choice. The intervention must not include procedures which cause pain or trauma. Lastly, behavior intervention plans must be specifically described in the child's written educational plan with agreement from the education staff, the parents and, when appropriate, the child.

The Council recommends that physical intervention be used only if all the following requirements are met:. Various positive reinforcement techniques have been implemented appropriately and the child has repeatedly failed to respond as documented in the child's records. The physical intervention plan specifically will describe the intervention to be implemented, the staff to be responsible for the implementation, the process for documentation, the required training of staff and supervision of staff as it relates to the intervention and when the intervention will be replaced.

A comprehensive analysis of the child's environment including variables contributing to the inappropriate behavior. The personnel implementing the plan shall receive specific training congruent with the contents of the plan and receive ongoing supervision from individuals who ware trained and skilled in the techniques identified in the plan. The health and medical records of the child must be reviewed to ensure that there are no physical conditions present that would contraindicate the use of the physical intervention proposed.

The impact of the plan on the child's behavior must be consistently evaluated, the results documented, and the plan modified when indicated. Releasing noxious, toxic or otherwise unpleasant sprays, mists, or substances in proximity to the child's face. Any intervention which denies adequate sleep, food, water, shelter, bedding, physical comfort, or access to bathroom facilities.

Any intervention which is designed to subject, used to subject, or likely to subject the individual to verbal abuse, ridicule or humiliation, or which can be expected to cause excessive emotional trauma. Restrictive interventions which employ a device or material or objects that simultaneously immobilize all four extremities, including the procedure known as prone containment, except that prone containment may be used by trained personnel as a limited emergency intervention. However, emergency physical intervention shall not be used as a substitute for systematic behavioral intervention plans that are designed to change, replace, modify, or eliminate a targeted b.

The Council for Exceptional Children supports the prohibition of the use of corporal punishment in special education. Corporal punishment is here defined as a situation in which all of the following elements are present: The Council finds no conditions under which corporal punishment so defined would be the treatment of choice in special education. The Council recognizes abused and neglected children as children with exceptionalities. As professionals concerned with the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of children, educators must take an active role in the protection of children from abuse and neglect.

The Council reminds its members and citizens in general, of the availability of assault and battery statutes and calls upon its members to utilize such statutes when applicable in cases of child abuse. When child abuse occurs, swift action must be taken to report the incident and protect the child. Delays caused by not knowing what to do or failure to take action, contribute to the child's injury. Educators and related personnel are urged to learn how to recognize and report child abuse and neglect and to know the community resources for treating suspected cases.

Controlling the spread of communicable and contagious diseases within the schools has always been a problem faced by educators, the medical profession, and the public. Effective policies and procedures for managing such diseases in the schools have historically been developed by health agencies and implemented by the schools.


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These policies and procedures were primarily designed to manage acute, temporary conditions rather than chronic conditions which require continuous monitoring and remove children from interaction with other children while the condition is contagious or communicable.

Recent public awareness of chronic infectious diseases such as those with hepatitis B-virus, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus, and HIV have raised concerns necessitating the reassessment or at least clarification of school policies and procedures. The Council believes that having a chronic infection does not in itself result in a need for special education. Further, The Council believes that schools and public health agencies should assure that any such infectious and communicable disease policies and procedures:.

Do not exclude the affected child from the receipt of an appropriate education even when circumstances require the temporary removal of the child from contact with other children. Provide that decisions involving exceptional children's nontemporary alterations of educational placements or services constitute a change in the child's Individualized Education Program and should thus follow the procedures and protections required. Recognize that children vary in the degree and manner in which they come into contact with other children and school staff.

Provide education staff with the necessary information, training, and hygienic resources to provide for a safe environment for students and educational staff. Provide students with appropriate education about infectious diseases and hygienic measures to prevent the spread of such diseases. Provide, where appropriate, infected children with education about the additional control measures that they can practice to prevent the transmission of the disease agent.

Enable educational personnel who are medically at high risk to work in environments which minimize such risk. Provide educational personnel with adequate protections for such personnel and their families if they are exposed to such diseases through their employment. Counsel students as to how to determine their level of medical risk in relation to certain diseases and the implications of such risk to career choice. The Council believes that the manner in which policies for managing infectious diseases are developed and disseminated is important to their effective implementation.

Therefore the following must be considered integral to any such process:. That they be developed through the collaborative efforts of health and education agencies at both the state, provincial and local levels, reflecting state, provincial and local educational, health and legal requirements.

What's Happening Now?

That provision is made for frequent review and revision to reflect the ever-increasing knowledge being produced through research, case reports, and experience. That policies developed be based on reliable identified sources of information and scientific principles endorsed by the medical and educational professions. That policy development and dissemination be a continual process and disassociated from pressures associated with precipitating events.

Career education is the totality of experience through which one learns to live a meaningful, satisfying work life. Career education provides the opportunity for children to learn, in the least restrictive environment possible, the academic, daily living, personal-social and occupational knowledge, and specific vocational skills necessary for attaining their highest levels of economic, personal, and social fulfillment.

The individual can obtain this fulfillment though work both paid and unpaid and in a variety of other social roles and personal lifestyles, including his or her pursuits as a student, citizen, volunteer, family member, and participant in meaningful leisure time activities. Children with exceptionalities i. Children with exceptionalities require career education experiences which will develop to the fullest extent possible their wide range of abilities, needs, and interests.

Special Education in the Schools

It is the position of The Council that individualized appropriate education for children with exceptionalities must include the opportunity for every student to attain his or her highest level of career potential through career education experiences. Provision for these educational experiences must be reflected in an individualized education program for each exceptional child which must include the following:.

Nondiscriminatory, ongoing assessment of career interests, needs, and potentials which assures recognition of the strengths of the individual which can lead to a meaningful, satisfying career in a work oriented society. Assessment materials and procedures must not be discriminatory on the basis of race, sex, national origin, or exceptionality. Career awareness, exploration, preparation, and placement experiences in the least restrictive school, living, and community environments that focus on the needs of the exceptional individual from early childhood through adulthood.

Specification and utilization of community and other services related to the career development of exceptional individuals e. Career education must not be viewed separately from the total curriculum. Rather, career education permeates the entire school program and even extends beyond it. It should be an infusion throughout the curriculum by knowledgeable teachers who modify the curriculum to integrate career development goals with current subject matter, goals, and content.

It should prepare individuals for the several life roles that make up an individual's career. These life roles may include an economic role, a community role, a home role, an avocational role, a religious or moral role, and an aesthetic role. Thus, career education is concerned with the total person and his or her adjustment for community working and living. The Council proposes the following points as guidelines for early childhood, elementary, secondary, and higher education instructional materials so they more accurately and adequately reflect persons with exceptionalities as full and contributing members of society.

Representation of persons with exceptionalities should be included in materials at all levels early childhood through adult and in all areas of study. The representation of persons with exceptionalities should be accurate and free from stereotypes.

Special Education After 40 Years: What Lies Ahead?

Persons with exceptionalities should be shown in the least restrictive environment. They should be shown participating in activities in a manner that will include them as part of society. In describing persons with exceptionalities, the language used should be nondiscriminatory and free from value judgments. Persons with exceptionalities and persons without exceptionalities should be shown interacting in ways that are mutually beneficial. Materials should provide a variety of appropriate role models of persons with exceptionalities. Emphasis should be on uniqueness and worth of all persons, rather than on the differences between persons with and without exceptionalities.

The Council for Exceptional Children recognizes that the appropriate application and modification of present and future technologies can improve the education of exceptional persons. CEC believes in equal access to technology and supports equal educational opportunities for technology utilization by all individuals. Present technologies include electronic tools, devices, media, and techniques such as a computers and microprocessors; b radio, television, and videodisc systems; c information and communication systems; d robotics; and e assistive and prosthetic equipment and techniques.

The Council believes in exploring and stimulating the utilization of these technologies in school, at home, at work, and in the community. CEC encourages the development of product standards and consumer education that will lead to the appropriate and efficient matching of technological applications to individual and local conditions. CEC recognizes the need to communicate market needs and market expectations to decision makers in business, industry, and government.

CEC supports the continuous education of professionals who serve exceptional individuals, through a collection and dissemination of state-of-the-art information, b professional development, and c professional preparation of personnel to perform educational and other services for the benefit of exceptional individuals. The Council for Exceptional Children believes that having a medical diagnosis that qualifies a student as one with a special health care need does not in itself result in a need for special education.

The Council believes the policies and procedures developed by schools and health care agencies that serve students with special health care needs should:. The Council for Exceptional Children believes that special education personnel preparation and continuing education programs should provide knowledge and skills related to:. Recognizing that this population of students is unique and relatively small, The Council for Exceptional Children still believes that the manner in which policies are developed and disseminated related to students with special health care needs is critically important to effective implementation.

Laws and Rules

In development of policy and procedure for this low-incidence population, the following must be considered integral to any such process:. The Council for Exceptional Children. CEC also monitors and makes recommendations for program regulations and funding. In addition, CEC maintains a network among its units for influencing policy. International Special Education Specialty Areas Who Are Exceptional Learners Special Ed Topics Special Education Topics includes information about the different exceptionality areas; international special education; hot topics in special education; and professional practice topics such as assessment, evidence-based practices and inclusion.

Policy Implications Schools In inclusive schools, the building administrator and staff with assistance from the special education administration should be primarily responsible for the education of children, youth, and young adults with disabilities. Communities Inclusive schools must be located in inclusive communities; therefore, CEC invites all educators, other professionals, and family members to work together to create early intervention, educational, and vocational programs and experiences that are collegial, inclusive, and responsive to the diversity of children, youth, and young adults.

These policies should incorporate the following principles: The Council recommends that physical intervention be used only if all the following requirements are met: The physical intervention plan will become a part of the written educational plan. The policing of illegal betting and bookmaking was a major issue in relations between police and working-class people until , This companion volume to Examining the Law Syllabus: This volume, an updated collection of essays presented by leading scholars at a Hofstra University conference on group defamation, provides Please note that the Lexile measures for a small population of books have been recently updated.

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