Diversity in the Classroom: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act - Assignment Example

Diversity in the room (IDEA) – IEP A. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) came into being in 1975 during the time of the administration of President Gerald Ford. It sought to provide protection for the rights of disabled children and their parents with regard to the education in the United States of America through free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE). There are six key components in the original IDEA 1975 act. The Entitlements and Allocations component provides the states with a plan towards the implementation of the IDEA program, and the number of students that would benefit from the program itself. The Eligibility component lays down the framework of rules govern the implementation of the program. It makes all handicapped children eligible for the program, and lays a on the state a number of responsibilities, which include, specific time frames for initiating the program in different age groups, and ensuring that the disabled children are given the best education possible in as near a natural environment as possible. The Applications component caters to several aspects of the program. It lays down the uses and applications of finance provided by the program to the states; the nature and type of information that needs to be exchanged between all stake holders in the program like state educational agencies, schools, parents and guardians of the disabled children, and the general public as a whole; and lays the total responsibility of the education of disabled children in the program on the local education agencies. The Procedures and Safeguards component ensures protection to all involved in the program, with particular emphasis on the disabled children and their parents. The Evaluation component provides for evaluation of the efficiency of the implementation and impact of the program towards the objectives of giving each and every student in the program a free and appropriate education. The Payments component consists of the general and monitoring procedures. (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)) B. The major feature of The Education For All Handicapped Children Act Amendments of 1986 (PL 99-457) is that it attempts addressing the inadequacy of IDEA with regards to very young children, and provides the means for early intervention to provide the best education to a disabled child. It does this by expanding the services of education for handicapped children to infants and young children who have disabilities or are at risk and their families. Part B of the Act mandates all states to extend the provisions of P.L. 94-142: The Education of All Handicapped Act to the very young children, thus making them eligible as the older children. Part H of the act further encourages states to develop and put into place a total package for intervention in the case of infants and toddlers with developmental delay or disabilities. (The Education For All Handicapped Children Act Amendments of 1986 (PL 99-457) The Education For All Handicapped Children Act Amendments of 1990 (PL 101-476) in essence brings about a change in terminology and expands eligibility and mandated transition services. The title of the special education law was changed to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); the use of the term handicapped was completely removed. The purpose behind all this was to give recognition to the children first and the disabilities only after that. Among the exceptionally recognized categories of PL 94-142, two more in the form of autism and traumatic brain injury were added. The Act also mandated transition services for students with disabilities were to start no later than the attaining of sixteen years by the student (The Education For All Handicapped Children Act Amendments of 1990 (PL 101-476) The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (PL 105-17) was responsible for substantial changes to the law with regard to students with disabilities. Structurally the law was reduced from nine to four chapters, but more significantly there was greater emphasis provided in the role of parents and families, general education personnel and students in process of providing education to children with disabilities. As a result of the act parents and families were recognized as collaborative partners in the process. Another key component in the Act was focus of the amendments to make sure students with disabilities had access to the general education curriculum. The importance of access to general education for students with disabilities meant that educational professionals would have to keep themselves knowledgeable of the general educational curriculum, the strengths and needs of each of the students with disabilities, and the manner in which general education standards, goals and curricula could be applied to individual students (The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (PL 105-17)). The key change that The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004) introduces is the manner in which the schools can evaluate students that are suspected of having specific learning disabilities (SLD). It removes the earlier existent anomaly of not recognizing learning problems that are the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, as a consequence of mental retardation, emotional imbalance, or environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage. IDEA 2004 removes the requirement of a student to demonstrate a severe discrepancy between intellectual ability and academic achievement in order to be identified as having SLD, as this was leading delays in intervention. IDEA 2004 instead lays down the procedure for schools to identify students suspected of SLD, the assessment process, and determining the intervention strategy (Cortiella, 2005). C. IDEA 2004 provides procedures for determining the existence of suspected disability in a student for the purpose of providing special educational services. These procedures do not replace the IDEA requirements with regard to evaluation and evaluation, but are in addition to them. Evaluation of a student suspected of having SLD is based on a set of assessment tools and strategies, and not based on a single criterion or single evaluator. A multi-disciplinary team consisting of qualified professionals and the parents of the student make up the evaluating body. The evaluation is a step by step process. The first step is the determination of underachievement. The second step is determination of response to interventions or a pattern of strength and weaknesses or both. The third step is the determination of whether appropriate instruction has been provided by qualified personnel. The final step is the determination of the factors responsible for SLD (Cortiella, 2005). D. As mentioned earlier the determination of whether a student has SLD is based on the evaluation of a multi-disciplinary team consisting of a group of professionals and the parents of the student. The professionals that make up the multi-disciplinary are the students regular teacher or a regular teacher qualified to teach a child of similar age as the student, and a set of professionals capable of conducting the diagnostic evaluation. The professionals that make up the diagnostic evaluation team include a school psychologist, a speech-language pathologist, and a remedial reading teacher. However the composition of the diagnostic evaluation team could vary depending on the nature of the suspected disability in the student (Cortiella, 2005). The pre-referral interventions consist of providing a series of scientific research based interventions and ascertaining whether the student has failed to make sufficient progress in achievement adequate for the age, in spite of these pre-referral interventions. A documentation process is used during this period of increasingly intensive interventions. The documentation of progress is normally done employing curriculum based measures. The whole pre-referral intervention strategy is undertaken prior to referring the student for the comprehensive evaluation process (Cortiella, 2005). Norm-referenced tests (NRT) and criterion-referenced tests (CRT) are differentiated on the basis of the intended purpose, the selection of the content and the scoring process employed. The purpose of NRT is to classify students. The content has been designed to provide a scoring process, whereby it is possible to highlight the achievement differences in students, and through that create a dependable rank order. Thus NRT is meant to ascertain the ranks of students or a comparison of students. On the other hand CRT provides a means of ascertaining the knowledge and skills in the students. In other words what they know and what they can do. CRTs provide the means of ascertaining the capabilities of students relative to a pre-determined level on a specific set of educational objectives or outcomes that are included in the school, district, or state curriculum (Bond, 1996). The individualized Education Plan (IEP) is the outcome of the discussions between the multi-disciplinary team and the parents after testing the student, and consists of the educational needs of the student with specific, measurable short-term and yearly objectives for each of the specific educational needs. It outlines the support services that are to be provided to the student and the frequency at which these support services are to be provided. These support services include special education speech therapy, occupational or physical therapy, counseling, audiology, medical services, nursing, and vision or hearing therapy (A Guide to the Individualized Education Program) Literary References A Guide to the Individualized Education Program. 2007. Retrieved July 9, 2007, from, U.S. Department of Education Web Site: http://www.ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html Bond, L. A. (1996). Norm- and Criterion- Referenced Testing. Retrieved July 9, 2007, from, Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation Web site: http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=5&n=2 Cortiella, C. (2005). IDEA 2004 Close Up: Evaluation and Eligibility for Specific Learning Disabilities. Retrieved July 9, 2007, from SchwabLearning.org Web Site: http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.aspx?r=1063 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). 2005. Retrieved July 9, 2007, from Guide to “Frequently Asked Questions” Web Site: http://www.doe.state.in.us/exceptional/speced/pdf/idea_faq.pdf The Education For All Handicapped Children Act Amendments of 1986 (PL 99-457. Retrieved July 9, 2007, HOUGHTON MIFFLIN Web Site: http://college.hmco.com/education/resources/res_prof/students/spec_ed/legislation/pl_99-457.html The Education For All Handicapped Children Act Amendments of 1990 (PL 101-476. Retrieved July 9, 2007, HOUGHTON MIFFLIN Web Site: http://college.hmco.com/education/resources/res_prof/students/spec_ed/legislation/pl_101-476.html The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (PL 105-17). Retrieved July 9, 2007, HOUGHTON MIFFLIN Web Site: http://college.hmco.com/education/resources/res_prof/students/spec_ed/legislation/pl_105-17.html Read More