Individuals with Disabilities Education Act - Essay Example

1975 IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) Over the past decades, public education has started to realize the growing presence and impact of an increasingly diverse student body. Instead of insulating itself from these changes, it has created ways to benefit students whose needs lie outside the realm of regular education. Toward this end, the federal government took steps to lay out how schools would serve students with disabilities. Their first effort was the Education For All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) of 1975. It served as the first national mandate to provide free and appropriate education to students with disabilities. The phrase "free and appropriate" would come to be one of the first ideas school administrators and special education teachers would consider when planning and serving those students. PL 94-142 included six key components. The first component declared that all students, no matter what their disability, were entitled to a public education that had to be free of expense and suitable to each student's needs - or "free and appropriate." The second component created safeguards to prevent improper identification of children who were culturally or linguistically different from the student norm. Evaluations had to be administered in the child's native language by a skilled professional. They had to address specific areas (e.g., speech, language, math, behavioral), be made up of more than one procedures, fair to the students, and given by a multidisciplinary team with members representing all components of the students' education ("The Education For All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) 1975"; "Public Law 94-142 (S.6); Nov. 29, 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975"). The third component involves the creation of an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to meet their individual educational needs. An IEP team must meet annually and examine the plan for possible updates. The principle of Least Restrictive Environment forms the fourth component. It states that disabled children must be educated with non-disabled students to the greatest possible extent education ("The Education For All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) 1975"; "Public Law 94-142 (S.6); Nov. 29, 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975"). The fifth component states that a system of due process and checks and balances will be used for disabled students and their families. Parents must give permission for testing and placement, may examine student records at any time, have an independent evaluation performed by an outside party, have a hearing, make appeals, and expect confidentiality ("The Education For All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) 1975"; "Public Law 94-142 (S.6); Nov. 29, 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975"). The last component declares that parents have a right to be included in all phases of the placement, including assessment, placement, and IED development education ("The Education For All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) 1975"; "Public Law 94-142 (S.6); Nov. 29, 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975"). Over the years, the law was reauthorized several times and experienced many important changes. PL 99-457, in 1986, expanded the scope of IDEA by adding provisions for the education of infants and toddlers (essentially from birth) with special learning needs. Its goals were to improve the development of infants and toddlers with disabilities, and to reduce the potential for developmental delay. It also wanted to reduce the chances of such a child being institutionalized. It sought to help families meet the special needs of those children, and tried to keep them out of special education, when possible. (Apling and Jones, 2002). In 1990, PL 101-476 gave the law its current IDEA moniker and ordered states to extend all the provisions of PL 94-142 to preschool-age children; public funding would facilitate these early intervention services. The expansion was based on the idea that falling cognitively behind in the preschool years made it more difficult for students to be successful when they entered kindergarten (Thurman, et al., 1997). It also added autism to the list of disabilities that included mental retardation, hearing, vision, speech or language problems, emotional disturbance, traumatic brain injury, and others (Knoblauch and Sorenson, 1998). Other reauthorizations went further. PL 105-17 was the first comprehensive revision of IDEA. It created guidelines for using alternate assessments for students with disabilities, stressed maximum participation of such students in regular education, and broadened the scope of parent participation. It also focused on ways to resolve conflicts involving disabled students, applicable disciplinary procedures, and the expansion of the Developmentally Delayed age range (Apling and Jones, 2005). It made many changes to processes involving the evaluations of students with IEPs, especially in the area of testing accommodations and modifications. It also ensured disabled students the most possible access to the general curriculum. The law also mandated the membership of parents and one regular-education teacher on the multidisciplinary team. It required transition services to be planned as the child entered teen-age years (Knoblauch and McLane, 1999). IDEA 2004 was passed by George Bush. It gave definitions to help state and local education agency gain access to and purchase instructional materials, including the creation of a standard for electronic files called NIMAS. It specified that funds could be reserved to carry out activities at the state-level and school-wide programs. Special education teachers had to meet new qualifications, and performance goals and indicators were revised. IDEA 2004 also changed reporting requirements and regulated the use of alternate assessments. Plus, it linked the records of migratory students as they moved from state to state and created a special rule for eligibility determination (U.S. Department of Education, Feb. 7, 2007). PL 108-446 defines "highly qualified" as it pertains to teacher skills and expertise. Schools must have highly qualified staff, and notify parents when the situation is otherwise. It also deals with calculating how much grant funding states can have, funding for high-need disabled children, and state performance goals, as well as private school regulations, financial waivers, procedural and compliance changes (Apling and Jones, 2005). The law also addressed the use of assistive technology, serving homeless children, providing related services, and planning transition services (Silverstein, 2005) What does all of this mean for schools It means guidelines and codes for virtually all situations involving students who have or may have disabilities. Schools now have established procedures to follow for evaluating and placing students under IDEA regulations. First, schools must use pre-referral interventions to try to address their concerns about a student. The interventions are planned and implemented through a multi-disciplinary team comprised of regular education and special education teachers, school psychologists, counselors, speech therapists, nurses, and other parties whose input is deemed beneficial to the process. Schools must use federally-regulated evaluations and placement protocols. Pre-referral interventions are a coordinated effort to create conditions that aid the student's success in the regular classroom, which may keep a student from being referred for evaluation and possible placement. This ensures the student is being educated in the federally-required "least restrictive environment." The use of multidisciplinary teams in the entire process is critical in meeting IDEA regulations. The members of the team include a local education agency (LEA) representative who is often the principal or assistant principal. Parents should be critical contributors to each part of the referral process, and school members should take actions to ensure this. A regular-education teacher who teaches the student should be on the team, as well as a special-education teacher. The qualified assessor, often a guidance counselor, is a team member, too. School nurses, social workers, psychologists, speech therapists, and any other parties with interests in the child, such as advocates, are allowed, as well. The team must discuss the child's strengths, what the parents feel are good "next steps," and any test results. The team should focus on the student's yearly goals, find ways to keep the child progressing in the general curriculum, interacting with non-disabled peers, and participating in extra-curricular and non-academic activities (U.S. Department of Education, Mar. 23, 2007). Typical strategies include team meetings with teachers to discuss common concerns and share effective strategies for instruction and management of the student, interviews with parents, medical exams, and hearing and vision tests. From this data, schools might decide to add remedial services such as tutoring, in-school counseling, use a special progress report, decide courses of disciplinary action, and look at how they might change the student's education program. Ultimately, if the school can keep the student from being assigned services without compromising the quality of the student's education, they will try to do so ("The Child Study Team and Prereferral Strategies: Chapter Six"). When it is determined that a more comprehensive evaluation is needed, schools will choose assessments by which to measure a student's ability and performance. Test administrators should be specially trained. They may use norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests. Norm references help show how well a student performs compared to others; criterion-referenced tests show performance on an absolute scale. Often, multidisciplinary teams will use both types of tests to gather a wide sample of data. Criterion-referenced and norm-referenced tests are both valuable. Norm-referenced tests can be used to compare large numbers of students. The results show how each performs against the others. The emphasis is on relative performance instead of a raw score of items scored correctly on an assessment. They are considered to be limited in use, because they can not be used to accurately compare the effectiveness of widespread school programs. For example, say we had a group of five basketball players who took the same number of foul shots. If three of them scored 7 of 10, five scored 8 of 10, and two scored 9 of 10, the three players who shot 7 of 10 would be in the lowest-performing group ("Assessment Purposes"). The problem 7 of 10 is still very good. This shows the limitations of norm-referenced tests. Criterion-referenced tests are best used to evaluate the skills and knowledge students have learned from a unit of instruction. These tests are mastery ordered, so the players in the example above who shot 7 of 10 would be indicated at a high skill level, even though they were the lowest-performing group of the three ("Assessment Purposes"). If the evaluations indicate a student needs to receive special services to function well at school, the multidisciplinary team formalizes a plan called an IEP. An IEP specifically tells which special education and related services will be available to a student, and tells how and when they will be administered. The parent is included in the planning and oversight of service delivery (Apling and Jones, 2002). Each IEP is designed for an individual student. The broad membership of the team pools their different types of knowledge about the student to create the best possible platform for decision-making about evaluation, placement, and services. The IEP includes information about current student performance, annual goals, special education and related services, the extent of participation with non-disabled students, how the student will take state and district-wide tests, and provides specifics about the delivery of services (who, what, where, when, and how). It details how the cascade of services will be delivered, by whom, and how often. Services can include speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, transportation, and more. Schools must conduct regular reevaluations to determine the efficacy of the current IEP and the progress of the student. Parents must know their due process rights, as well. School officials must also ensure availability of extracurricular activities and nonacademic services for disabled students (Student Placement in Elementary and Secondary Schools and Section 504 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 1998). The IEP will note any transition services after the child is 16, the child's age of majority, and a statement of how progress will be measured. It is imperative that all team members follow every detail of service delivery on the student's IEP (U.S. Department of Education, Mar. 23, 2007). Ultimately, the federal government's attempt to provide better education for disabled students has been successful because of these laws and processes. In a relatively short time, education leaders have effectively improved the quality and quantity of education received by this group. The laws will continue to evolve in the future, as we attempt to maintain continuous improvement in our deliver of services. References Appling, R., and Jones, N. L. (2002). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Overview of major provisions. Retrieved July 22, 2008, from http://kohl.senate.gov/idea.pdf Appling, R., and Jones, N. L. (2005). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Proposed regulations for P.L. 108-446. Retrieved July 22, 2008, from http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs//data/2005/upl-meta-crs-6940/RL32998_2005Jul18.pdfPHPSESSID=916d0ba0d7df423363083b397385815e#search=%22Individuals%20with%20Disabilities%20Education%20Act%20(IDEA)%3A%20Analysis%20of%20changes%20made%20by%20P.L.%20108446%20CRS%20Report%20for%20Congress%22 Assessment purposes. (n.d.). Retrieved July 22, 2008, from http://www.edtech.vt.edu/edtech/id/assess/purposes.html Knoblauch, B. and McLane, K. (1999) An overview of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (P.L. 105-17). ERIC Digest E576. Retrieved July 22, 2008, from http://www.ericdigests.org/2000-2/act.htm Knoblauch, B. and Sorenson, B. IDEA's definition of disabilities. ERIC Digest E560.Retrieved July 26, 2008, from http://www.ericdigests.org/1999-4/ideas.htm Public Law 94-142 (S. 6); Nov. 29, 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (n.d.) Retrieved July 22, 2008, from http://asclepius.com/angel/special.html Silverstein, R. A user's guide to the 2004 IDEA reauthorization (P.L. 108-446 and the conference report). Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities. Retrieved July 26, 2008, from http://www.c-c-d.org/task_forces/education/IdeaUserGuide.pdf Student placement in elementary and secondary schools and Section 504 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. (1998). Office for Civil Rights. Retrieved July 22, 2008, from http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/placpub.html The child study team and prereferral strategies: Chapter Six. (n.d.). Retrieved July 22, 2008, from http://academic.udayton.edu/stephenrichards/Assessment%20in%20Special%20Education/Chapter%206%20The%20Child%20Study%20Team%20and%20Prereferral%20Strategies.ppt#256,1,The Child Study Team and Prereferral Strategies The Education For All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) 1975. (n.d.) Retrieved July 22, 2008, from http://college.cengage.com/education/resources/res_prof/students/spec_ed/legislation/pl_94-142.html Thurman, S. K., Cornwell, J. R., and Gottwald, S. R. (1997). Contexts of early intervention: Systems and settings. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company. U. S. Department of Education. (February 7, 2007). Alignment with the No Child Left Behind Act. Building the Legacy: IDEA 2004. Retrieved July 22, 2008, from http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/%2Croot%2Cdynamic%2CTopicalBrief%2C3%2C U. S. Department of Education. (March 23, 2007). A guide to the Individualized Education Program. Special Education & Rehabilitative Services. Retrieved July 22, 2008, from http://www.ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html Read More