Special Education: Attitude, Litigation, and Research Proposal

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.

Conclusion

My first encounter with special education was as an untrained aide for in a P.E> class for a child with autism. I was told he could do everything anyone else could, but that motivation was a problem. I found the only real problem to be what he child had been told his limitations were -- once I convinced him they didn't exist, he became fully engaged in the class. Though this will not hold true in every situation, this has been the basic trend in special education, and should continue to be -- learning that children with special needs require the same chances and encouragements as others. This has been the attitude behind the legislation and litigation concerning special education in the past few decades, and will continue to influence policy in the future.

Reference

ERIC. (1998).…