Providing Quality Education for People with Disabilities - Research Paper Example

? Special Populations Special Populations Special education, also known as special needs education, addresses the education of students having special requirements. It deals with their unique and individual needs and differences. The teaching process involves using teaching procedures that are planned individually and monitored systematically (Wilmshurst & Brue, 2010). Additionally, they use specially designed materials and equipments, as well as accessible settings that help the students attain the set standards of individual self sufficiency and excel both in school and community. All these aspects are designed for better performance than would have been the case if the students were taught in typical classroom environments. This paper will research special education in the Carroll Independent School District (CISD) of Texas. The boundaries of school districts in Texas do not always align with city or county boundaries, whereby one district may occupy several cities or counties, while some of the larger cities may be divided between several school districts. Although most special education students are disproportionately English language learners, minority and the poor, the CISD indiscriminately serves 11 schools in the upper income area of Dallas, Texas. It is the largest school district to have been rated by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) as exemplary in performance, recording an exceptional zero percent dropout rate and 97 percent attendance in 2007, a rating it holds to date. CISD believes that for majority of its special education students to achieve the same standards as other students, they ought to be given specially designed support, instruction, accommodation and appropriate access as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Texas is among the states in America that have worked for a few decades to have all students included in their education systems. The commitment has seeped into both the provision of education serves and approaches employed in evaluating the system’s success in a bid to meet all the students’ needs. CISD believes that students with special needs deserve more than pity or protection from the high expectations associated with non-special students. They should also not be excluded from necessary assessments that indicate whether they are progressing towards the expectations as desired or not. Some of the cases that compelled CISD to address special education include intellectual disabilities; developmental disabilities; specific learning disabilities; language and speech impairments; orthopedic, hearing and visual impairments; autism; and traumatic brain injury. Special education developed following the government’s growing need for involvement in education (Wilmshurst & Brue, 2010). Before the 1975 passing of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act by the federal government, special education programs had to be improved to include additional services as prescribed by the plans mandated federally. They would therefore be able to benefit from IDEA. To this end, after the Act was passed, Texas established several schools that give special care and attention to students with disabilities to help them grow intellectually, socially and emotionally. In CISD, they have schools that are specially designed and equipped to address the needs of students with learning or physical disabilities. The schools develop students’ talents and skills within caring and safe environments. This is in conformity with the provisions of IDEA that stipulate that each special needs student is given an Individualized Education Program (IEP), outlining how the schools will meet their individual needs (NCD, 1994). CISD further embraces the requirement by IDEA that special needs students must be provided with free, appropriate, public education, which should be conducted in the least restrictive environments. Special education is provided in varying degrees in schools run by the government in CISD. The settings range from the least restrictive, like full inclusion, up to the most restrictive, like segregation as seen in public schools. Additionally, schools in Texas, and generally all over America, provide specialized medical services if they are required by students. An example is speech therapy. CISD changes its regulations regularly to comply with federal and state regulations that also change frequently as new information on students with special needs keep coming to light. For the greater part, special needs are evaluated individually, and parents with special needs children should know their responsibilities and rights, including responsibilities of their school district and local schools (Cortiella & Burnette, 2009). Assistance by specially trained instructors in regular classrooms as well as instruction given in special classrooms either for the whole school day or part of it caters to the special needs. In some situations, such as when a student is afflicted by chronic illness, the TEA allows the CISD to give instructions from hospitals or homes. Qualification for such instructions from hospitals or homes is determined by a student’s individual needs. The TEA requires school districts in Texas to make arrangements to avail special education to students admitted to specialized facilities and hospital when instruction from outside is not practical. Such arrangements are also allowed under certain situations outside the public education system. CISD sets the requirements for residential placement in the district with the help of evaluators who establish a timeline that will help to estimate a student’s re-entry into school at the enrollment time into the residential program. The backbone of individualized special education programs is formed by the school staff, parents as well as the students themselves, who dictate the special needs and the services that the school district should provide (NCD, 1994). IEPs often include students’ special considerations, the time they spend receiving normal classroom instruction and specialized instruction, the testing requirements, special instruction materials the students need and planning for the transition into the intended normal, adult life. As the regulations are reviewed annually, they ensure that the students are achieving sufficient progress. Majority of the reviews are guided by federal regulations regarding special education programs basing on IDEA to ensure delivery of proper standards and treatment, but CISD is accorded some flexibility to implement them in their own appropriate manner. Federal intervention serves an overseeing purpose to ensure accommodation of the special children (Wilmshurst & Brue, 2010). CISD guarantees that all special needs students in the district are provided with multiple options for graduation in high school. Flexibility is given to students that are not able to meet both the minimum requirements of the curriculum and pass the exit level examinations. They may be allowed to graduate if they meet the minimum requirements of the curriculum and only taking part in district and state examinations. The authority to assess and determine the need to pass state and district assessment is vested in the Admissions, Review and Dismissal committee. Some students may graduate if they are able to complete the IEP’s requirements, meet requirements of the curriculum applicable to their capabilities and meet the minimum requirements of general education. These are also determined by the Admissions, Review and Dismissal committee. The requirements often stipulate that students demonstrate their abilities in life skills that can facilitate self reliance and possible employment. This requirement can also be met by students by gaining access to services that CISD does not provide as well as those that the public system has no obligation to provide. Some predefined assessments, like the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), are modifiable to accommodate the special students’ needs. Such changes are necessary for hearing and visually impaired students or in the creation of alternative assessments in circumstances where the students have cognitive disabilities that hinder them from participating in standard assessments (Cortiella & Burnette, 2009). In recognition of the fact that the purpose of special education goes beyond academic achievement, CISD, together with the TEA, works in collaboration with other nongovernmental organizations to enhance the lives of students with intellectual disabilities. They include Best Buddies, Stajduhar Stables and Special Friends. For example, Best Buddies, which is a volunteer based organization, serves colleges, high schools and middle schools across the district and internationally. Their programs encourage participation from each school in the district in active development and making friends through community service. Stajduhar Stables offers quality, cost effective Christian healthcare for students with learning, emotional, mental and physical disabilities. Special Friends, an informal organization, brings together students who have intellectual disabilities but enjoy having fun through participating in sporting activities. These nongovernmental organizations have programs that include an array of associated supportive initiatives and accommodations, including modified transport as required by some students. This move is also supported by IDEA, which stipulates that special assistance, like psychological therapy, should extend outside the classrooms. Apart from providing services to students, some also offer services in counseling for parents. As reported by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, parents that maintain regular communication with program officials benefit from the bets support (NCD, 1994). Before the changes were federally mandated, students who were possibly disabled could pass through school untreated or even unnoticed. The developments in the system served to ensure that students with special needs are evaluated and accorded appropriate treatment. CISD uses an assessment system that evaluates the needs of all students. Before implementing, they carefully thought of all students in the population to be assessed, including those who were already receiving special services and those with significantly critical cognitive disabilities. They came up with a broad system that not only focuses on instruction for the students, but even the instructors’ professional development, which ensures that all student groups are visible in the results (Cortiella, 2009). The procedures precisely define what content is to be assessed and what not to focus on. With the help of content experts, test conceptualization constructs are explicitly defined and measured. Such expert input addresses the overlaps with other special populations such as the gifted and talented students and at risk students, ensuring that the focus meets the unique requirements of a particular population. Programs are tailored to allow classroom teachers time within their schedules in which they can meet and plan assessments on their own, while students attend special classes such as music, art or science. This is because CISD believes in the aspect of empowering teachers. In conclusion, the assessment system also identifies each assessment task’s specific requirements, placing focus on the critical elements (Thurlow, 2010). For each assessment type, whether it is a constructed response model on a computer or multiple choice type, those essential to the content are listed, enabling the instructors to determine the ones that can be addressed in the test design. In the end, they are able to develop accommodation policies, follow principles of accessibility in development and ensure that the design is appropriate for the target population. They then develop interim and formative assessments that ensure inclusion of students in grade level curricula that focuses on accelerated learning. CISD focuses on delivering special education as a respectfully deserved necessity to a special population, rather than a pity-driven quest for meaningful engagement in both school life and after school life. Its collaboration with parents, the community and nongovernmental organizations emphasize how the state’s commitment to even out educational opportunities for special learners affects its goals positively. References Cortiella, C., & Burnette, J. (2009). Chal­lenging change: How schools and districts are improving the performance of special education students. New York: Na­tional Center for Learning Disabilities. Cortiella, C. (2009). The state of learning disabilities. New York: National Center for Learning Disabilities. National Council on Disability (NCD). (1994). Inclusionary education for students with special needs: Keeping the promise. Washington: Author. Thurlow, M. (2010). Computer-based testing: Practices and considerations. Min­neapolis: University of Minnesota. Wilmshurst, L., & Brue, A. (2010). The complete guide to special education (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Read More