AW1

Week One Instructor Guidance

Welcome to ESE603,Law and Ethics in Special Education and congratulations on successfully completing your first class!This is the second course in the MA, Special Education (MASE) program.

The MASE program has been designed to develop your capacity as a leader in the field.  In this course and the program as a whole, you will focus on the basic legal principles and pivotal legislation that contribute to the placement, instruction, service delivery, and privacy issues of those who have a qualifying disability under the federal law.  You will also have the opportunity to identify critical issues that may lead to ethical and legal conflicts of interdisciplinary team participants, as well as proactive strategies for resolution.

Each week before beginning your assignments and initial discussion board post, it is necessary that you review the Instructor Guidance. The Instructor Guidance is an integral part of the course because it is intended to supplement the required and recommended readings, videos and multimedia webpages for each week of material and also provides important and required resources for your success in this course and beyond. 

In this course the practical applications are found within the scenarios and introduction in each week. This information is equivalent to what is presented in a face-to-face learning environment where the Instructor presents new information.  The Instructor Guidance should be used to support your discussion posts, responses, and other required assignments.

As you may recall, the MASE program is founded on the following assumptions a) all children can learn; b) children have diverse learning styles; c) and the teacher’s belief in each child’s abilities supports the child’s success. As with all of your courses, it is imperative that you embrace the premise that, regardless of ability level, cultural background, or learning differences, in physically and emotionally safe environments, all children can learn.

You will explore the fundamental legal principles and key legislation that have contributed to today’s required special education procedures.You will also learn how disputes between parties can be effectively managed or resolved by the use of proactive strategies.  The main federal law that drives the field of special education, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), has protections and mandates for due process that support successful resolution of procedural and substantive matters.

Federal Involvement in the Education of Students with Disabilities

As we begin the course we focus first on the laws that support the development of special education in the United States.  Essentially, the term "law" refers to the rules that govern activities in a society (Yell, 2012). Providing a background of this information is important for your global understanding of the nature of special education and why it appears that there are so many rules to follow.  Because children with disabilities were systematically excluded from public school over the years, these laws have created equal opportunities. Still, much work needs to continue to attain the goal of delivering a meaningful education for all children with disabilities.

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act(EHA) (1975), also known as Public Law 94-142, was signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1974 and became official in 1975.  This legislation set into motion many of the current procedures and requirements for equal access to the educational environment for all students, including those with documented disabilities.

Previous to 1975, students with disabilities were essentially excluded from public schools.  Others were enrolled in schools but were not receiving a meaningful education to address their needs (Yell, Drasgow, Bradley, &Justesen, 2004).  In fact, according to Yell (2012) in 1974 there were well over 1.75 million studentswith disabilities who did not receive educational services. The civil rights movement created an increased social awareness of this prevention of basic rights such as attending public school. These startling statistics provided the impetusfor President Ford to endorse this groundbreaking new legislation.

Through the vigorous efforts of parents, teachers, and advocacy groups, the educational rights of children with disabilities were gained through the courts and legislatures over the past fifty years.  Below is a timeline of the progression of significant special education laws:

 

Figure 1. Progression of laws in the field of special education.  This figure illustrates the progression of some of the significant laws in the field of special education.

 

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

The original federal law, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, has changed to what we now know as the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act (2004) [(referred to as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) throughout].  Reauthorized, or in other words updated by Congress, in 1990, 1997 and 2004, the IDEA is the landmark federal law that provides significant protections to students with disabilities. 

As a result of this legislation, special education services are individualized to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities and these services are provided in the least restrictive environment.  Special education may include individual or small group instruction, curricular or instructional accommodations, assistive technology or other specialized services such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language therapy.  These services are to be provided in accordance with the Individualized Education Program (IEP), which is specifically designed by a multidisciplinary team, which includes the child’s parents.

The required reading in your textbook for this week details this information.  The below slide provides the main concepts of the IDEA, most of which will be studied in this class:

 

Figure 2.  Components of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  Source: SlideShare.  http://www.slideshare.net/sander60tx/ch02-13407968

 

Who Receives Services?

Children between the ages of 3 and 21, who meet the eligibility criteria in one of thirteen qualifying disabilities and who require special education services because of the disability,can qualify for services under IDEA. Your next course, ESE610 Assessment and Evaluation of Students with Mild to Moderate Disabilities will feature the procedures and legal considerations for this process.  

The categories of disabilities under the IDEA are: autism, deaf/blind, deafness, hearing impaired, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, serious emotional disturbance, specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment including blindness, and other health impairment. To be eligible, a student must have a disability that adversely affects her or his educational performance and must need special education in order to receive an appropriate education.

As you are learning about these various categories, here is a website that can be a tremendous resource for you.  Just click on the link below the picture to get to the website.  This may be one that you consider saving to your link library.

Categories of Disability Under the IDEA (Links to an external site.)  

Week One Discussion Guidance

As usual, we begin this course by introducing ourselves in the  Post Your Introduction discussion forum.In this discussion you will describe your current professional position and your goals for professional advancement.  In this post you will share your experiences with special education law either as a teacher or parent or another role.  Making initial connections between this course and your previously completed course, ESE601, is a topic to explore.  Answering the question in your initial post, “How does this information prepare me for my work in the field?” can be advantageous as well.

In the second discussion for this week,  Key Historical Events , you are asked to summarize how the amendments to the IDEA demonstrate a progression in the protections and rights for students with disabilities.  In your response, you have the opportunity to locate and share a related resource such as a website or article that questions, supports, or refutes what you have read in your peers’ initial posts.

Please review the discussion board rubric prior to your initial post to ensure you are fully meeting each of the set criteria to earn full credit. As per the rubric requirements your initial post should include relevant professional, personal, or other real-world experiences in a manner that is rich in thought and provides valuable insight into the topic.

Additionally, all elements of the discussion board prompt should be thoroughly addressed with strong and precise connections to previous and/or current course content, or to real-life situations. When substantively replying to your peers’ post, be sure to provide a thorough and constructive analysis relating the response to relevant course concepts that incorporates pertinent follow-up thoughts or questions about the topic, and demonstrates respect for the diverse opinions of fellow learners.

Finally, while it may difficult to do for all the responses to your posts, please make an effort to respond back to those who took the time to respond to your initial posts.  It is the courteous and gracious thing to do, and has the potential to make our classroom community discussions more interesting and thought-provoking. Answering questions posed by your peers invites continued learning, meaningful application, and relevant extension of the discussion.

Week One Assignment Guidance

Six Principles of IDEA assesses your ability to describe the components of the IDEA as it pertains to current special education practices in the public school setting and to evaluate the effects of legal mandates that contribute to the development of compliant programs, supports, and services.

In this assignment, you are considering not only the IDEA, but also the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.  All threegovern the rights of children with disabilities, however each federal law has specific objectives that serve to provide equal access.  The three laws were intentionally designed toprovideindependent guidelines for those with disabilities. This chart below demonstrates the scope of each of the three laws:

Figure 3.  Three key federal laws.  This figure shows the interrelatedness of three key federal laws. 

Using support from your assigned reading, the Instructor Guidance, and the discussions, you are asked to write a paper intended for an audience of parents, general educators, and community leaders who are interested in learning more about this significant legislation.  Specific guidelines are provided in the assignment for the content and written expectations – be sure to review.

Make sure to use the Grading Rubric as a self-checklist before submitting the final copy of your assignment to confirm you have met or exceeded each required expectation. The highest level of achievement on the rubric is “distinguished”, which is only earned through exceeding posted expectations at the proficiency level.Please remember you are in a masters-level program. Therefore, your writing, research, and content are held to graduate-level expectations.

ePortfolio

Save this written assignment in your electronic portfolio (ePortfolio).  As you recall, your ePortfolio serves as a collection of evidence to support the development and mastery of competencies as you progress through this program and you will re-visit it in ESE 699, your MASE program capstone course.

References

Categories of Disability Under IDEA: Center for Parent Information and Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/categories/

Chapter 2: Special Education History and Laws. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/sander60tx/ch02-13407968

edu402fall10class - IDEA & 504 Sec 2. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://edu402fall10class.wikispaces.com/IDEA+%26+504+Sec+2

Yell, M. L. (2012). The law and special education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Yell, M. L., Drasgow, E., Bradley, R., & Justesen, T. (2004). Critical legal issues in special education. In A. McCray Sorrells, H. J. Reith, & P. T. Sindelar (Eds.), Issues in special education (pp. 16-37). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.