Special Education Law Help

Running Head: Special Education Case Study 2

Special Education Law Case Study

Joseph Sigmon

Central State University

Dr. Watters

October ?, 2021

Child: Juanita Knott is a thirteen your old and a great kid to be around. She was born in St. Clair Shores, Michigan but currently lives in Roseville, Michigan. She has a younger sister and a cat that she enjoys playing with. Juanita likes making TikTok videos, getting her nails done and posting on Instagram. Juanita likes to hang out with her friends at the mall and loves painting. She will be starting 9th grade in the fall.

Strengths: Juanita is helpful, optimistic, and really pleasant to be around.

Weaknesses: Juanita is getting more frustrated when it comes to the reading assignments in any class and is having trouble making connections between the story, the character, and his own life.

Family: The student lives in a single-parent household, has a younger sister, and has a cat. The parent works outside the home; the mom works for Chase Bank, in their lending department and her sister is in 5th grade. The mom has a master’s in business administration. The little sister is a great student at school and has an 87% average in all classes.

Functioning: There were some concerns when she was in 5th grade and then again in 7th grade, but they just monitored her progress. The parent and teachers had meetings, but the parent wanted to wait and see if her work got better. Now, she’s in 8th grade and it’s only getting worse due to lack of intervention early. No, evaluation was done during those times, but one is recommended now and will be conducted.

Evaluation: Evaluations were done by the accommodations and modifications that have been put in place for her to catch up with the work. She was still not able to make those connections, when reading the assigned material and understanding the questions that follow. A meeting with the parent and teachers was held and all parties agreed that Juanita will have an individualized education program, to correct her Specific Learning Disability in reading.

Definition: Specific Learning Disability (SLD) means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken, or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia (Sec. 300.8 (c) (10), 2018).

Causes: According to the Mayo Clinic, specific learning disabilities can be caused by a variety of factors in a child’s life. Those factors family history and genetics, prenatal and neonatal risks, psychological trauma, physical trauma, or environmental exposure (Learning Disorders: Know the Signs, How to Help, 2021). All these factors are prevalent in areas where people of color live and especially in the African American communities, where the paint is lead based on the walls and the young children may eat the paint chips. Physical and mental trauma can play a role in how a student responds at school because of growing up in such an environment.

Prevalence: In the special education categories, specific learning disabilities is the largest. According to the Department of Education in 2013, for the 2010 – 2011 school year, almost 2.4 million students between 6 to 21, received services under this category (A. L. S. W. R. Heward, 2021).

Diagnostician: This is not diagnosed by a medical doctor but is diagnosed by a special education teacher or a specialist at the school. Once the evaluation is done by one of the 2 parties, a plan is set-up for the specific learning disability by way of modifications and or accommodations.

Intervention: Juanita will start off with one-on-one assistance with a para-professional in the classroom and possibly move to a small group setting with students with the same issue. Juanita will only be taken out of classroom to do school or district wide testing and given extra time. Her assignments will be modified by giving her extra time to complete them and will only have to do the main parts of the work. Her parent will also provide outside tutoring, to ensure that she is grasping the work.

Technology: There is no need for the use of any assistive technology at this time, but the use of audio books have been mentioned by her parent and a few teachers.

Chapter 1:

Reference

Heward, W., Alber-Morgan, S., & Konrad, M. (2018). Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education (11th ed.). Pearson.

Learning disorders: Know the signs, how to help. (2021, February 25). Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/learning-disorders/art-20046105?reDate=27082021

Sec. 300.8 (c) (10). (2018, May 25). Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/a/300.8/c/10