In the past, students with disabilities were often separated from nondisabled students and placed in “special” classes. This had the effect of creating social and educational disadvantages for them that are viewed as unacceptable under current law. Students with disabilities have enough to overcome without their parents having to fight the system as well. Disabled students can often face problems in school, ranging from learning difficulties, language barriers, concentration issues and behavioral/socialization difficulties. The issues were difficulties these students encounter in school can be related to a number of different things, such as physical disabilities, emotional problems, learning disorders, behavioral issues or psychological disorders. While in the past such students were often shunted aside, today students with such disabilities are usually entitled to the same level of services as other students received the public schools. Of course, this often requires a degree of accommodation from the school system. Fortunately, federal law mandates that reasonable accommodations must be made. The following will examine the exact nature of these laws and how they make the education of the disabled very different from what it once was.
As suggested in the above introduction, disabled students are legally entitled to reasonable accommodations and access to all the other opportunities and services that their local educational system provides to nondisabled students. The following will briefly review the relevant federal laws impacting the education of disabled students as they currently stand.
According to federal law, every child in the educational system of any state or municipality must receive an education that is as unrestricted as possible and that suits the needs of the child and the educational environment. Moreover, the costs involved in any accommodations or other efforts that must be made to do so cannot be passed on to the child’s parents or guardians. The background and legal foundation for these assertions can be found in three major federal laws regarding disability and the treatment of the disabled in the United States. Two of these laws are more general, and have provisions that apply both to educational and non-educational settings (Russo & Osborne, 2009). However, one of these laws is intended specifically to address issues facing the disabled in the educational system. The three laws are:
The ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act)
The 1973 Rehabilitation Act (specifically, Section 504)
IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)
Individual states in the United States have a range of criteria they used to determine the eligibility of disabled students to receive whatever services might be available to them. They also have in place their own procedures regarding how they will carry out the provisions of the above laws. Parents of disabled students can sometimes face obstacles in the form of bureaucratic red tape and confusion when attempting to get their child the services to which she or he is entitled. It’s vital for such parents to make themselves well-versed in the above laws, as well as the local state policies and regulations regarding how such laws are implemented in their area.
The federal IDEA law governs who receives special education services in the United States by laying out certain criteria that must be met for such services can be provided (Lusk, 2015). For a disabled student to be found suitable, he or she must have experienced one or more of the following:
Physical Disability
Learning Disabilities
Autism
Mental Retardation
Major Emotional Disturbances
Severe Brain Injury
Hearing or Vision Impairment
Other More General Impairments
In the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504 regards the civil rights of disabled students. It requires every school and school district to carry out their policies in a nondiscriminatory way so that disabled students will not be disadvantaged (Weber, 2010). In addition to this, the school systems are expected to provide reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. For example, a child with a wheelchair will need to have space for that chair and an easy ability to get that chair in and out of the room when necessary. Any aspect of a schools program or activities (B those activities private or public) that receive any amount of federal funding must make reasonable accommodations. Accommodations can also apply to how classes are conducted. For instance, it might be determined that a child with learning disabilities should not be given a timed test. The text of Section 504 is quite clear and explicit regarding what the federal government expects from local school districts:
"No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
An appropriate and free public education requires that the schools either make provisions for special education classes or regular classes with accommodations whenever that is possible and reasonable. Furthermore, it mandates that any associated services or aids intended to meet an individual disabled student’s educational needs do so adequately and at the same time that the needs of the nondisabled students are being addressed.
Generally, disabled students covered by Section 504 are usually ones that face milder forms of disability than those that are addressed by IDEA. Or they may be disabled students whose particular disabilities do not match the specific categories laid out in IDEA and listed above. As Section 504 makes quite clear, any individual who faces a type of impairment (be it mental or physical) that in some way limits an important activity in life (such as education) is considered by the federal government to be someone with a disability.
The third and last federal disability law to be looked at here is the ADA. The ADA mandates that all educational institutions (except those being run by religious organizations) address the specific needs of disabled students. Further, the ADA forbids any educational institution from denying educational programs, activities or services to disabled students (Gowdey, 2015). Finally it prohibits discrimination against such disabled students.
In conclusion, disabled children have every legal right to the same educational opportunities and services as nondisabled children, and this is made clear by both state and federal law. While parents themselves are often the best advocates for their children’s educational rights, this fact in no way removes the obligation of school systems, school administrators, principals and teachers to provide the best educational environment for both disabled and nondisabled students. More than an ethical responsibility, it is a legal requirement in the United States.
References
Gowdey, L. J. (2015). Disabling discipline: locating a right to representation of students with disabilities in the ADA. Columbia Law Review, 115(8), 2265-2309.
Lusk, S. (2015). The Dimming Light of the IDEA: The need to reevaluate the definition of a free appropriate public education. Pace Law Review, 36(1), 291-314.
Russo, C. J., & Osborne, A. G. (2009). Section 504 and the ADA. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press.
Weber, M. C. (2010). A new look at Section 504 and the ADA in special education cases. Texas Journal On Civil Liberties & Civil Rights, 16(1), 1-27.
