Special Education Law Analysis Essay Example for Free

Special Education Law Analysis Essay Education in the United States has had a reputation of un-uniformity and mistreatment of certain groups especially students with disabilities. However, the recent past has yielded some advancement. Federal legislation has put into place three major laws that have lead to better treatment and higher quality education of students, especially those with disabilities. These laws are the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, and No Child Left Behind. Together these laws have formed the current education standard in the United States providing for better education for all students. Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act History Historically, children with disabilities have had few rights and little protection when it came to education. Before the mid 1970s, it was not unusual for children with disabilities to be turned away from public schools and if they were able to attend a school, there was nothing in place to assure that these children were receiving the attention and assistance that they needed. In the 1960s and 1970s parents of children with disabilities began to see that something had to change to allow their children to receive a quality education so families began suing state entities to gain access to educational services for their children (Smith, Polloway, Patton, Dowdy, 2012). Congress decided to take a step forward and attempted to persuade states to provide educational services to children with disabilities and this led to the passage of the Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EHA) in 1975. Education is a facet that is under the direct of state legislation; therefore, states were not required to comply with the new act. To persuade state governments to adopt the law, it was promised that forty percent of the funds used to educate children with disabilities would be reimbursed by the federal government (Smith et al. 2012). This forty percent was never actually realized; the federal government actually only reimburses less than  half the promised amount of funds. EHA was reevaluated by Congress in 1990. As a result, the law was changed to better suit the needs of children with disabilities and became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA. IDEA remained active until the law was due for another reauthorization in 2004. This lead to the current version of the law: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. Purpose  The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) was enacted to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education, to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and their parents are protected, to assist States, localities, educational service agencies, and Federal agencies to provide for the education of all children with disabilities, and to assess and ensure the effectiveness of efforts to educate children with disabilities (34 CFR  § 300-301). The law covers children with basically any disability that impedes on their ability to learn in an educational setting without special assistance. IDEIA covers children from birth until age 21 with separate parts for children two years old and younger (part C) and children ages 3-21 (part B). (34 CFR  § 300-301) Implications IDEIA was obviously written for children with disabilities, but there many forms and varying levels of disabilities. The act defines a child with a disability as a child evaluated has having mental retardation, a hearing impairment (including deafness), a speech or language impairment, a visual impairment (including blindness), a serious emotional disturbance, an orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, an other health impairment, a specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, or multiple disabilities, and who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services (34 CFR  § 300-301). The act states that children that are included in this definition should receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE). This law is the foundation for special education in the United States today. IDEIA sets the standard for how we educate children with disabilities. FAPE is the goal set forth for the educational systems. Children should receive an education that meets the standards of the state educational agency from preschool through secondary school by way of an individualized education program (IEP) that leads to the attainment of the same diploma offered to children without disabilities at no cost to the parents. FAPE does not exclude parents from expenses that are incurred by parents of children without disabilities, but it does protect them from extra expenses that arise from the services that their child requires. Also, for a state to meet the FAPE requirements, each student with a disability must have an individualized education program developed for them. An IEP is an extensive document developed by a team that includes the child, their parents, their teachers, the school administrators, and any other school personnel involved in the student’s education. IEPs address the child’s specific needs and how the school plans to meet those needs. Schools must also allow students with disabilities to work toward the same degree or diploma that students without disabilities are also working toward. IDEIA also states that children with disabilities should be educated in the least restrictive environment or LRE. This means that students with disabilities should be educated with students without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate (34 CFR  § 300-301). The LRE requirement has lead the emergence of inclusive classrooms. Inclusive classrooms are general education classrooms where students with disabilities and students without disabilities are taught together. This is usually accomplished through a co-teaching model where one general education teacher and one special education teacher, share the responsibilities of teaching all the children in the classroom. This allows for more direct attention and instruction for the students who need it most (Smith et al. 2012). Summary The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act is our country’s special education law. It defines for the states what classifies students as having a disability and also provides guidelines for developing educational services that meet their needs. The law frees parents of children with disabilities of the financial burden that comes with the individual care and assistance that their child needs by providing federal funds to help offset the expenses for the school systems. Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act. History The Vocational Rehabilitation Act was written during the fight for equality amongst people in the United States. It was enacted to protect people with disabilities from discrimination because of their disability. This law paved the way for fair and equal treatment for people with disabilities. This legislation lead to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. Even though this act reaches past the boundaries of education, section 504 of the act is of particular interest on this subject (Smith et al.2012). Purpose Section 504 states that 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 or under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency or by the United States Postal Service. The act defines a person with a disability as someone who has a physical or mental impairment which for such individual constitutes or results in a substantial impediment to employment; and can benefit in terms of an employment outcome from vocational rehabilitation services provided (Vocational rehabilitation act of 1973). This section provides protection for people with disabilities from discrimination in any establishment that receives federal funding. This includes all public preschools, elementary schools, secondary schools, and colleges and universities. The law does not give individuals with disabilities more rights that those without disabilities, but it does protect them from discrimination based on their disability alone. Implications At first glance, it may seem that section 504 of this act and IDEIA overlap or are superfluous because of each other, but each holds its own purpose. Section 504 protects people without disabilities away from the educational setting as well. Section 504 also allows students with disabilities the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities, whereas IDEIA only serves to the child’s education. Section 504 gives people with disabilities the chance at living the life they want without the fear of discrimination. Summary The Vocational Rehabilitation Act protects people with disabilities from discrimination based solely on their disability. Section 504 of the act is particularly important to education because it provides discriminatory protection for an individual from any federally funded entity. This law laid the ground work for future laws for people with disabilities and for equal treatment for people with disabilities. No Child Left Behind History. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was proposed by President George W. Bush in 2001 and was passed into law in January of 2002 (Smith et al. 2012). The proposal received overwhelming support because of the increasing gap in academic achievement between groups of students in schools. NCLB acts on the premise that setting high and challenging standards for students and teachers will allow for great improvement in the classroom. The law provides that all students in the public school system will be proficient in core class subjects by the end of the 2014 school year. Much like IDEIA, NCLB offers federal funding to schools that align their curriculum with the provisions set forth in the act. Purpose The purpose of NCLB is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments (No child left behind act of 2001). NCLB requires states to develop challenging performance standards for each grade level that are uniform across each district. The schools must also administer high-quality academic assessments that evaluate whether or not students are meeting these standards. Schools are also required to submit a plan of advancement showing the current plan to close the achievement gap among students (No child left behind act of 2001). Implications NCLB effects all students in the public education setting. The act is a plan to improve the education of every student. This law changed education in the United States in a big way. With schools implementing challenging standards for all students, there was and still is a tremendous pressure to advance. This pressure primarily falls on the administrators and teachers who, in turn, pass it to the students. NCLB also created accountability in the education system. The state performance assessment system gave teachers and administrators to see where they stand as compared to the standards that are set by the state (No child left behind act of 2001). It shows what areas need to be improved to allow more resources to be focused there. The pressure and accountability from NCLB raises the educational standard in the United States. Teachers know what is expected on them in the NCLB system, but because the standards seem to take away some creative freedom in classroom education. Schools are required to make adequate yearly progress every year under NCLB. This system is in place to help assure that funds received under NCLB are used toward academic advancement of students. Adequate yearly progress (AYP) is achieved by having more students scoring proficient in a content area standardized assessment as compared to the previous year’s scores. There is a system provided in the law for schools that do not make AYP and a plan to help them progress. If a school continually fails to make AYP it can be subject to a complete overhaul by the government. Summary NCLB is a federal plan to improve the education system in the United States. This law sets forth an accountability system of standards and assessments to close the academic achievement gap and bring all students up to grade level by the year 2014. Schools that align themselves with the requirements of NCLB can receive federal funding under the act. NCLB may have unrealistic goals, but it is a start in the right direction to providing a better, more complete education to our students. Conclusion Together, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, and No Child Left Behind have changed the educational system in the United States. Our current standards and expectations are far from perfect, but education is headed in the right direction; toward higher standards and accountability and better learning conditions for all students regardless of their level of ability. References Assistance to states for the education of children with disabilities and preschool grants for children with disabilities; final rule, 71 Fed. Reg. 46540 (2006) 34 CFR pt. 300-301. No child left behind act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425 (2002) Smith, T. E. , Polloway, E. A. , Patton, J. R. , Dowdy, C. A. (2012). Teaching students with special needs in inclusive settings (6th Ed. ). Boston: Pearson. Vocational rehabilitation act of 1973, Pub. L. No. 93-112, 93 Stat. 8070 (1973).

Essay --

In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontà «, Jane isn’t really social. In her early childhood she was very much isolated. Her aunt and cousins didn’t like her so they didn’t deal with her. Jane was comfortable being away because she would always get in trouble. Jane would either defend herself or just be picked on and she gets in trouble. Jane found ways to cope with being isolated, she was different and she was fine with that. After Jane has been at Thornfield for a while, she is somewhat frightened by the laughing she hears while a fire breaks out in Mr. Rochester’s room. The frightening laugh gets Jane wondering if that person has committed this. Jane is able to put the fire out and save Mr. Rochester. After the fire incident, Mr. Rochester leaves for about a week or so. Since Jane and Mr. Rochester are secretly in love she constantly wonders when he is coming back. When he writes and says that he will be back soon with guests, the house begins to get ready because they don’t usually have guests. When everyone arrives, Jane sees that Mr. Rochester is sitting next to a women name B...

Speech on Global Warming Essay

I would like to begin with a statement. Our earth is in trouble. Can anyone of you argue with that? I suppose you could argue. And why is that? Because you have never deeply researched the concepts of either global warming or climate change. So what can we learn from that? The first step of solving a problem is being aware of it. So you would ask â€Å"what is global warming?† Global warming is exactly what you hear. The warming of the globe. The earth’s climate gets hotter and hotter until icebergs start melting causing massive floods, forests are burning and whole areas are left without any water because it has vaporized. So global warming can affect the economy of the countries, the health of the people and the life expectancy of our planet. If that is not a major problem, I don’t know what it is. So, being aware. In a set of explanatory studies and mental model interviews that was conducted in 1994 responders regarded climate change as both bad and high likel y. So far so good. But the majority of them confused stratospheric ozone depletion with the greenhouse effect which are two completely different phenomena. Explanation of ozone destruction with the two lines, the cloud and the human activities (a cloud that protects us from harmful sun rays. But it’s just a cloud. The gases that came from human creations like sprays and cars started â€Å"attacking† to the cloud and that was so fragile that it opened allowing some harmful sun rays enter our atmosphere.) So the responders were answering that the reasons for global warming are the use of car, emissions from industrial processes and pollution. And of course most of the solutions that they were proposing were things like â€Å"we have to focus on controlling pollution†. I have news for you. The hole in the ozone layer is not the main cause of global warming. Global warming is linked mainly to the green house effect which is caused by the gathering of too much carbon dio xide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxides are in the green gasses emitted from the burning of fossil fuels. Those dioxides trap infrared radiation and do not let it leave the earth’s atmosphere, resulting in warmer low atmospheric layers than the upper ones. Think of it as a blanket, trapping heat and warming the planet. I believe you are all familiar with sprays. Sprays used to contain some particles called chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs in short. Those were the main reason for the hole in the ozone layer. In 1989 CFCs were banned by the Montreal Protocol. Then,  it was noticed that global warming slowed down. But like I said, the slowing down was not because the destruction of the ozone was mainly paused but because CFCs were 17,000 times more effective at trapping infrared radiation than carbon dioxides. So after managing being aware of the problem, one has to also recognize its existence in order to solve it. Despite the desperate attempts of scientists and the earth itself to tell us that there is a major issue that needs to be tackled immediately there is still a number of people denying the very existence of the issue. There is a â€Å"climate change denial† which is, â€Å"quote†, â€Å"a set of organized attempts to downplay, deny or dismiss the scientific consensus on the extent of global warming, its significance, and its connection to human behavior.† So those people are denying, not ignoring, denying, the scientific proofs of global warming and the relation with the human activities. Yeah, so the earth one day decided to start destroying itself. As for the significance of the problem, I will let the events speak for themselves: 1) 2000, studies claimed confidently that greenhouse gases had contributed to floods in Britain, 2) 2010, heat wave (a long period pf time when a region has an abnormally hot weather) struck Russia, killing 50,000, 3) 2011, Hurricane Irene slams into the United states killing 45 people and leaving $10 billion in damages 4) 2011 Texas and Oklahoma suffer from the worst one-year drought on record 5) July 2011 – June 2012, the hottest 12 months ever recorded, 6) January – June 2012 the hottest 6 months ever recorded. I could go on until tomorrow. So its like the earth is screaming â€Å"I’m burning here!† and some people are just answering â€Å"yeah right†, or not listen at all. So now I will leave the decision up to you. Will you decide to listen?

Indigenous Speeches Research Essay - 798 Words

Speeches are an iconic and widely used means of expression for our political leaders, particularly when discussing issues of importance such as Indigenous Australia. Paul Keating’s ‘Redfern Speech’ and Kevin Rudd’s ‘Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples’ are the two political speeches which I will be analysing in this paper. The structure of this paper will follow the Cultural Competency Framework as a means for exploring the above stated speeches. This framework moves through knowledge; informed practice/informed decision; and positive/effective learning and development. At the knowledge stage the content, importance and effect of the speeches will be explored, as well as their context. To address informed practice/informed decision the paper looks more closely at the issues which are raised in the speeches and their impact on Indigenous Australians. Finally positive/effective learning and development will be acknowledged through the exploration of the education implications that these issues can have in the classroom. Analysis of Paul Keating’s Redfern Park Speech The Redfern Park Speech (Year for the World’s Indigenous Peoples) was given by the Hon Paul Keating PM on the 10th of December 1992. The speech was delivered in the suburb of Redfern, the epicentre of Aboriginal culture in Sydney at the time and home to the Koori people. This speech recognised that European settlers, and their descendants, are responsible for the hardships that Aboriginal Australia hasShow MoreRelatedIndigenous Speeches: Exploration of the Mabo Case, Stolen Generation and Reconciliation1822 Words   |  8 PagesExploration of the Mabo Case, Stolen Generation and Reconciliation Both Keating’s and Rudd’s speeches are firmly based on the ideas of recognition and reconciliation for the wrongs that European settlers, and their decedents, have inflicted on Indigenous Australians. To explore this idea I believe that it is necessary to take a closer look at both the plight of Eddie Mabo and the stories of the Stolen Generation. The Mabo Case Eddie Mabo is widely known for his plight to regain land rights forRead MorePart Indigenous Speeches Essay1682 Words   |  7 PagesAssignment 2 – Part A: Indigenous speeches – research essay The Apology – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd On the 13th February 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, offered an Apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People by way of a speech that he presented to the 42nd parliament of the Commonwealth. His speech outlined the past oppression of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who had to endure pain and suffering. Children were forcibly removed from their families. Mr Rudd openedRead MoreEbony And Ivy By Craig Steven Wilder Essay1122 Words   |  5 Pagescollege. His historical studies are expansive and well knows, consisting of multiple books, essays, and advisement in historical documentaries. His experience within the system that serves as the subject matter for the book as well as his extensive studies within the historical field give him substantial knowledge on the subject. He is clearly well researched as the book has 115 pages of books, speeches, and essays he used as sources. As for bias, it could be argued that Wilder may have a small bias inRead MoreNyerere Education Idea and It Aplication to Conteporary Education System5029 Words   |  21 PagesEducational Research and Review Vol. 4 (4), pp. 111-116, April 2009 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/ERR ISSN 1990-3839  © 2008 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper The implications of Nyerere’s theory of education to contemporary education in Kenya Joseph W. Nasongo1* and Lydiah L. Musungu2 2 Department of Educational Foundations, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kenya. Department of Educational Planning and Management, Masinde Muliro University ofRead MoreA Critical Review of â€Å"the Ambiguities of Football, Politics, Culture, and Social Transformation in Latin America† by Tamir Bar-on.14147 Words   |  57 Pagesinfluence and little national recognition. Defence: The problem is worth researching for several reasons. Although soccer is the central sport discussed in Bar-On’s research, the gender issue is the same for most if not all professional sports: women never get the same recognition men receive for their achievement. The research problem is beyond doubt a social problem. When it comes to soccer, the most recognized event is the FIFA (Federation of International Football Association) World Cup, inRead MoreEast African Culture Reflects on Their Drama Using Aminata, Echoes of Silence and I Will Marry When I Want as Case Study12168 Words   |  49 Pagestaking place in east Africa, we confine ourselves to Kenya and Uganda which happens to be the setting of the three plays and also because aside from Tanzania no other east african nation has much to offer in terms of theatrical development. From our research we are able to diagnose the fact that writers are greatly influenced by the environment in which they hailed from. The culture that is obtained from their environment forms a basis for their drama has it is impossible to separate drama from cultureRead MoreIroquois Confederacy9092 Words   |  37 Pagesadvantage, seeking control over bountiful beaver hunting grounds or perhaps a stash of beaver skins to trade for European goods. Although it provided the Indians with better tools, European incursion into the territory was disastrous for the indigenous people. In the 1690s alone, the Iroquois lost between 1,600 and 2,000 people in fighting with other Indian tribes. In addition, European diseases such as smallpox, measles, influenza, lung infections, and even the common cold took a heavy toll onRead MoreSouth China Sea Dispute10771 Words   |  44 Pagesof these conflicts is the dispute in South China Sea between China and six neighbor ASEAN countries. With the intervention of the United States, the issue turns to be more serious as it attracts a lot of concerns from international community. This research tries to find a clear way of understanding the South China Sea conflict, specifically about the effort of China and Vietnam to gain the control over the two groups of islands: Paracel and Spratly. The hypothesis intends to express the possibilityRead MoreSouth China Sea Dispute10784 Words   |  44 Pagesof these conflicts is the dispute in South China Sea between China and six neighbor ASEAN countries. With the intervention of the United States, the issue turns to be more serious as it attracts a lot of concerns from international community. This research tries to find a clear way of understanding the South China Sea conflict, specifically about the effort of China and Vietnam to gain the control over the two groups of islands: Paracel and Spratly. The hypothesis intends to express the possibilityRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesPHILADELPHIA Temple University Press 1601 North Broad Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright  © 2010 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2010 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Essays on twentieth century history / edited by Michael Peter Adas for the American Historical Association. p. cm.—(Critical perspectives on the past) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-4399-0269-1 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-4399-0270-7