Special Education Summary And Analysis

Special Education is “a specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability” (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA]). Special Education services was expanded by mandating that all children with special needs-regardless of the type or severity of their disability- between the age of three and twenty one years are entitled to free appropriate public education. (IDEA, 1997) The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, requires that school districts hire highly qualified teachers, which led to a strong debate on how to define and measure special education teacher quality (Brownell & Sindelar, 2008) Studies suggest that beginning teachers have difficulty incorporating their knowledge

Parents often feel powerless when told of their child’s disability (Watson, 2008). The parent/professional relationship is often strained by the parent’s lack of knowledge to influence decisions about their child. Even in cases where a parent advocate is involved, parents feel that these people are often contradicted since, often, their allegiance is to the agency that they work for (Case, 2000). In Harnett and Tierney’s (2009) study concerning communicating positively with parents of children with disabilities, they found that while parents wanted positive information during the disclosure process, they also wanted

They suggest that professionals may have developed a stereotypical view of these families as being under so much stress that the family cannot meet the challenges of daily life. Others have recognized that the presence of a child with a disability in a family can have many positive effects, and can even help to strengthen families (Turnbull & Turnbull, 2001). Miller (1994) views denial as a protective device used by a parent when he or she is not ready to deal with a problem or its implications. Fialka (2001) notes that professionals may think of parents as being “in denial” when they seem withdrawn, hostile, or uninvolved. Harry (1997) proposed that professionals sometimes use the term “in denial” when actually the parent and professionals are in disagreement about the prognosis, diagnosis, program, or intervention. The familial and personal data acknowledged deep parental concerns and fears regarding professional attitudes and dominance, disregarding of parental knowledge, support, absence of counselling and therapy, handling the future, and the child’s beauty and body (Brown,