How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

IDEA Essay
Dakota State University
Brittni Atkins
12/02/13

How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

Abstract
This essay consists of how The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has
impacted the lives of students with disabilities and their parents, the educators roles, and the
American education system. It defines who exceptional children are, the advantages and
disadvantages of being labeled, and the six principals of IDEA; which are Zero Reject,
Nondiscriminatory Identification and Evaluation, Free Appropriate Public Education, Least
Restrictive Environment (LRE), Due Process Safeguards, and Shared Decision Making. It also
explains how educators differentiate the ways of teaching such as; Collaboration-Coordination
and Consultation, Teaming-Multidisciplinary teams, Interdisciplinary teams, and transdisciplinary teams, Co-teaching: One teaching/ One Helping, Parallel Teaching, Station
Teaching, Alternative Teaching, and Team Teaching, and the different methods they use to help
students with disabilities understand the subjects taught in school such as Graphic organizers and
Visual Displays, Note Taking Strategies, Guided Notes, and Mnemonics.
Key words: IDEA, Exceptional Children, Six principals, Ways of Teaching, Teaching Methods

How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

Throughout life, different types of people are seen. There are celebrities, farmers, doctors,
teachers, and state workers. For children, there are many different types as well, but not in the
way most people think. Some of these children are more special than the others. No, not with
talents or outstanding academic skills, these children are gifted, but not in the way most of us
think. These children are exceptional. According to the text book; Exceptional Children: An
introduction to Special Education by William L. Heward, exceptional children are defined as,
Children whose performance deviates from the norm, either below or above, to the extent that
special education is needed, (Heward p. 7)
Exceptional children and their parents have been impacted by the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA). One specific way that children and
their parents are impacted is by labeling. There are positives and negatives to this. The positive
benefits to being labeled are; it recognizes differences in behavior or learning, it can provide
accommodations and services that might not be available to those who dont have a label,
classmates have a tendency to be more protective of the student with disabilities and be more
accepting of them with the specific labeling. Some of the disadvantages consist of; having people
focus on what the student with disabilities cannot do instead of what the student can, it can lead
classmates to reject or tease the student with disabilities. Other disadvantages consist of the
disability having a negative impact on the self-esteem of the child it affects and educators could
hold low expectations for the student with the disability.

How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

Although labeling has advantages and disadvantages, there are six principles of IDEA that
make being a disabled student easier. According to William L. Heward, these principles consist
of the following;

Zero Reject: This principle states that, Schools must educate all children with
disabilities. No child with disabilities may be excluded from a free public education,

regardless of the nature or severity of the disability, (Heward p. 16).

Nondiscriminatory Identification and Evaluation: This principle states that, Schools
must use nonbiased, multi-factored methods of evaluation to determine whether a child
has a disability. Testing and evaluation procedures must not discriminate on the basis of
race, culture, or native language. Tests must be administered in the childs native
language, identification and placement decisions cannot be made on the basis of a single

test score, (Heward p. 17).

Free, Appropriate Public Education: This principle states that, An Individual
Education Program (IEP) must be developed for each child. This education must be

provided at public expense, without cost to the childs parents, (Heward p. 17).
Least Restrictive Environment (LRE): This principle states, That the student(s) with a
disability must be educated with children without disabilities to the maximum extent
appropriate. Students with disabilities are only to be removed to separate classes or
schools only when the nature or severity of their disabilities is such that they cannot
receive an appropriate education in the general education classroom with supplementary

aids and services, (Heward p. 17).

Due Process Safeguards: This principle states that, Parents and childrens rights are
protected. Parental consent must be obtained for initial and all subsequent evaluations
and placement decisions regarding special education, (Heward p. 17).

How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

Shared Decision Making: This principle states that, Schools must collaborate with
parents. The parents and the students input and wishes must be considered in determining
IEP goals, related service needs, and placement decisions, (Heward p. 17).

In earlier times, students with disabilities had a much more difficult time with not only being
in school, but also being out in public. People would go as far as excluding disabled students
from activities and the benefits of day to day life. It was especially hard for students with
disabilities of race, language, culture, and socioeconomic differences. These students were
denied access to specific education programs or were put into segregated classrooms. In todays
society, because of these principles, parents can feel more comfortable with sending their child to
a public school, and for the student, he or she can feel comfortable being there without being
excluded from activities or being called harsh names.
Educators also play an important role in educating students with disabilities. They teach in
specific ways, and these ways consist of the following;

Collaboration: Teachers are better able to diagnose and solve learning and behavior
problems in the classroom when they work together, (Heward p.58). Collaboration has
two specific forms. These forms are Coordination and Consultation. Coordination is,
The simplest form of collaboration; it is ongoing communication and cooperation to
ensure that services are provided in a timely and systematic fashion, (Heward p.58).
Consultation consists of, Team members providing information and expertise to one

another, (Heward p.58).

Teaming: Each step of the special education process involves a group of people who
must work together for the benefit of a child with special needs, (Heward p.58).
Teaming has three different categories;

How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

Multidisciplinary teams: in which, Professionals from different disciplines who work

independently of each other, (Heward p.59).

Interdisciplinary teams: in which, These teams are characterized by formal channels
of communication between members. This team meets to share information and

develop intervention plans, (Heward p.59).

Trans-disciplinary teams: in which. The highest level of team involvement, but also
the most difficult to accomplish. Members seek to provide services in a uniform and
integrated fashion by conducting joint assessments, sharing information and expertise
across discipline boundaries and selecting goals and interventions that are discipline

free, (Friend & Cook, 2010; Giangreco, Edelman, & Dennis,1991) (Heward p.59).
Co-teaching: Co-teaching is a general education teacher and a special education teacher
planning and delivering instruction together in an inclusive classroom, (Heward p.59).
Co-teaching has five different categories;
- One Teaching/One Helping: One teacher instructs the whole class while the other
circulates to collect information on student performance and to offer help, (Heward
-

p.59).
Parallel Teaching: When it is necessary to lower the student-teacher ratio, both
teachers teach the same material to two equal sized groups of students, (Heward

p.60).
Station Teaching: When teaching material that is difficult but not sequential, both
teachers present different content at the same time to two equal groups of students

and then switch groups and repeat the lesson, (Heward p.60.)
Alternative Teaching: When teachers need to individualize instruction, remediate
skills, promote mastery, or offer enrichment, one teacher works with a smaller group
or individual students while the other teacher works with the rest of the class,
(Heward p.60).

How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

-

Team Teaching: When it is desirable to blend the talents and expertise of teachers,
both teachers plan and teach a lesson together, (adapted from Salend, 2011) (Heward
p.60).

Teaching methods are not the only thing that teachers may change to help students with
disabilities understand the material. There are also Content Enhancements. These
enhancements consist of different techniques the teacher may use for the student with
disabilities to understand the material better. There are four different enhancements that can
be used;
-

Graphic Organizers and Visual Displays: Graphic organizers are visual spatial
arrangements of information containing words or concepts connected graphically that
help students see a meaningful hierarchical, comparative, and sequential
relationshipsVisual Displays can be effective for teaching abstract concepts to
students with disabilities, (Dye, 2000; Ellis & Howard, 2007; Ives, 2007) (Heward p.

180).
Note Taking Strategies- Teachers can organize and enhance lecture content so that
students with disabilities and their general education peers can take good notes,

(Heward p.182).
Guided Notes- Teacher prepared handouts that provide an outline of the lecture
content, which students complete during class by writing in key facts, concepts,

and/or relations, (Heward p.182).

Mnemonics- Strategies combine special presentation of information with explicit
strategies for recall and are most often used to help students remember large amounts
of unfamiliar information or make connections between two or more facts or
concepts, (Heward p.183).

How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

As seen above, educators strive to figure out a specific teaching method or content
enhancement so that their student, or students, with disabilities or without, can interpret and
understand the material better.
The American Education System has forever changed because of exceptional children
and their parents. There are now laws protecting disabled students and their parents, and there are
different teaching methods that can be used to help further the student with disabilities education.
If it werent for students with disabilities and their parents, students with disabilities might not
even be educated in todays world.
Exceptional children, along with their disabilities, are an inspiration. They strive for
success and many of them get just that. Whether it goes noticed or not, they impact everyone
around them. Each exceptional child is unique, smart, gifted, and special in his or her own way.
Without them, schools would not be what they are today.

Proof Read By: Elliott Shoup-Owens, Kevin Plagman (OWL), and Eric Ruppelt
(OWL)

How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

References
Heward, William L. Canada: Pearson Education, 2012. Exceptional Children: An Introduction
to Special Education. 10th Ed. Print.

How IDEA Impacts Todays Society

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