For me, this really depends upon the child's level of maturity and understanding of what is right and what is wrong behavior. A child who has some learning abilities and may in some senses be considered "special education," but who completely understands how to properly act should not be allowed to use the disability as an excuse to act out in class or to be mean to other children. I have been substituting for the last year and a half, and at both of the high schools where I have substituted, children in a resource classroom, where all they do is get extra help with classes, are considered "special education" students even though most of them only spend one class a day in this classroom. Should these kids be held to the same code of discipline as their peers? I definitely think they should.
In a classroom at one of the elementary schools, there is a class full of kids from third to sixth grade. The students in this class have a large range of mental capacity and understanding of their actions. The students range from being on about a pre-school level mentally to only being behind about a year. A lot of those behind by only a year are in that classroom basically because the teachers in the regular classroom don't want to deal with them. Sad? Yes, but true. These kids should be held to the same code of discipline as those in a regular classroom. Yet, the kid who doesn't understand that their actions are harming others shouldn't be held to the same standard. The level of discipline should meet the child's understanding of their actions.
As I have been substituting, I am sometimes in a regular classroom where there may or may not be children with special needs. Sometimes I am in a classroom with only special education children, though. Having experienced both, I have gained an understanding of how different children are treated differently when it comes to discipline. Sometimes this does not seem fair.
One child in particular comes to my mind when I think about if kids in a special education classroom should have the same code of discipline as the mainstream children. This child is autistic and is in a classroom with mostly other children who are also autistic. This kid is about nine and pretty big and strong for his age. Every day he throws at least one tantrum. During these tantrums, he will hit, bite, and attempt to pull people's hair. He can get a good grip on people's hair, too. Most of the teachers and aides in the classroom have scars from the child biting them. He has even attacked some of the children before, most of which are smaller than him and won't fight back. Does this child understand what he's doing? I think he does. He'll smile and jump up and down happy when he hurts someone, especially if the person starts to cry. I'll admit it. I'm scared of the child and avoid him whenever I can if I'm in the classroom.
The above child gets away with it at least on some level most of the time, too. If kids in a regular classroom acted the way this kid does, they would get suspended pretty quickly. Until this year, he was pretty much left to do whatever he wanted and only moved away from the other child if he was hitting. There was no real discipline. This year the teachers and aides attempt to punish him by putting him in a corner or not letting him play with the toys. But it only works so well. Someone has to force him to stay in the corner. Usually it's more than one person who has to do this, because the child can overpower one person. Then the people just end of being beaten more. It's almost not worth the effort.
His parents send him to school so they can be away from him for a few hours a day. The administration of the school won't do anything about the boy, saying that he doesn't understand that what he's doing is wrong. The teachers and the aides in the classroom are all females, and the boy responds better to males. I know this for a fact, because there have been male substitutes in the classroom at the same time as I was there. The district knows this, but they won't send a male aide over even though they have plenty of candidates who would come. It's come to the point where the child is held to almost no level of discipline, because the school and the district will not allow anything more than is happening for discipline now. Even putting him in the corner away from the other children is stretching it in the district's mind. No one from the classroom is coming back for next school year. No one wants to put up with the lack of power to discipline this child or any of the other children.
Should this boy be held to the same level of discipline as his peers in other classrooms? I'm not saying that he should, but I definitely think there should be something there, some level of power given to those who work with him on a daily level. He's big now, but in a few years he'll be even bigger. If there isn't real discipline established soon, it will be an even bigger problem. Special education children should not be held to the standard of no discipline. It doesn't help. It only hurts. This child.