"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards." (Mark Twain)

By law, special education is defined as "specially designed instruction", at no cost to the parents, "to meet the UNIQUE needs of a child with a disability." The most important statue in the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) is to ensure that every child with a disability has access to a free, appropriate education (and related services, such as transportation, psychological services, speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, etc); and, that this program is specifically designed to meet the unique needs of the child.

In other words, it is not legal for schools to send parents away, telling them (in any number of ways, both subtle and not so subtle), "Gosh, we don't have a program for your child in our school." Nor are schools allowed to place children with special needs in an existing program without tailoring the program to meet the needs of each child participating in the program. Special education programs and I.E.Ps (the individual education plan intended to guide each child's program) are not intended to be one-size-fits-all programs. One-size-fits-all programs are convenient for the adults involved and work for a bureaucracy (i.e. public schools) modeled after factories, but they are ILLEGAL.

When parents first enter the confusing maze of special education, despite handing them a list of their rights, schools rarely inform parents (in a way they can understand) that the laws are on their side and on the side of their children. And even if they do, they rarely (if ever)teach parents how to negotiate the bureaucratic maze of public education or how to manage the confusion and intimidation known to every parent when first encountering the system. Schools fail children with special needs in many ways, but perhaps the most significant is in the way they fail the parents, because when it comes down to it, the parent is the first and most powerful advocate a child will ever have. And for a child who cannot advocate for him or herself, a powerful advocate is imperative if they are to enter and remain on a path that will allow them to grow academically, socially, emotionally and vocationally.

Despite this fact, nobody teaches parents the rules of the game,models how to play it well, or tells them that, in fact, they have power to help direct the game. How can parents be expected to effectively advocate for their children

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Special needs children: How schools fail them?
We want to hear your view. Write now!