Entry # 2

ENTRY #2 - Chapter 2:

Select at least two of these questions. Your post should be at least one page (around 250 words) and at least 4 hyperlinks . Students who integrate quotes from the assigned reading will earn more points than those that do not. I'm looking for your opinion, but also want that opinion to be backed up by course content. This post is due Thursday, September 17th.

1. If good teaching is going on in the general education classroom, why are special education programs and services necessary?
2. How did passage of PL94-142 place substantial pressure on public school systems?

Good teaching in a general classroom is not enough to handle the needs and adaptations students with disabilities need. Students with disabilities needs are so different with each case that to have them all be in a general classroom would only be overwhelming for the teacher but also for the student themselves. Take for example the different disabilities students can have: Autism, communication impairment, development delay, emotional impairment, health impairment, intellectual impairment, neurological impairment, physical impairment, sensory impairment, and specific learning disability (Kirks 7-8). Having the best teacher teach a class of 20 to 25 students and having some to most of them with a disability would not give the teacher enough time to give each student the accommodation and attention they need. Having special education programs and services, makes sure that no one student falls behind because they did not get what they needed to learn.

In 1975, Congress passed the Public Law 94 – 142. The Public Law 94 – 142 is also called the Education for All Handicapped Children (Kirks 39). This law was “designed ‘to assure that all handicapped children have available to them a free appropriate public education which emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs’” (Kirk 39). The Public Law 94 -142 set up six key principals that have helped form education they are zero reject, nondiscriminatory evaluation, individualized education program, least restrictive environment, due process, and parental participation (Kirk 39). This act not only shaped education but rewarded school systems that could prove they’re doing their best to help students with disabilities and giving them all they help they can to succeed.