So once again, the buzz 'inclusive education' and usages such as 'special needs' which makes you 'special' are there to stay...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/25/us/shift-in-law-on-disability-and-students-shows-lapses.html?_r=0 Until recently, the Education Department looked at requirements such as whether school districts had filed the appropriate paperwork or met timelines for the 6.5 million children who qualify for special education services under federal law. Now the department will compare the test scores of students with disabilities with those of students not designated as having special needs. Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, said the shift was driven by the fact that far too few students with disabilities were reaching academic proficiency benchmarks. "In too many states the outcomes for students with disabilities are simply too low," Mr. Duncan said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. "We can and we must do better." He noted that only 10 percent of eighth graders who qualified for special education services were considered proficient in federal reading tests known as the Nation's Report Card. Eighteen states and territories meet the new standards. New York, Arizona, Ohio and Tennessee were among 36 states and territories that did not comply with federal disabilities law under the changes. Six states and territories -- California, Delaware, Texas, the District of Columbia, the Bureau of Indian Education and the Virgin Islands -- were designated as needing intervention by the Education Department. Advocates for people with disabilities welcomed the changes. "It's a huge step forward," said James H. Wendorf, executive director of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Mr. Wendorf added that federal disability law was intended to give students with disabilities extra help like counseling or special equipment so that they could achieve similar results to other students. He added that more than 80 percent of students who qualified for special education did not have cognitive impairment that would prevent them from learning at the same levels as their peers. "The research base is clear that when they are provided the right kind of instruction, supports and accommodations where needed, they can indeed perform at that same level," Mr. Wendorf said. Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers' union, said that states needed more financial support from Congress to provide sufficient services to disabled students. "I don't think it's as simple and easy as saying, 'Oh, my gosh, here are the kids who are doing well on a test and here are those that are not,' " Mr. Van Roekel said. "It's not a fair expectation that all special education students would be able to compare equally with their counterparts," he added. The Education Department has not set specific targets for test scores but said that it would evaluate growth in student achievement over time. It also said that it was unlikely to withdraw federal funding from states that failed to meet the law. In Massachusetts, which meets the new requirements, Mitchell D. Chester, commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said the state had put in place an early warning system to identify students who were falling behind academically. He said he was concerned that students in poverty were almost twice as likely as their more affluent counterparts to be identified as disabled, and he said the state needed to help schools improve the way that such students were included in mainstream classes. In California, a spokeswoman said state officials were concerned that the state's categorization as needing intervention "is more the result of the particular methodology used than of the actual performance of California's school districts." But Mark Rosenbaum, chief counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said that the new measurements, while blunt, were appropriate. "The sort of measures you're talking about are the canaries in the mine," he said. "Where those benchmarks are not being met, the state has to now become active in finding out what's going on in the classroom." A version of this article appears in print on June 25, 2014, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: States Falter in New Policy on Disability -- Avinash Shahi M.Phil Research Scholar Centre for The Study of Law and Governance Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi India Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. 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