My current issue was originally focused on equal rights amongst children with handicapped disabilities within the school system. When I came across a NYtimes article though, my thoughts were changed to that of what this one short paged article had to say. “Court Affirms Reimbursement for Special Education,” (Tamar Lewin, 2009), is about a mother who has to send her child, T.A., to a private school in order for him get a better learning. While attending the public school, T.A. was seen as having learning disabilities, but only when his mother transferred him over to a private school, did T.A. become legally labeled as a child with a learning disability.
Along with the article above, this article deals with the Forest Grove School District and some of the law approved acts and documents that backed up the IDEA acts as well as FAPE. Findlaw, although it is a little long and wordy, I think that if you are really interested in the article about the court hearing, as well as the ideas and laws that IDEA and other such disability acts have tried to lay down for schools to follow through with, than I would definitely suggest reading the ‘Findlaw’ article.
What I think that is a major issue with this type of debate, is that children with disabilities are still not getting the appropriate education. I know that it may not be the same in every state or district, but I still feel that if a child needs special attention, and it’s CLEAR to not only the parents, but to staff and employees of the school the child attends, then it should be the responsibility of that school system to give up funding for special services. If worse comes to worse, there should at least be aid from the public school that the child came from given to the parent in order to help the child in another, private school, to help alleviate financial issues. Like in the embedded video below, I think that they give a great example of how schools should handle special needs students….
At the same time though, I feel sad knowing that not all parents would so easily be able to move and relocate simply to educate their child. Due to the fact that the school can now help aid families with disabled children, (through the bill mentioned in the above video…), I still think that the schools are being limited to what they should be giving the student as well as the child. What if the money is not enough for the entire family to relocate? What if the child can’t adjust to change? What then?
Issues like this, if they persist, what will our education system become? I wonder what will happen to those disabled children that have parents who not only have to deal with medical bills, but also private schools now…Simply because their own school refused, or was unable to dish out the money needed to provide services specifically for that one child.
In some respects, there are being steps taken to improve schooling for children with special needs. There are small improvements being taken, the best example I can give to you, is the short video listed below…
But remember, simply because of one school passing a bill and maybe leading the way for other schools to slowly take a stand as well, does NOT mean that the fight is over. Only time will be able to show where our future education systems will take us.
Think of this; if your child had a learning disability, and you, as their parent were aware of it, would you be happy if the school your child went to refused to give him or her special services simply because it would cost THEM more?
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