Special Education Compliance. It's Not Enough!

Special Education Compliance

“It’s Not Enough!”

Over the last week there has been an increased focus on special education in the United States. President Obama began on Tuesday in a press conference, by stating some facts that there are over 6.5 million students with disabilities within our national public school systems. To many parents who have children with special needs, this figure may not be a shock.

According the ED.gov blog, Higher Expectations to Better Outcomes for Children with Disabilities, “While the vast majority of students in special education do not have significant cognitive impairments that prohibit them from learning rigorous academic content, fewer than 10 percent of eighth graders with disabilities are proficient in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)……compliance is simply not enough” (ED.gov, 2014).

While the majority of states (besides DE, IA, IL, ME, MO, NC, NM, NY, OK, TX, RI, District of Columbia and other territories) met the requirements for IDEA state compliance, the data for math and reading proficiency among students with disabilities left a disturbing picture for the Department of Education. Only 18 states and territories actually met the expected requirements for how students are performing.  Below lists the states in the three categories outlined as either meeting requirements, needing assistance, or needing interventions:

The new suggested budget for 2015 included the Results Driven Accountability (RDA) Incentive grants in the form of $100 million as well as a Race to the Top Equity and Opportunity ($300 million) program to aid in identifying districts/schools with achievement gaps that require assistance. The states who receive these grants must demonstrate “commitment to using results data in their IDEA-required LEA determinations, consistent with the Department’s (DoE) RDA system, to support their efforts to implement evidence based practices that have demonstrated a positive impact on results for children with disabilities” (Department of Education, 2014). 

Michael Yudin, acting Assistant Secretary for Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, states that 

“In enacting IDEA, Congress recognized that improving educational results for children with disabilities is an essential element of our national policy of ensuring equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with disabilities” (Ed.gov, 2014). 

What seems paramount here is the focus on many skills which are not primarily academic and seem to be missing from the current focus. These kinds of functional goals are every bit a part of IDEA as the academics, and for good reason! 

Accountability for states to continue raising the bar for our children with special needs has parents going on both sides of the fence. Looking forward to a much needed oversight for how states and school districts provide services to attain academic goals for students with disabilities. There are also parents who are concerned how the functional goals will begin to compare with such an emphasis on the academic achievements that will put further pressure on schools. Standardized testing has long had concerns about its ability to accurately assess children, particularly those who have disabilities.

According to an article by the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD, 2014)

 “For many students with learning disabilities, with or without accommodations, standardized tests are among the worst means of assessing their abilities. Given the individual learning styles of students with LD, at DRA we feel these high stakes tests pose considerable danger to a student. A student’s performance on a high stakes test has serious consequences, but we’ve found that these tests usually don’t measure the student’s capabilities in a realistic way. Often, standardized tests are poorly devised and give very little consideration to how valid an assessment they provide of students with LD.”

After a case in Oregon, Advocates for Speak Kids (ASK) won regarding this very issue, and Oregon took extensive steps in 2001 to ensure it does not discriminate against students with learning disabilities but instead able to demonstrate their disabilities. Yet if we look at the 2014 data, Oregon is one of the states in yellow for needing additional assistance. 

Our military families in particular have unique struggles within the special education system as highly mobile families. Multiple moves during a military career mean multiple changes in schools and having to move with an IEP can often be trying for parents who do not find their children getting what has been deemed "comparable services." By the time a school and parents have the chance to accurately identify needs and and the correct services to make measurable progress, a child is often not far away from another move. Meanwhile there is the very real potential for regression while the process starts all over again. 

Not long after this, NPR (National Public Radio) conducted an interview with Education Secretary Arne Duncan to further discuss this identified issue. The apparent focus for the Department of Education is the raise an academic bar for children with special needs in order to sustain their ability to be competitive in the global economy after high school.  What has been suggested is to use more forms standardized testings to measure these academic gains of those students with disabilities.

Secretary Duncan made comments regarding increased dropout rates for children with disabilities and how there has never been a requirement for states to show academic benefit for special education, but he intends to change that. 

 “We know that when students with disabilities are held to high expectations, have access to a robust curriculum, they excel,” Secretary Duncan states (NPR, 2014). 

For states to continue receiving special education funding, which totals more than $11.5 billion nationally, they will be required to comply with these new guidelines and subject to oversight. The Department of Education also plans to roll out a new $50 million technical-assistance center to help achieve these expected outcomes. 

As states continue to grapple with the issues of common core standards and how these can better apply to our children with special needs, switching to more standards based grading/IEP goals, and other potential issues, parents will have to wait to see how these new guidelines play out.
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Will the oversight be welcomed by parents and educators alike to help assist in providing better outcomes, or will we see an impact on services and eligibility for special education?

No matter the changes in these guidelines and the new oversight, it is important to remember that Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) has not changed as an individual entitlement for our children with special needs. These special education services as provided under an IEP or IFSP, will continue to be driven by the individual child’s need and does not negate the importance of both functional and academic goals that is defined in IDEA specifically. Parents may just find themselves having to advocate more for these functional goals in the face of pressures for academic performance from higher up.

Resources

Ed.gov Blog (June 27, 2014). Higher Expectations to Better Outcomes for Children with Disabilities 

Disability Rights Advocates (2001). Do No Harm.

National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) The Trouble with High-Stakes Testing

National Public Radio (NPR), June 24, 2014, A ‘Major Shift’ in Oversight of SpecialEducation 

U.S. Department of Education, 2014. Results Driven AccountabilityGraphics.

U.S. Department of Education, 2014. Supporting Individuals with Disabilities.