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Education of students with disabilities
In the United States, education for children with disabilities (also known as
special needs) is structured to adhere as closely as possible to the same
experience received by typically developing peers. This is perhaps one of the
more unique concepts of education within the United States of America.
Children with disabilities must have the opportunity to be with typically
developing peers in the mainstream school. For example: recess, cafeteria,
assemblies, hallways, regular classes, etc. This process is known as
mainstreaming. Special education (educational programs required to assist
special needs students) must be provided for these children in order for
mainstreaming to be possible. Special education should be appropriate to the
disability. Children with disabilities attend special schools only if their need
for very specialized services makes mainstreaming impossible. The level of
mainstreaming that is provided varies greatly within different school districts.
For example, larger school districts are often able to provide more adequate and
quality care for those with disabilities rather than smaller school districts.
Students with disabilities are required to attend the same amount of time as
normal students. Students receiving special education services are entitled by
law to an annual review of yearly progress as well as an evaluation every three
years to determine the needs for continued services. Parents who have specific
desires for their child's education must act as advocates to assure their
child's best interests are being met.
In order to more clearly determine students as disabled, the federal government
defined thirteen categories of disabilities. These included autism,
deaf-blindness, deafness, hearing impairment, mental retardation, multiple
disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, serious emotional
disturbance, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment,
traumatic brain injury, and visual impairment. The key to overcoming
disabilities in the mainstream school for children are:
Attending sessions (i.e. resource room) during the day to supplement regular or
special classroom instruction. The goal of these programs is for students to
learn compensatory strategies and study skills to enable them to succeed in
mainstream classes. These sessions are generally for students who are fully
included into the general educational environment.
Children with similar disabilities are placed together in a self-contained
classroom if their education cannot be satisfactorily achieved in the general
educational environment. In other words, these classrooms are provided for
children who do not benefit educationally, socially or emotionally from a
standard classroom placement. These classrooms, commonly known as special
classes, are taught by teachers with training in adapting curriculum to meet the
needs of children with disabilities.
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