Federal Legislation Impact on Vocational Education

Federal Legislation and Vocational Education

There are several reasons why it is important for the vocational educator to know about legislation that impacts upon his or her teaching specialty. First, as has been pointed out by May (1987), vocational education, throughout history, has reflected societal needs. In this regard, Morton and Cross (1985) reported that it is often through legislation that education in general and vocational education in particular is helped to improve in terms of better meeting societal needs.

In other words, educators need to know about the law because it informs them that certain needs exist and ways to meet these needs. This information, in turn, helps them to provide better quality education and so better meet the needs.

For example, Public Law 94142 requires that vocational educators are to provide input into the placement and programming of students into special programs. The Vocational Education Act of 1984 emphasizes supplemental services for special students within the mainstream rather than separate vocational programs. The impact of these laws is that they have made it essential for vocational educators to understand the process whereby a student can become eligible for s

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rs as well as provide them a framework to use in assessment as to whether or not they have fulfilled these goals and objectives. In the case of the connection between the targeted legislation and its impact upon LD students securing employment status, the study indicated that more work may need to be done before the goal set by the legislation is realized. Another reason that it is important for vocational educators to be knowledgeable about federal legislation is to make sure that they and their school districts are in compliance with the law. Although compliance may be viewed as "easily accomplished," there can be areas in which educators and school authorities are unclear. This can be seen in research conducted by Smith (1982) who surveyed 50 school districts in Texas in order to determine whether they were in compliance with three federal laws: (1) the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Public Law 93113/Section 504); (2) the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (Public Law 94142); and (3) the Vocational Education Act of 1963 Amended in Education Amendments of 1976 (Public Law 94482). A descriptive analysis was used as the research method with a Likert-type questionnaire being used to elicit positive
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1510
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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