Special education in the United States

The question of the inclusion of special needs children within the regular school system was first addressed legislatively in 1973 with the passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 504 forbid discrimination based on a person's handicap by any federal agency, defense contractor, public university, or any other agency receiving federal funds (Shapero, 1993, p. 65-66). In 1976, the right of disabled children to receive a free public school education was guaranteed with passage of The Education For All Handicapped Children Act. This protection did not extend to preschool children or younger children until 1986 when the act was amended and became known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This meant that early childhood special education departments would be required to educate special needs youngsters in the least restrictive environment. Preschool environ

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bled child in a regular preschool class (Erwin, 1996). The children were not given information that Ryan had severe difficulties seeing. After a couple of months, the children would naturally give Ryan verbal clues as to where they were, where the toy he was looking for was, who he was talking to, and allow him extra time on tasks which would normally be aided by vision such as climbing the slide (Erwin, 1996, p. 403). Ryan's presence in class was supported by a variety of support systems. The most important of these developed naturally with his peers. An extra aide was assigned to the classroom as a "hands off" aide for Ryan. She was to be responsible for the whole class but be available to provide individual support for Ryan in a non-intrusive way when needed (Erwin, 1996). He also received vision services and occupational therapy after school. His regular teachers consulted with the vision specialist regularly. The sighted children benefitted from Ryan's presence by expanding their community to include a different category of person. They learned to value the contribution of the individual, not just see his handicap. They learned, without realizing it, that people gain information and learn in different ways which a
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Approximate Word count = 1635
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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