A special education legal resource discussing case law, news, practical advocacy advice, and developments in state and federal laws, statutes and regulations. Postings include insight and sometimes humor from Charles P. Fox, a Chicago, Illinois attorney who is also a parent of child with special needs, and other guest authors.
The annual “Where We Are on TV” report issued last September by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) indicates that characters with disabilities are almost invisible on scripted primetime television (ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox, and NBC). Of 647 regular characters who appear on these networks, only five (less than 1%) have disabilities. In addition to regular roles, three recurring characters on primetime television have disabilities. Cable networks have done comparatively better providing more regular and recurring characters with disabilities. In contrast, the American Community Survey from the US Census Bureau reported that 12% of Americans (36.4 million) have disabilities. Christine Bruno, co-chair of the Tri-Union I AM PWD campaign which promotes inclusion of persons with disabilities in the arts and helped conduct research for the GLAAD study said, “We look to our stages and screens not only for entertainment, but to hold a mirror up to society. Our industry has a responsibility to its artists and the viewing public to accurately reflect what we see on our streets and in our communities.”
Some years back, The Onion, a satirical publication, announced in a headline, “Miracle of Birth Occurs for 83 Billionth Time.” At our older son’s Bar Mitzvah, my husband used this article to explain that we perhaps take for granted the milestones our children reach. We forget that each and every birth, and each and every event in that child’s life, is unique and special. Each bris, each first communion, each first tooth, each first day of kindergarten are all miraculous. We’ve somehow lost our wonder in the ordinariness of life. And yet, how much greater is the miracle when it is a child who has been ill, or who has a disability, or whom for whatever reason there was doubt that he or she would reach a particular milestone?
A recent Chicago Tribunearticle highlights students with intellectual disabilities who are successfully attending area colleges. One 25-year-old who graduated from Elmhurst Learning and Success Academy is currently working two part-time jobs as she completes a veterinary assistant program at the College of DuPage. A recent graduate of the PACE program at National Louis University in Skokie described the three internships he worked while earning a two-year certificate program. Each of the students interviewed expressed their satisfaction with their respective programs and career goals.
Children who have ADHD often have difficulty regulating brain activity. A new study, conducted by German and Swiss researchers, demonstrates that neurofeedback training may help. Neurofeedback is a method of training the brain, or shaping brain wave activity which for some children results in improved behavior and reduction of hyperactivity and impulsivity. The technique doesn't work for everyone and is not a replacement for drug treatment, but may be used as a companion, as MSNBC reports.
Children in the study worked on a game like computer program that had them activate or deactivate portions of the brain and they were rewarded with points. After two weeks of the computer program they used red and blue cards to practice the brain activation and deactivation. The other group of children took part in group therapy sessions. Results indicated that parents and teachers, although to a lesser extent, reported great improvement in the children who took part in neurofeedback. It was also noted that kids did better when parents encouraged, rewarded, and reminded them to practice with the red and blue cards. In all eight children learned to successfully regulate brain activity while nine did not.
Mediation and resolution meetings are among the primary ways that many special education cases get settled. For many parents they have never attended anything like a mediation or a resolution session. An advocacy center is DC has published a useful handbook that is very accessible guide to mediation and resolution meetings.
The advent of the iPad and iPod with the proliferation of their accompanying applications offers extraordinary opportunities for students with special needs, including those with autism. In an Education Week article, Matthew S. Goodwin, the director of clinical research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, states, “A lot of this [new technology] is preliminary and promising, but it’s not a silver bullet.” Mr. Goodwin continues to say, “It’s not going to cure autism, but we’re at the precipice of a revolution.”
Although the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and No Child Left Behind both mandate that schools must provide research-based interventions for students, it appears that schools are often failing to provide such evidence-based methodologies. Results from an August 3, 2011 study from Michigan State University of more than 200 school professionals indicate that teachers are failing to use some of the most effective strategies for teaching children with autism. This is news? Parents already know that teachers may not be correctly applying the different treatment interventions to their children. And researchers have also known that there is a research-to-practice gap in autism interventions.
A mother in the Bronx is arguing against the social promotion of her 11-year-old son with special needs because she believes he is not ready for 6th grade. What the mother is asking for seems reasonable—if her son has failed to master 5th grade work, why would he be able to do 6th grade work? Yet, the school’s desire to socially promote the student is unusual. But is the alternative, grade retention, a more viable option?
Social promotion became popular in the 1970s due to fears that its alternative; namely, retention, led to issues with self-esteem for those students who were “flunked” a grade. However, social promotion fell into disfavor in the 1980s with the recognition that students who were receiving high school diplomas were ill-prepared for either college or work. Social promotion went on to became a political issue when President Clinton, in his 1999 State of the Union Address, declared that, “No child should graduate from high school with a diploma he or she can’t read. We do our children no favors when we allow them to pass from grade to grade without mastering the material.”
