Special Education

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that special education is a relatively new branch in the educational system and that it is developing and changing all the time. It examines various branches within special education and differing attitudes towards inclusion and exclusion of special-needs students in the main-frame educational system.

From the Paper:

"Special education is actually a fairly new branch of education. The first law passed requiring special education was passed in 1978. Until then, schools could - and often did --- routinely exclude students from regular educational services, placing, for instance, children with global cognitive delays in completely segregated settings, sometimes for life. Since special education expanded and conformed to standards, the field has been in a continual state of flux, with a tendency to make significant changes in practice, sometimes based on little solid evidence of whether the changes would improve education, and if so, for whom (Ellis, 2000). In issues regarding placement in particular the pendulum has swung widely, shifting over decades from putting nearly every child with any kind of significant learning difference in special classes in the seventies and eighties to today's trend to keep nearly all children within regular classrooms even when their differences are dramatic. This movement has been driven by parents and the advocates who work for their children (Odom, PAGE), and while it has added important new options for children with differences, at the same time, it demonstrates how often the field of special education must move forward without any clear compass markings to guide its way."

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