Theory, Decision Making and Legislation and Its Impact

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IDEA: Workshop 1
Theory, Decision Making and Legislation and Its Impact
Learning Team E: Yeida Chavez, Shemiah Owens and
Melissa VandenBussche
SPE/513
May 2nd , 2016
Claustina Mahon-Reynolds

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Introduction
 The theory of special education impacts the decision making
on the state and national level because a theory provides
information and facts that can be found to be true.
 The legislation has impacted special education for many years
by implementing laws such as No Child Left Behind, Section
504, and IDEA.
 Legislation has developed laws, theories, and ideas that have
impacted on families of students with exceptional learning
needs both positively and negatively.

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Theory of Special Education
 The theory of special education impacts the decision making on
the state and national level because a theory provides
information and facts that can be found to be true.
 Individuals that are responsible for making life-changing
decisions generally research or identify principles or ideas that
support their thoughts and decision-making process.
 The theory of special education has been developed through
years of research, principles, and ideas.

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Inclusive Education and
Special Education

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Inclusive Education and
Special Education
 Inclusive education and special education are based on different
philosophies and provide alternative views of education for children with
special educational needs and disabilities (Hornsby, 2015)
 The theory of special education has different views of the philosophy,
principles, and values of inclusive education while supporting
interventions, policies and methods of special education.
 There has been a connection between law and pedagogy in special
education classrooms for years. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and
Individuals with Disabilities Education Acts (IDEA) has fueled this debate
and decision making process concerning this area state and nationwide.
 For the past thirty years there’s a wide world emergence of a policy of
including children with special needs in regular classes. Elementary school
teachers’ beliefs and perceptions about the inclusion of children with
special needs in their classroom.

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Decision Making
 Decision making on the state and local in reference to the theory of special
education can be formed by taking a look at the most effective inclusive
schools. Research demonstrates that school can educate students with mild
and severe disabilities in general education classrooms by providing special
education services that link to and support general education instruction.
 In order to make logical decisions on the state and national level all aspects of
special education must be taken into consideration and identified statistics can
definitely assist in decisions being made because they support rebuke
research.
 In any decisions making process dealing with special education there will be
pros and cons identified. Individuals have to weigh their options and go with the
facts that support the decision-making process.
 In closing the final decision should be one that benefits special education
students while developing on inclusive environment that raises the
achievement level for all students.

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Current legislation and its Impact
 Current legislation does not consider the impact on special
educators in creating IEPs.
 Current legislation does not consider the impact on special
educators in creating IEPs.
 Designing individualized Instructional Programs (IEPs) impacts
instructional preparation time for the special educator
 IEPs are written by a team and vary in the degree of specificity
 Current regulations do not identify or define how specific goals
should be written.
 IEPs do not define instructional tasks
 Annual goals are linked directly to Common Core standards or
state standards.
 Linking goals directly to Common Core standards create
unattainable goals for grade level specific achievement.

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Current legislation and its Impact
continued…
 The District of Columbia currently requires that goals must be connected within 3 grade levels.
 If a student’s current level of performance is 3rd grade, but the student is in 9th grade the goals must
be connected to at least 6th grade standards.
 Current legislation does not consider the practice of special educators.
 Special educators and IEP teams are required to define LRE, but are often pushed into placing
students into full inclusion classes when self-contained courses would be more beneficial to the goals
and needs of the exceptional student.
 The challenge requires for greater inclusion into regular education classrooms.
 As more exceptional students are mainstreamed into regular education classrooms the student to
teacher ratio is increased and teachers can no long meet the individual needs of students.
 As more students are mainstreamed to full inclusion classrooms special education teachers are serve
all students instead of considering ability.
 According to Hallahan, Kauffman, and Pullen, “students should be served on the basis of their
chronological age rather than academic ability or mental age” (p. 69).

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The Negative impact of Legislation

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The Negative impact of Legislation
 The legislation negatively impacts families of students with exceptional needs vary from
needing to be labeled to keeping the teachers accountable to keeping up with their peers
testing goals.
 Although having a specific label help narrow down specifying the needs of children, at
times most will only see the negatives of this. People will generally focus on the challenges
and needs instead of as the child as a whole. When you label a student many will tend to
try to group the students together with other students that have the same challenges,
which defeats the whole purpose of Special Ed.
 General Education teachers are to expose Special Education students to general
education curriculum however this is challenging when students with IEPs. According to
Hallahan, Kauffman, and Pullen, “These standards apply to all students, including pupils
receiving a special education. The work of aligning IEP goals to the Common Core State
Standards will certainly challenge many special educators.” (p. 49).
 IEP are designed for the student’s specific needs, however this becomes a challenge for
the family in terms of testing. Because the child’s plan is designed for their uniqueness, it
is hard to align both the child’s needs and the goals of the legislation for testing.

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Conclusion
 The theory of special education impacts the decision making on
the state and national level.
 The legislation has impacted special education for many years
by implementing laws such as No Child Left Behind, Section
504, and IDEA.
 Current legislations does not consider the impact on special
educators as more exceptional students are mainstreamed into
the general education population.
 Legislation has developed laws, theories, and ideas that
impact families of students with exceptional learning needs
negatively.

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References
 Hallahan, D. P., Kauffman, J. M., & Pullen, P. C.
(2015). EXCEPTIONAL LEARNERS: An Introduction to
Special Education (13th ed.). Retrieved from The
University of Phoenix ebook collection database.
 Hornby, Gary. (2015). British Journal of Special Education.
42(3), 234-256.
 Gavish, Bella,Shimoni, Sarah. (2011). Elementary school
teachers' beliefs and perceptions about the inclusion of
children with special needs in their classrooms. Journal