Prior to 1975, when the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) was passed, the needs of children with disabilities were highly overlooked. According to the Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (2010), “U.S. schools educated only one in five children with disabilities, and many states had laws excluding certain students from school, including children who were deaf, blind, emotionally disturbed, or mentally retarded.” The discrimination and lack of educational rights for children with disabilities was a vast social problem and detrimental to the lives and worth of children with disabilities and their families. In an effort to address this social problem and provide equal access to education
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This policy is unique in that it provides a state grant program, but is also a civil rights law. The stakeholders impacted by the civil rights portion of the law would be children with disabilities, who are protected and provided with an education that will help them gain a brighter and more successful future. The families of those with children with disabilities are also impacted not only by supporting their loved one, but also their substantial involved in their child’s IEP planning. Teachers, social workers, and other schools staff are impacted by the IDEA as they are working directly with the children with disabilities, and also involved in the process of developing and maintaining their IEP requirements. Schools and their staff are impacted on the funding side of the law, as they receive the funds necessary to carry the requirements out. Also included are organizations such as employment agencies, mental health or social services agencies as they play a role in providing the student with their individual needs and resources (Wright, Peter & Wright, Pamela, …show more content…
I believe the economics element will be challenging. Educating children with disabilities is extremely expensive because of the extra services, technology, and staff needed. The federal government originally promised to fund 40% of the cost associated the IDEA, but in reality government funding has continued to decrease over the years (Council for Exceptional Children, 2015). I believe everyone would agree that children with disabilities deserve a free and appropriate education just as every other child has access to, but do others think government funding is the answer if funding continues to drop? Some questions that should be addressed would be does the IDEA help perform vital economic functions that social welfare is supposed to provide? Or is the IDEA more a civil rights policy than a function of the economy? I look forward to seeing research on this topic. The second element of the policy model is politics. I know that there are many individuals, families, groups and organizations who are huge advocates of the IDEA, which is vital for the success and growth of the policy. It will be imperative to learn more about the political groups or leaders involved with the IDEA today, and what their views are on improvement for the future. When analyzing how ideology has affected the IDEA, I am anticipating finding the
This policy is unique in that it provides a state grant program, but is also a civil rights law. The stakeholders impacted by the civil rights portion of the law would be children with disabilities, who are protected and provided with an education that will help them gain a brighter and more successful future. The families of those with children with disabilities are also impacted not only by supporting their loved one, but also their substantial involved in their child’s IEP planning. Teachers, social workers, and other schools staff are impacted by the IDEA as they are working directly with the children with disabilities, and also involved in the process of developing and maintaining their IEP requirements. Schools and their staff are impacted on the funding side of the law, as they receive the funds necessary to carry the requirements out. Also included are organizations such as employment agencies, mental health or social services agencies as they play a role in providing the student with their individual needs and resources (Wright, Peter & Wright, Pamela, …show more content…
I believe the economics element will be challenging. Educating children with disabilities is extremely expensive because of the extra services, technology, and staff needed. The federal government originally promised to fund 40% of the cost associated the IDEA, but in reality government funding has continued to decrease over the years (Council for Exceptional Children, 2015). I believe everyone would agree that children with disabilities deserve a free and appropriate education just as every other child has access to, but do others think government funding is the answer if funding continues to drop? Some questions that should be addressed would be does the IDEA help perform vital economic functions that social welfare is supposed to provide? Or is the IDEA more a civil rights policy than a function of the economy? I look forward to seeing research on this topic. The second element of the policy model is politics. I know that there are many individuals, families, groups and organizations who are huge advocates of the IDEA, which is vital for the success and growth of the policy. It will be imperative to learn more about the political groups or leaders involved with the IDEA today, and what their views are on improvement for the future. When analyzing how ideology has affected the IDEA, I am anticipating finding the