Through all the research conducted, the most prevalent political factor found affects both the IDEA and the social problem. This factor encompasses the question of who is in charge and enforcing the availability of the funding. When the IDEA was first established, Congress committed to paying 40 percent of the average cost to educate a disabled child, and entrusted the states and local governments to fulfill the remaining costs (CEC, 2015). The Council of Exceptional Children (2015) report also explains that Congress had developed a process for gradually phasing in funding increases for IDEA requirements. Unfortunately, Congress never satisfied this promise, and thus, funding for the policy has progressively decreased throughout the years.
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One problem area falls in testing biases, where it is argued that the tests given to determine disabilities are prejudiced against African American students. In a 1979 court case, Larry P. v. Riles, which argued this issue, the court agreed that schools were indeed discriminatory, and they ruled each state to construct a plan to abolish the unequal enrollment of African American children in special education programs (Russo & Talbert-Johnson, 1997, p. 139). With the responsibility to address this issue in the states hands, the pressure ultimately is placed on school staff, psychologists, and test makers to ensure that tests are fair for all, biases are eliminated, and measurements are accurate. However, this leaves much room for continued human error. If the Supreme Court continues to hand off this issue, change is unlikely to be made (p. …show more content…
As class sizes grow because of lack of teachers, the one-on-one time students are getting is severely limited. Focused one-on-one time is especially important for children who have a disability, as they will only be able to learn if they are being taught in a way that is beneficial to them and adaptive to their needs. With low staffing and unqualified teachers, academic performance, graduation, and employment rates of children with disabilities is still much lower today than that of their non-disabled
One problem area falls in testing biases, where it is argued that the tests given to determine disabilities are prejudiced against African American students. In a 1979 court case, Larry P. v. Riles, which argued this issue, the court agreed that schools were indeed discriminatory, and they ruled each state to construct a plan to abolish the unequal enrollment of African American children in special education programs (Russo & Talbert-Johnson, 1997, p. 139). With the responsibility to address this issue in the states hands, the pressure ultimately is placed on school staff, psychologists, and test makers to ensure that tests are fair for all, biases are eliminated, and measurements are accurate. However, this leaves much room for continued human error. If the Supreme Court continues to hand off this issue, change is unlikely to be made (p. …show more content…
As class sizes grow because of lack of teachers, the one-on-one time students are getting is severely limited. Focused one-on-one time is especially important for children who have a disability, as they will only be able to learn if they are being taught in a way that is beneficial to them and adaptive to their needs. With low staffing and unqualified teachers, academic performance, graduation, and employment rates of children with disabilities is still much lower today than that of their non-disabled