It was thirty-five years ago that President Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (later renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). This was a watershed moment in American society, as it made our public schools accessible to children who had been shut out (or shut into dark corners of school basements) for too long.
What does special education look like today? Consider a few facts, from the latest U.S. Department of Education data (from 2008-09):
- Of the country's 6.5 million children aged 3-21 who receive special education services, 45 percent are in the ?specific learning disability? or ?emotional disturbance? categories?neither of which would have been considered ?disabilities? in 1975. (And both of which include many students who were simply poorly served by ?general education.?)
- New York State has about the same number of special education students as the state of Texas (444,000 vs. 452,000)?even though Texas's total student population is 71 percent higher than the Empire State's.
- For the first time ever, in 2008-09, the number of special education paraprofessionals (430,000) surpassed the number of special education teachers (405,000).
I'll leave it to you to ponder what to make of those tidbits. Happy anniversary, IDEA!
-Mike Petrilli
