Historical, Philosophical, and legal foundation of special education

Philosophical Foundations
- To create and provide a positive environment with individualized programs specifically
designed to maximize all students' potential and meet the students' needs, learning styles,
abilities, and goals.
Historical Foundations Timeline
- 1965- Congress adds Title IV to the Elementary & Secondary Education Act of 1965,
which created a Bureau of Education for the Handicapped (today, this bureauis called the
Office of Special Education Programs or OSEP).At this time, educating students with
disabilities is NOT mandated by federal or state law.
- 1972-Supreme Court Decisions apply the equal protection argument to students with
disabilities [PARC v. Pennsylvania (1972) and Mills v. D.C. Board of Education (1972)].
Some students with disabilities start going to school as a result of these court decisions.
- 1973-Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is enacted, which protects qualified
individuals from discrimination based on disability. Since this law was enacted without
excitement, most educators did not know that it applied to public schools.
- 1974- The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is enacted, which allows
parents to have access to all personally identifiable information used by the school
district regarding their child.
- 1975- The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA or P.L. 94-142) is
authorized and is now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA).This mandated that all school districts to educate students with disabilities. This
included: providing federal funding, FAPE, LRE, Procedural safeguards, Non-
discriminatory evaluations, and IEPs.
- 1977- The final regulations for EAHCA are determined, which include rules for school
districts to follow when providing an education to students with disabilities.
- 1986-The EAHCA adds the Handicapped Children's Protection Act, giving parents and
students rights under EAHCA (now IDEA) and Section 504
- 1990-The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) uses Section 504 regulations - "504
Plans" are now made for individual students and have become much more common in
schools now.
- 1990- The EAHCA is now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
One of the biggest changes to this Act is the transitional services for students with
disabilities. This included changes such as:
- The word "handicap" was changed to "disability"
- Person first language
- Added Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Autism categories
- Transition services
- Assistive technology & related services
- 1997-IDEA amends that students with disabilities are to be included in on state and
district-wide assessments. Regular Education teachers are now also required to be part of
the IEP team. These changes included and/or affected:
- FAPE
- Nondiscriminatroy evaluation
- IEP
- LRE
- Discipline
- Related Services
- Parents Rights
- 2001- No Child Left Behind: This states that all students (including those with
disabilities) to be proficient in math and reading by the year 2014.
- 2004- IDEA changes again in many ways. The biggest change creates more
accountability at the state and local levels. Another change is that school districts must
provide instruction and intervention for students to help keep them out of special
education, if possible.

Legal Foundations for SPED

◦ Special Education litigation became more common in the 1960s and by 1974 there were
over 36 lawsuits filed for the "right to education" in 25 states. Lawsuits involving
education started as early as in the 1800s and included topics such as:
• Exclusion & School Attendance
• Rights/Services
• Litigation Rights & Services
◦ P1 94-142 (Education for all Handicapped Children Act - 1975)

Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

◦ Purpose: The IEP is an an important document and when it is done correctly, it "should
improve teaching, learning and results. Each child's IEP describes, among other things,
the educational program that has been designed to meet that child's unique needs" (A
Guide to the Individualized Education Program, 2007).
◦ Current level of performance
◦ Annual goals and short-term objectives
◦ Who provides services & where are they provided?
◦ Start date and duration of services
 ◦ Participation in general education settings
◦ Participation in state-and district-wide tests
◦ Explanation of not being in general education
◦ Evaluation plan for objectives
◦ Transitional plans (by age 14)
◦ Age of majority
◦ Measuring progress
504 Plans
◦ "Section 504 is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with
disabilities. Section 504 ensures that the child with a disability has equal access to an
education. The child may receive accommodations and modifications." Section 504 has
fewer procedural safeguards in place for the child with a disability as well as the child's
parents, as opposed to IDEA.

Era of Extermination
Disability is a “punishment of the gods” – A bad or evil sign „ “Individual is what he is, now
and forever” „ Plato & Aristotle call for infanticide „ Ciceron calls for the purity of the race,
a society free of “defectives” ÆNeed for military superiority „ Therefore, someone with a
disability resulting from war (soldiers) is taken in charge by the City.
Consequences of Philosophy:
Chaining - Left on hills to die –
Thrown off cliffs - Locked away
– Drown „ Father had right to terminate child’s life „ Deaf, blind & Ill children had little
more chance.
- God created man in his own image Disability is an impurity.
- A disabled person cannot approach sacred places
- Jesus helps disabled persons (ex: blind miracle)
- Disability is less a fault or an evil sign
- Need of assistance, help
- Help them is an occasion for “winning one’s salvation”
Angels .
- Mutterings revelations
- Benefit through alms
 - Children of Great Spirit”
- Angels from heaven

Devils
- Changelings
- Martin Luther (demons, Punishment for sins)
- Intercourse with devil

Era of Ridicule

Rigid caste system Those with disabilities were:

a) Used as servants or fools
b) Some were still put to death
c) Dwarfs were used as clowns
d) Overall, ridiculed for deformities and behavior

Era of Asylum
Catholic Church accepts those with disabilities as wards of state
- Cared in isolation
- No education at first, but humane treatment
- Belief: Once disabled, always disabled
- Without education, no humanity.
- There’s no Human and half-Human Æ equality between man.
- All knowledge comes through the senses (John Locke and Etienne Condillac)
- Pedro Ponce de Léon (1578) in Spain created the first documented experience about
education of deaf children (from nobility)
- Abbé Charles Michel de l’Epée (1760) in Paris created the “Institut pour sourds”
(Institute for deaf)
- Louis Braille invented “Braille script” (1829).
- Pedro Ponce de Léon (1578) in Spain created the first documented experience about
education of deaf children (from nobility) „ Abbé Charles Michel de l’Epée (1760) in
Paris created the “Institut pour sourds” (Institute for deaf) „ Louis Braille invented
“Braille script” (1829).
THEORETICAL OF SPECIAL INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
Ideally in daily practice auditory verbal therapist work within a theory of human learning and
development. Theory serves as a guide for making moment to moment decisions in clinical
practice (Schneider & Watkins ,1996) The goal here is to put forward a particular social
interactionist theory
Vygotsky Constructivism in education is based on nations from cognitive and social psychology
The former is grounded in the work of Piaget’s ( 1954,1955,1970) and accentuates cognitive
developmental and individual construction of knowledge ( Kaufman ,2004) The letter (social
constructivism) Emphasize social construction of knowledge and is generally attributed to the
work of Vygotsky ( 1962,1978) ( cited in Kaufman,2004) Constructivist pedagogy is the most
influential theory in the field of education today ( Baily & Pransky ,2005) Constructivism is a
popular educational theory that is actually compost of two distinct branches of thought
- Social construction Vygotsky
- Cognitive construction – Piaget’s ( Bailey & Pransky ,2005)
Vygotsky believe that children thinking and meaning making is socially constructed and emerges
out of their social interaction and their environment. Children learning is facilitated by parents,
peers, teachers and others in their lives ( Kaufman ,2004) Vygotsky main theories focused on
context, culture and language. Vygotsky most well-known theory is called “cultural – Historical
activity theory “ ( cultural transmission of knowledge ) ( Gindis ,1999) In special education,
Vygotsky often wrote of “compensatory strategies “where by the objective of intervention was
enhancing the mightiness of the mind
This included
• Abstract reasoning
• Logical memory
• Problem solving
• Goal direct behaviour’s ( Gindis ,1999)

Fundamental to understanding Vygotsky theories and PR construct is the understanding that

Vygotsky viewed language as the force that drives cognitive development because language
mediates the child’s participation in his intellectual and social environment ( Owens , 1996)
Key Theoretical Construct
Two key Theoretical Construct associated with Vygotsky thinking are
- Zone of proximal Development
- Scaffolding (although not originally used by Vygotsky it refers to Vygotsky notion of the
social cultural interaction between skilled learner and a less skilled learner ) ( Berk &
Winsler ,1995)
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
In using the zone of proximal development adults structure activities so that the child functions
between the baseline and ceiling of capacity. The zone of proximal development is the difference
between child actual developmental level and current potential development
Scaffolding
Scaffolding ( Wood , Bruner & Ross ,1976) Is a metaphor that translate into a model of learning
through gradual increment as a result of an interactive process
In Essence ,bit implies a process of collaboration between teacher and student learners – ideally
between a single learner in one on one tutoring relationship ( Lefrancois ,2001)
You sent
generally , scaffolding is providing supper through many mechanism including
- Direction s
- Guidance
- Demonstration
- Explanations
- Provide of models
- Explanations of objectives
-
External Scaffolding support learners acquisition of knowledge by the teachers
• Breaking down information intro comprehendible components
• Modeling
• Coaching
• Providing Feedback
• Appropriating responsibility for learning to learners ( Kaufman ,2004)