PS4

Definition of Special Education

Special Education is a broad term that describes a wide variety of instructional services that are based on a
child’s individual needs.

According to IDEA* Sec. 200.39, “special education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to the
parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including— instruction conducted in the
classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and instruction in physical
education.”

Special education includes each of the following:

1) speech -language pathology services, or any other related service*

2) travel training; and
3) vocational education

*Other Related Services:

• speech - language pathology and audiology services
• interpreting services
• psychological services
• physical and occupational therapy
• recreation
o therapeutic recreation
o early identification
o assessment of disabilities in children
• counseling services
 Rehabilitation counseling
 orientation
• mobility services
• medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes
• health services
• school nurse services
• social work services in schools
• parent counseling and training

Definition of SpEd Related Concepts

Disability Terms...
• Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and
social interaction, generally evident before age three, that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance.
• Deaf-blindness means concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such
severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated
in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.
• Deafness means a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic
information through hearing, with or without amplification that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance.
• Emotional disturbance means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a
long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance:
o (A) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
o (B) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.
o (C) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
o (D) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
o (E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.
• Emotional disturbance includes schizophrenia.
• Hearing impairment means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely
affects a child’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness in this
section.
• Intellectual disability** means significantly sub average general intellectual functioning, existing
concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that
adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
• Multiple disabilities means concomitant impairments (such as intellectual disability -blindness or
intellectual disability -orthopedic impairment),
• Orthopedic impairment means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance. The term includes impairments caused by a congenital anomaly, impairments caused by
disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy,
amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).
• Other health impairment means having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened
alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational
environment, that—
• (i) is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis,
rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome; and
• (ii) adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
• Specific learning disability—Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic
psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest
itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations,
including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and
developmental aphasia.
• Disorders not included. Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are
primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of intellectual disability of emotional disturbance,
or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
• Speech or language impairment means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired
articulation, a language impairment,or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational
performamce.
• Traumatic brain injury means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting
in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child’s
educational performance. Traumatic brain injury applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in
impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract
thinking; judgment; problem -solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior;
physical functions; information processing; and speech. Traumatic brain injury does not apply to brain
injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.
• Visual impairment including blindness means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely
affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.

IDEA MAGNA CARTA

IDEA is an acronym for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, USA’s special education law. IDEA was
first passed in 1975, where it was called the Education for All Handicapped Children’s Act. Every few years,
the
law has been revised (a process called reauthorization).
The most current version of IDEA is Public Law 108- 446, passed in 2004 and called the “Individuals with
Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004.” It’s still most commonly referred to as IDEA, or IDEA 2004
(to
distinguish it from other reauthorizations). Final regulations for IDEA 2004 were published in 2006.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law that makes available a free appropriate public
education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and
related services to those children.

The IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related
services to more than 6.5 million eligible infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities.

Under IDEA’s legislation, all states receiving federal funding must:

• Provide all students with disabilities between the ages of three and 21 with access to an appropriate and
free public education
• Identify, locate and evaluate children labelled with disabilities
• Develop an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for each child
• Educate children with disabilities within their “least restrictive environment.” This environment is ideally
with their typically developing peers, but is dependent on individual circumstances
• Provide those students enrolled in early -intervention (EI) programs with a positive and effective transition
into an appropriate preschool program
• Provide special education services for those children enrolled in private schools
• Ensure teachers are adequately qualified and certified to teach special education
• Ensure that children with disabilities are not

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed by President Obama on December 10, 2015, and
represents good news for our nation’s schools. This bipartisan measure reauthorizes the 50-year-old
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the nation’s national education law and longstanding
commitment to equal opportunity for all students. The new law builds on key areas of progress in recent
years, made possible by the efforts of educators, communities, parents, and students across the country.

ESSA includes provisions that will help to ensure success for students and schools. Below are
just a few. The law:

• Advances equity by upholding critical protections for America's disadvantaged and high- need students.
• Requires—for the first time—that all students in America be taught to high academic standards that will
prepare them to succeed in college and careers.
• Ensures that vital information is provided to educators, families, students, and communities through
annual state-wide assessments that measure students' progress toward those high standards.
• Helps to support and grow local innovations—including evidence-based and place-based interventions
developed by local leaders and educators—consistent with our Investing in Innovation and Promise
Neighborhoods
• Sustains and expands this administration's historic investments in increasing access to high- quality
preschool.
• Maintains an expectation that there will be accountability and action to effect positive change in our
lowest-performing schools, where groups of students are not making progress, and where graduation rates
are low over extended periods of time.

MAGNA CARTA DO 2, s. 1997 - Institutionalization of SPED programs in All Schools

In support to the implementation of the Republic Act 7277 (Magna Carta for Disabled Persons) and to
achieve the target set for the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993 -2002) that 75% of the 4
million children with disabilities should be provided equal educational opportunities, special needs education
shall be institutionalized in all schools.

The Institutionalization aims to provide access to basic education among children with special needs, namely,
the gifted/talented, the mentally retarded, the visually impaired, the hearing impaired, the orthopedically
handicapped, the learning disabled, the speech defectives, the children with behavior problems, the autistic
children and those with health problems through the formal system and other alternative delivery services in
education.

The following are the guidelines which shall be observed in the institutionalization of special needs
education:
• All divisions shall organize at least one SPED Center which will cater to children with special needs.
Programs organized shall adopt the inclusive education concept or the different types of SPED programs
suited to the needs of the learners. The Center shall function as a Resource Center:
- to support children with special needs integrated in regular schools;
- to assist in the conduct of in
-service
-training
- to produce appropriate teaching materials; and
- to conduct continuous assessment of children with special needs.

School divisions shall appropriate funds for the aforementioned activities.

• All districts shall organize SPED programs in schools where there are identified children with special needs.
Assistance from existing SPED Center shall be sought in the assessment of the children with special needs
and in the orientation or training of the regular teachers to help these students. Teachers and administrators
who
have had trainings in SPED shall be identified and their expertise tapped.
• Local trainings at the regional, division and district levels shall be initiated and conducted by the identified
Regional Trainers in Special Education.
• To sustain the continuing interest of supervisors, administrators and teachers in the implementation of the
SPED programs, incentives shall be planned and provided for.
• To ensure that the education of children with special needs is an integral part of the educational system, an
annual allocation for extension position shall be provided for SPED teachers.

Department Orders Related to Special Education in the Philippines

DO 38, s. 2015 - Guidelines on the Utilization of Support Funds for the Special Education (SPED) Program
DO 46, s. 2014 - Guidelines on the Implementation of the Alternative Learning System for Persons With
Disability (ALS for PWD) Program
DO 98, s. 2011 - Revised Guidelines on the Utilization of the Financial Support Fund to the Secondary Schools
Special Education (SPED) Program
DO 85, s. 2011 - Amendment to DepEd Order No. 69, s. 2011 (Guidelines on Sustaining Special Education at
the Elementary Level )
DO 77, s. 2011 - Moving the Disability Agenda Forward
DO 53, s. 2008 - Maximization of Trained Teachers and Administrators in Special Education
DO 6, s. 2006 - Policies and Guidelines for Special Education at the Secondary Level
DO 11, s. 2000 - Recognized Special Education (SPED) Centers in the Philippines
DO 26, s. 1997 - Institutionalization of SPED Programs in All Schools
DO 1, s. 1997- Organization of a Regional SPED Unit and Designation of Regional Supervisor In -Charge of
Special Education
DO 14, s. 1993 - Regional Special Education Council
DO 87, s. 1992 - Utilization of Three Special Education Publications
DO 117, s. 1987- Policies and Guidelines for Special Education

Prominent Personalities in the Development of Special Education

• 1775 - 1838 : Jean Marc Gaspard Itard

• 1787 - 1851 : Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet

• 1801 - 1876 : Samuel Gridley Home

• 1802 - 1887 : Dorothea Dix

• 1844 - 1924 : G. Stanley Hall

• 1866 - 936 : Anne Sullivan Macy