This is the first in a series of articles that will address various aspects of special education. Please read these articles and respond with your thoughts and ideas. I learn from the input of those who speak—please speak up!

To begin with, I want to just set up a few assumptions that guide my work with students who have special needs.

Assumption 1:
Students receiving special education should not be referred to as “special education kids” because special education does not describe all of the student’s educational experience. In fact, it is much more accurate to look at things this way:

1. they are students in the “Anytown” School District
2. they are Lakeview School students
3. who are in the third grade,
4. who have Mrs. Smith as a teacher, oh, and by they way,
5. they happen to need specially designed instruction in one or more areas of their schooling.

Assumption 2:
Special education is actually a service that is provided to students in a variety of settings. It is not necessarily “a place we send kids” and should never be the entire experience of school for students. Students are much more than the special education label.

Assumption 3:
ALL decisions we make about a student’s education should be made as if their life depended on it…… because IT DOES!

While the law requires that we provide students with a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), schools and advocates often get confused and forget about the most important aspect of special education and that is INDIVIDUALIZATION of services. This means that you can never use the one size fits all model of either inclusion in the general education classroom as the LRE for all kids, or that all students with severe disabilities should be in self-contained life skills programs. Assumption 3 is a reminder to me to ALWAYS base decisions about a student’s education on their needs- not mine!

So, exactly what is special education?

In a nutshell, special education is specially designed instruction that is provided to students who
• have been diagnosed (through an evaluation process) as having one of 14 possible educational disabilities (these are educational diagnoses—not medical diagnoses)
• the disability adversely affects the student’s academic or functional performance to the degree that;
• modifications and accommodations in the regular classroom are not enough to allow the student to make progress
• the learning problem is NOT related to a lack of adequate instruction or exposure to the material
• and the learning problem is not directly related to cultural, environmental, economic or social issues.

Students must meet all of the above criteria to become eligible for specially designed instruction through special education. An evaluation addressed each point listed above.

In the next articles I will address:

Evaluation for Eligibility for Special Education Services
Least Restrictive Environment and Continuum of Alternative Placements (continuum of services as it is sometimes called)
Is Special Education Teaching Skills and Strategies or Core Curriculum?
IEPs
Transition Driven IEP
Writing Goals for Progress Monitoring
Behavior Change Plans – Instead of Behavior Punishment Plans