Leave No Disabled Child Behind – SJU Lisa Carlson
Baby boomers may have been too young in 1975 to remember. Millennials were not even born however; this year was an essential year in many of this particular generations lives. 1975 also marked the beginning of a change for parents of special education students and of course the students themselves. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act – IDEA, the law that insures a free and appropriate education for all students, has changed the lives of disabled people for the better. Prior to that point, a public school could turn a child or children away however currently, this is no longer the case a school district must accept a child with any disability. Equally important, the school must provide them with the services they need to learn, grow, and develop skills. Considering the state of confusion we are now facing in this country, it is well within reason to be alarmed about the future of the special education student. There has been talk of doing away with the Department of Education entirely.
Nevertheless, the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, has a rich history of supporting charter schools. POLITICO reports that the DeVos foundation “donated a total of $10,000 to the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit libertarian law firm that has funded school choice lawsuits across the country.” The charitable contributions made from the DeVos foundation highlights her stance for educational vouchers. What will happen to disabled children in America should vouchers be put in place? What will become of the IDEA law that’s been put in place since 1975? “Obviously, with the Trump administration, you never really know what he is going to do, but assuming we can take him at his word on his stated policy positions, there is tremendous, tremendous risk for people with disabilities.” says Ari Ne’eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.
Proponents of President Trump and Betsy DeVos point to the concerns of those whom are protesting and dismiss their concerns as merely just hysteria or sore losing. They encourage protestors to “let him do his job” and directs their attention to Betsy DeVos’s statements and her agenda which is “eager to bring a sense of urgency” in enforcing the federal law as well as to providing students with disabilities more of a choice. Families of students with disabilities already have plenty of choices and believe they don’t need the Trump administration to fix what is not broken. As members of the Individual Education Plan (IEP) the parent has a right to insure their child is receiving services that will encourage and advance their educational opportunities.
Some options for these services may come in the form of speech therapy, occupational therapy, modified curriculum, paraprofessionals, or AAC devices. And if the school is not equipped to address the needs of the child, procedures are in place to allow the child to be placed at another educational facility that will include these and other services that the child requires. Under this possible new voucher program a family is basically asked to utilize this agenda which is already in effect in certain states. For example, currently Louisiana has a voucher system in which a family receives up to 50% of the state per-pupil allocation. To be specific, a family is expected to educate their special needs child with half the voucher money than the public school uses to educate a regular education student and this creates a financial burden. Not only will using vouchers become a financial burden to families, this new education system will be jeopardizing the protections afforded by IDEA. This confirms that parents who utilizes vouchers waive their and their children’s rights under IDEA.” (Van Rokel, 2008) The Trump administration claims they will “Make America great again”. I ask at what cost and at the expense of whom?