Including Students with Special

Needs: A Practical Guide for

Classroom Teachers
Eighth Edition

Chapter 1
The Foundation for Educating
Students with Special Needs

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Chapter 1 Learning Outcomes
1.1 Explain fundamental terms and concepts that describe
special education, including those in federal law.
1.2 Explore significant factors that have shaped
contemporary special education services.
1.3 Analyze key themes that characterize today’s educational
priorities for students with disabilities, including prevention,
high expectations and accountability, evidence-based
practices, and inclusiveness.
1.4 Describe the categories of disabilities addressed in
federal law and note other special needs your students may
have.

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Chapter 1 Outline
• What is Special Education?
• What Influences Have Shaped Special Education?
• What Are the Key Themes of Contemporary Special
Education Practice?
• Who Receives Special Education and Other Special
Services?

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What is Special Education?
• Components of special education
– Specially designed instruction
▪ Tailored to meet individual needs; monitored closely
– Related services such as speech/language therapy,
physical therapy, and other services
– Supplementary aids and services (SAS)
▪ Preferential seating, access to technology,
instructional adjustments
▪ Accommodations: changes in how student learns
▪ Modifications: changes in what student learns

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Federal Special Education Law
• Individuals with Disabilities Act (I DEA)
– Describes categories of disabilities served by the law
– Establishes procedures for identifying eligible students
• Core principles of IDEA
– Free appropriate public education (F APE)
– Least restrictive environment (L RE)
– Individualized education program (I EP)
– Nondiscriminatory evaluation
– Due process
– Zero reject/child find

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Additional Provisions of IDEA
• General education teacher serving on student’s I EP team
• Teachers who are highly qualified in core academic content
• Inclusion in the same assessment program as other students
• Parents’ participation in decision making for their child
• Justification for the student’s placement
• Discipline strategies for the student described in the I EP
• Transition services when the student reaches age 16
• Measures to prevent overidentification of minority students

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What Influences Have Shaped Special
Education?
• Social and political context
• Parent advocacy
• Civil rights movement and current civil rights legislation
• Precedent-setting court cases
• Current general education legislation

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Context for the Development of
Special Education
• Early 1900s: general education for students with mild disabilities
• 1950s: some segregated classes for students with disabilities
– Use of “manual skills” curriculum in segregated classes
– Undesirable outcomes
– Students with disabilities in general education learned more
• Organization of parent advocacy groups
– United Cerebral Palsy, 1949; Association for Retarded Children,
1950; National Association for Down Syndrome, 1960
– Opposed institutionalization of students with significant disabilities
– Focused public attention on needs; lobbied to increase research
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Civil Rights Movement
• Focused on rights of African Americans (1950s and 1960s)
– Brown v Board of Education, 1954, ruling that separate
ersus

education for African Americans was not equal

– Ensured that diverse student groups learned together
– Also influenced thinking about individuals with disabilities
• Recognized violation of rights of students with disabilities
• Effects of precedent-setting court cases
– Basis for key principles of I DEA
– Supports and services provided in general education
– Basis for compensatory and punitive damages paid to
families

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Specific Precedent-Setting Court
Cases
• PA Assoc for Retarded Children v Commonwealth of PA, ersus

1972: Free public education provided to all students

• Oberti v Board of Ed, Clementon School District, 1993: Full
ersus

range of supports/services in general education

• Doe v Withers,1993: Teacher liability for lack of good-faith
ersus

effort
• Endrew F. v Douglas County School District, 2017:
ersus

Ambitious goals and meaningful educational progress for

all students

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Current Civil Rights Legislation
• Laws protect individuals with disabilities from
discrimination
– Section 504 of Vocational Rehabilitation Act, 1973
▪ Applies to public schools and programs receiving
federal funds
▪ Ensures opportunity for full range of school activities
▪ Serves some students who don’t qualify for special
education, such as students with attention deficits
– Americans with Disabilities Act (AD A), 1990
▪ Ensures access to transportation, buildings,
workplaces, communication aids
▪ Protects against job placement discrimination
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Current General Education
Legislation
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act (E SEA), 1965
– Reauthorized: Every Student Succeeds Act (E SSA), 2016
– High quality education for all students, including ones in
poverty
– High academic standards for all students
– State standards for all students in math, English/language
arts, science, and other subjects
– State assessment in academic areas (accommodations
provided)
– State tracking of progress, addressing achievement gaps
– School programs to identify students’ special needs

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Key Themes of Contemporary
Special Education Practice
• Prevention of the need for special education
– Students receiving special education due to gaps in
achievement or social, behavioral, emotional problems
• High expectations and accountability
• Evidence-based practice
• Inclusiveness

[Details of these themes addressed on subsequent slides]

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Prevention of the Need for Special
Education
• Response to intervention (R tI): help distinguish students with learning
gaps from those with learning disabilities
• Positive behavior supports (PBS): early intervention to help students
with behavior problems that interfere with learning
• MTSS: blended system based on principles of R tI and PBS
– Simultaneous response to academic and behavioral challenges
– Universal screening of all students; tiered interventions
• Disproportionate representation: stop overidentifying some
racial/cultural groups for special education
– Historically, high numbers of African American males identified

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High Expectations and Accountability

• Same curriculum, learning opportunities as nondisabled peers

– Common Core State Standards and other standards
adopted by states increase rigor and require additional
supports
– Access often involves UDL (universal design for learning)
• Same standardized assessments as nondisabled peers
– Expectation of academic progress for all students
– Students with significant intellectual disabilities: alternate
assessment
• Teachers held accountable for student performance/progress

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Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)

• Principles of EBP
– Use of high quality research studies as basis for
evidence
– Use of interventions/policies with demonstrated
effectiveness, grounded in research
• Eliminate use of practices based on tradition, teacher
preference, familiarity, or popularity

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Inclusiveness

• Support in provisions of legislation such as IDEA

• Physical integration in classrooms with nondisabled peers
• Social integration with nondisabled peers
• Instructional integration with needed accommodations or
specially designed instruction
• Replacement for mainstreaming, an outdated practice of
placement in special classes most of the school day

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Effectiveness of Inclusive Practices

• Impact of inclusive practices on student outcomes

– Correlation between inclusive education and post-
school success
– Higher rate of passing eighth-grade assessment
– Higher rate of high school graduation
• Parent perceptions: child learns critical social skills;
parents benefit from collaborative decision making
• Greater teacher focus on strategies to enhance skill in
educating diverse students, responding to diverse needs

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Working Together 1.1

• Educators collaborating to meet student needs

– Meeting with special education teachers
– Co-teaching with special education teachers
– Working with paraprofessionals who support students
with a significant disability
– Meeting on teams, discussing needs of students with
disabilities, and engaging in problem solving
– Interacting with parents, collaborating on behalf of their
student with disabilities

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Who Receives Special Education and
Other Special Services? (1 of 3)
13 categories of disability in federal law (I DEA)
• Learning disability (LD) (39.2%): the most common disability
– Difficulty processing information (reading, writing, computing)
• Speech or language impairment (SLI) (17.6%)
– Difficulty receiving or producing language (articulation, fluency)
• Intellectual disability (ID) (7.0%): range of severity of disability
– Significant limitations in intellectual ability and adaptive behavior
• Emotional disturbance (ED) (5.9%)
– Difficulty with interpersonal relationships; inappropriate emotional
responses

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Who Receives Special Education and
Other Special Services? (2 of 3)
• Autism (8.6%): autism spectrum disorders
‒ Range from high intelligence to intellectual disabilities
‒ Difficulty in social responsiveness; require routine
• Hearing impairment (H I) (1.1%)
‒ Partial or complete hearing loss
• Visual impairment (V I) (0.4%)
‒ Partial or complete vision loss

• Deaf-blindness < .05% 

‒ Significant hearing and vision loss

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Who Receives Special Education and
Other Special Services? (3 of 3)
• Orthopedic impairment (OI) (0.8%)
– Impairs movement and motor activities
• Traumatic brain injury (TBI) (0.4%)
– Serious brain injury from accident or injury
• Other health impairment (OHI) (14.4%): cancer, ADHD, diabetes
– Any disease/health disorder that negatively affects learning
• Multiple disabilities (2.1 %): two or more disabilities
• Developmental delay (DD) (2.4%)
– Nonspecific disability; may apply up to age 9

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Understanding Student Needs: Two
Groups
• High-incidence: most commonly identified disabilities
– Learning disabilities, speech/language impairment, mild
intellectual disabilities, emotional disturbance
• Low-incidence: less common disabilities
– All other (less common) categories of disabilities
specified in IDEA
• Focus greater attention on student needs than specific
disability
– Effective strategies increase learning for wide range of
students with disabilities

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Students Who are Gifted or Talented

• Students who demonstrate ability far above average in one

or several areas
– Overall intellectual ability, leadership, academic
subjects, creativity, athletics, visual or performing arts
• Not addressed in federal special education law
• Laws in some states provide guidelines for identifying and
educating gifted and talented students
• Varied levels of support for these students among states
and among districts within states

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Section 504 of Vocational
Rehabilitation Act
• Specialized assistance for some students not eligible
for special education services
• Students with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD)
– Medical condition
– Inability to focus on tasks for long periods of time
– Excessive motor activity and/or impulsivity
• Students with dwarfism, spina bifida, or medical
disorders such as Crohn’s disease

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Students at Risk

• Students whose characteristics, environment, or experiences

make them less likely to succeed in school
• Students whose primary language is not English
– English learners (ELs) or limited English proficiency (L EP)
– Provided English as a second language (E SL) services
• Students whose educational progress is below average
– Have no disability; are likely to benefit from R tI or similar
services
• Students who are homeless or living in poverty

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