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I am providing this Special Education Legal guide from the professional perspective of a school counselor in the K-12 field of education.  This guide is intended as a resource for teachers.

I chose the topic of special education due to my son.  He has sensory processing disorder and has been in special education in one form or another since preschool.  The one thing I wish I would have had from the beginning was a guide.

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Special education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability (34 CFR §300.39).

Essentially special education is specialized instruction that is created for students with  specific needs.  This is offered at no cost to parents  and the instruction is individualized to each student's specific needs.

Special education is important in the school counseling.  Their are times when a school counselor will need to access a students behavior and determine if that student needs to be referred to a professional for a possible disability.  A school counselor will also needs to provide support to their special education teachers, faculty, administration, and parents through the forms of knowledge and resources.

An emerging issue in special education is inclusion. Inclusion is about what time is given to special education students to be a part of general education classes. The debate is that some believe inclusion works and is necessary. While others believe it is a detriment to general education students and should not be done.

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National Association of Special Education Teachers is a website that provides information and resources for special education teachers.  It is a national membership organization that promotes professional development of special education teachers.

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This article is about:
- How the number of special education teachers is declining.
- The ratio of special education  teacher is now higher than the overall student/teacher ratio.
- Their is also a quality shortage of teachers
- Districts are turning to alternative-certification programs

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The number of special education teachers nationally has dropped by more than 17 percent over the past decade, a worrisome trend in a career path that has seen chronic shortages for years.

An analysis of federal data by the Education Week Research Center shows that while the number of special education teachers was dropping, the number of students with disabilities ages 6 to 21 declined by only about 1 percent over the same time period. And as a whole, the number of teachers in all fields has gone up slightly over the past decade, as has overall enrollment.

For the 2015-16 school year, which offers the most up-to-date data, there was one special education teacher for every 17 students with disabilities. That's more special education students per special educator than the overall teacher-student ratio, which has held steady at about 1 to 16 for the past decade.

Shortages Effects on the Ground

So how does this play out at the school level?

For Allison Oliver, a positive behavioral specialist for the 30,000-student DeSoto district in northern Mississippi, the shortage meant that during her time as a classroom teacher, she was responsible for classes of 18 middle school students with a spectrum of disabilities. Teens with emotional or behavioral disturbances, specific learning disabilities, or physical disabilities would all be in one class.

"Our numbers were packed," said Oliver, who was a paraprofessional before entering the teaching field.

From her perspective now as a person who works among several schools, Oliver said the problem isn't getting much better. "I have some teachers who are very strong special education teachers, but they get dumped on a lot. They get all of the severe children. They get all of the severe paperwork."

Angela Holstedt, a special education teacher in Wyoming who teaches in the early-elementary grades, worked in an elementary school where high numbers of elementary students would enroll or leave the school during the year. She said her caseload could sometimes swell to as many as 25 students, and she was also in charge of conducting academic evaluations for incoming students with disabilities.

This year she moved to a new district and a new school. The number of students she works with has been cut in half.

"It's a strange sensation for me this year, having a more reasonably sized caseload instead of just feeling that I'm overwhelmed," Holstedt said.

The shortage of teachers is only a part of a multifaceted problem. Walter Smith, the director of special education for the 3,900-student Elizabethtown Area district in Pennsylvania, said he has to scramble to find substitute teachers for special education classrooms.

"The sub pool is so small, and they can pick the [Advanced Placement] classes or the regular ed [classes]," Smith said. "They're making sub pay-why wouldn't they pick the easier gig?"

This situation stands in sharp contrast to previous years where the sub pool included prospective teachers, he said. "We had subs champing at the bit, trying to prove themselves, trying to get hired."

The employment figures come from federal data collected from every state. Personnel data is not required from the states in the same way that federal law requires other data, such as a count of children served and their disability categories. However, the data has been collected since 1976, and includes the number and type of personnel employed under the IDEA and whether those personnel are fully certified or qualified in their field.

The numbers can be used to study national employment trends. However, anomalies in the data make it challenging to make state-to-state comparisons, because the number of special education teachers reported in some individual states fluctuate dramatically from year to year in ways that are not fully explained. States and the federal government offer different explanations for why their personnel numbers have so many aberrations.

Quantity and Quality Shortages

Data problems aside, the federal statistics show that there's not only a shortage of teachers to contend with, but that there's also a "quality shortage." That term, coined by researchers, occurs when a relatively high percentage of special education teachers in a state are not fully qualified.

Nationally, over the past five years, on average nearly 95 percent of special educators have been identified as highly qualified. But in some states that number is much lower. In Kansas, for example, only around 70 percent of its special education teachers are classified as highly qualified. Colleen Riley, the state's director of special education, confirmed the figures, and cited the pressure of decreased school funding as one factor that makes it difficult to find highly-qualified educators.

"When funding is reduced, there are increased demands in every part of the educational environment and these demands are challenging for teachers," Riley said.

Leaders of teacher-preparation programs, those who have studied personnel shortages, and educators themselves cite additional factors when asked about the shortage: For example, fewer young people, particularly women are interested in entering teaching at all, let alone special education.

"The perception of education has changed so drastically. It's not really viewed as the profession that it once was," said Brittany Bales, a former special education teacher who is now a lecturer at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. and a member of the Muncie district school board. And special educators are a tiny slice of a shrinking pie: In 2015-16, only 7 percent of teachers who earned bachelor's degree in education majored in special education.

To lure people into the field, Ball State is asking its special education teacher candidates why they wanted to make that their focus. Universally, they say they have had direct experience with people with disabilities, either through their own families or through mentorship activities in their K-12 education, Bales said. So, the university is sending packets of information back to those high schools to share with their students, in an effort to keep those pipelines open.

Training and Retaining

Many districts are also turning to alternative-certification programs, which get teachers in front of students while they are earning their special education teaching credentials. The need is clear: Of public schools that said they had teaching vacancies, about 31 percent said they found it very difficult or were not able to fill their special education spots. That compares to 9 percent who said they had similar challenges filling general elementary spots. Only physical science and foreign language spots were identified as harder to fill.

Timothy A. Slocum, the head of the special education department at Utah State University in Logan, noted that the university's alternative-certification program has 47 students, the same as students enrolled in its traditional program.

The program is by no means an easy path for prospective special educators, he said. "It's a terribly difficult thing for the teachers to be in a special education classroom with no training and no idea of how to do that-and not only to navigate that but to be in a university classroom as well."

The university is revamping its offerings so that teacher candidates can take a blend of online courses where they can study on their own, and courses where they have direct, real-time interaction with an instructor.

Loan forgiveness or free tuition for special education majors might be one way to draw more people to the field, Slocum said, and he's working with state legislators to put such a program in place.

"Policywise it seems fairly simple to me," he said. "If you have the commitment you could just turn that on."

And just as important as maintaining a pipeline into the classroom is holding on to the teachers that districts already have, through thoughtful mentorship and professional development opportunities, said Bonnie Billingsley, a professor of education at Virginia Tech who has studied special education teacher retention. Special educators often feel they don't have enough support from administrators and colleagues. They also say they don't have the tools they need to do their jobs, or the physical space to do it.

Such problems are not universal, Billingsley said, but they come up frequently enough to put a pall on the profession. Principals and district administrators need to start thinking, "what can I do to make special education teaching a better experience in that school?

"I think these are all well-meaning people, but it may not be on their radar," Billingsley said.

Published in Print: December 5, 2018, as Shortage of Special Educators Adds to Classroom Pressures

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Shortage of Special Educators Adds to Classroom Pressures

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The number of special education teachers nationally has dropped by more than 17 percent over the past decade, a worrisome trend in a career path that has seen chronic shortages for years.

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This article is about:
- Inclusion and the arguments for and against it.
- The cost of inclusion.
- Research that inclusion works

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Opinion

Inclusion is not the same as thoughtlessly integrating disabled students without support

Students with disabilities face substantially increased rates of abuse and restraint in schools. As an education and disability advocate seeking to change that, I frequently encounter well-meaning arguments for separating higher-needs students from the general population.

Many parents and teachers express sympathy, yet also a desire to keep certain groups of students away from the general population for a variety of reasons.

"Is mainstreaming special needs kids a good idea if it prevents the other kids from learning?"

"And what were the 20-something other kids in the room doing when the teacher was spending most of her time attending to your special-needs child?"

"It's too bad the other children are the ones who lose out when special-needs kids are mainstreamed. This story is all well and good, but it means that this woman's child got way more than the other children did in terms of support and attention."

These are the types of comments found in parent forums and in response to articles about autism and other disabilities in the classroom. And they are echoed by teachers who are facing poorly integrated classrooms with strong behavior challenges. Resistance to inclusion itself as a practice remains entrenched.

Many teachers and parents do not know the pedagogy behind inclusive instruction. Inclusion is not about throwing disabled children into general education classrooms without support or tools and leaving teachers to clean up the resultant chaos. Schools don't meet anyone's needs when they integrate thoughtlessly.

They also do not meet the legal requirements defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which guarantees all children the right to free appropriate public education. That includes education for disabled students in the least-restrictive environment possible-not segregated and sequestered away from their peers.

It might be less convenient at first for teachers and students (and parents) to learn about and embrace the disabled student populations at their schools. But there is no inherent right to be free from inconvenience. Perhaps it's time to look more closely at why we as educators and parents are demanding that to begin with.

Inclusion, by definition, involves carefully assessing a child's needs and then implementing a strategic plan to support that child within the general classroom setting. This is done by a special education team, rather than one general education teacher. The team offers options such as teacher training, team-teaching, pushed-in special education instruction, classroom accommodations (a standing desk, computer workstation, etc.), an interpreter, or a classroom assistant added to the room for portions of the day.

My son is autistic, and he has an assistant in his mainstream classroom to support him and several other students as needed. The rest of my son's accommodations rarely affect his classmates at all. He uses a keyboard to write, he meets with the school counselor when he's overwhelmed, and he has social-skills mentoring. The staff at his school meets and works together, mainstreaming children of all abilities. Test scores and academic achievement remain strong, even with a push-in of students from a countywide behavioral program for students with significant emotional disabilities. The general education students are doing great!

Cost is frequently at the heart of arguments against inclusion. It does take money to adequately support special needs students in mainstream classrooms, of course. It costs significantly less to push an assistant in and offer training, however, than to create a separate classroom with a special education teacher or place a child in a specialized private school.

The cost of time is more significant. Inclusion requires teachers, schools, and entire school systems to commit to the model. It requires training and a general overhaul in perspective-about the role of education and the inherent value of each child and his or her learning experience-disabled or not.

However, inclusion is best practice for disabled and non-disabled students alike. Studies show that when inclusion is done well, the whole class benefits. It doesn't take away from one group to focus on another-quite the opposite. It enhances the ability of non-disabled kids to cooperate, work together, understand and value different perspectives, think critically, and even test well.

Yes, research indicates that a majority of general education students test the same or better on standardized tests when they are educated in the same classroom environment as their disabled peers. Classrooms that have several unsupported students with severe behavioral disabilities are the exception. But diagnoses like this are rare, and added supports for those students seems to be key.

When supported and given adequate training and tools, teachers in inclusive classrooms understand and instruct a variety of learners, individualizing instruction to meet the needs of all learners better. Students have varied needs and strengths, whether disabled or not. Teachers in inclusion settings learn to address this and teach better because of it.

Empathy-which cannot be measured quantitatively-matters, too. How children view peers who look and learn differently from themselves is also a consideration as they grow to adulthood and become members of their communities, and as they live and work alongside a diverse array of citizens. It's a critical factor in whether communities and workplaces are able to function and thrive.

Finally, and most importantly, disabled students can achieve. Their talents and gifts are varied, as are the talents and gifts of all students. They are legally entitled to an appropriate public education, but they also have so much to offer their non-disabled peers, teachers, and schools.

Inclusion works when educators collaborate, get the support they need, and believe in the value of all students. It's time for schools and teachers to reevaluate their long-held biases, and it's time to address the initial financial investment required for training and staffing. It's also the law.

Inclusion is the least expensive, most effective method of teaching students. It starts from the top, with administrators making this a priority. When administrators model inclusivity and support teachers in its implementation, the entire school (and school system) culture changes. Test scores are rarely negatively impacted and often go up. More importantly, children become better citizens.

Inclusion is best practice. It is also, quite simply, the right way to teach.

Published in Print: May 8, 2019, as What Students With Disabilities Deserve

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Students With Disabilities Deserve Inclusion. It's Also the Best Way to Teach

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Opinion Students with disabilities face substantially increased rates of abuse and restraint in schools. As an education and disability advocate seeking to change that, I frequently encounter well-meaning arguments for separating higher-needs students from the general population. Many parents and teachers express sympathy, yet also a desire to keep certain groups of students away from the general population for a variety of reasons.

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Constitution Law: The Children with Specific Learning Disabilities Act is passed by Congress.  This act was established to provide support to students with learning disabilities (Pub. L. 91-230).

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DEFINITIONS

Sec. 602. [20 U.S.C. 1401]

* * * * * * *

(3) Child with a disability.-

(A) In general.-The term "child with a disability" means a child-

(i) with mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional disturbance (referred to in this title as "emotional disturbance"), orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities; and

(ii) who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.

(B) Child aged 3 through 9.-The term "child with a disability" for a child aged 3 through 9 (or any subset of that age range, including ages 3 through 5), may, at the discretion of the State and the local educational agency, include a child-

(i) experiencing developmental delays, as defined by the State and as measured by appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures, in 1 or more of the following areas: physical development; cognitive development; communication development; social or emotional development; or adaptive development; and

(ii) who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.

* * * * * * *

(A) In general.-The term "related services" means transportation, and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services (including speech-language pathology and audiology services, interpreting services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, including therapeutic recreation, social work services, school nurse services designed to enable a child with a disability to receive a free appropriate public education as described in the individualized education program of the child, counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation and mobility services, and medical services, except that such medical services shall be for diagnostic and evaluation purposes only) as may be required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education, and includes the early identification and assessment of disabling conditions in children.

(B) Exception.-The term does not include a medical device that is surgically implanted, or the replacement of such device.

* * * * * * *

(29) Special education.-The term "special education" means specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including-

(A) instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and

(B) instruction in physical education.

* * * * * * *

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Sec. 602. [20 U.S.C. 1401] * * * * * * * (3) Child with a disability.- (A) In general.-The term "child with a disability" means a child- (i) with mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional disturbance (referred to in this title as "emotional disturbance"), orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities; and (ii) who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.

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Statutory Law: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is renamed and amended.  This act ensures students with disabilities are provided with free appropriate public education that is tailored to their individual needs (Pub. L. 101-476)

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Individuals with Disabilities Education Act​

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The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was originally called the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (EHA). President Gerald Ford signed the legislation with the goal of […]

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Judicial Law: Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children vs. Pennsylvania.  In this case the court ruled that mentally retarded children are entitled to free public education (PARC v. Pennsylvania).

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Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania | The Public Interest Law Center

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In 1971, we brought the seminal lawsuit Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the first right-to-education suit in the country, to overturn that Pennsylvania law and secure a quality education for all children.

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Administrative Law: Individualized education program team or IEP Team means a group of individuals that is responsible for developing, reviewing, or revising an IEP for a child with a disability (34 CFR § 300.23).

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The Special Education Information Center (SPEDTex) works collaboratively with stakeholders to provide resources and facilitate collaboration that supports the development and delivery of services to children with disabilities in our State.

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Keller ISD provides a special education quick reference guide for parents who suspect their child may have a disability.  This guide gives a basic breakdown of the steps Keller ISD will take in this process. ( US Department of Education, H328M150022 (PATH), H328M150023 (PEN), & H328M150024 (TEAM) ).

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ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors - A.10. Underserved and At-Risk Populations  g. Recognize the strengths of students with disabilities as well as their challenges and provide best practices and current research in supporting their academic, career and social/emotional needs.

A school counselor needs to provide the opportunity and support for ALL students to be successful. A school counselor needs to be able to equip faculty, staff, administration, and parents with knowledge and support that will also allow them to provide the same to their students.

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This website provides information, resources, and support to teachers and families. It also provides a zip code locator to provide a list of local resources.

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Looking for an organization or website to provide you with more information on a special education or disability topic? Start here!

Support Organizations for Families

The Federation for Children with Special Needs ( http://fcsn.org/index.php)
The Federation for Children with Special Needs provides information, support and assistance to parents of children with disabilities, their professional partners and their communities. We are committed to listening to and learning from families, and encouraging full participation in community life by all people, especially those with disabilities.

Family Voices ( http://www.familyvoices.org)
Family Voices aims to achieve family-centered care for all children and youth with special health care needs and/or disabilities. Through our national network, we provide families with tools to make informed decisions, advocate for improved public and private policies, build partnerships among professionals and families, and serve as a trusted resource on health care. For example, since 1982, Support for Families of Children with Disabilities has offered information, education, and parent-to-parent support free of charge to families of children with any kind of disability, concern, or special health care need in San Francisco. Support for Families is the coordinating office for Family Voices of California, a statewide collaborative of locally-based parent-run centers working to ensure quality health care for children and youth with special needs.

Assistive Technology

Learning Disabilities

Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Autism Spectrum Disorder/Pervasive Development Disorder

Communication Disabilities

Visual Impairment

Brain/Spinal Cord Injury

Epilepsy Foundation ( http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/)
The mission of the Epilepsy Foundation is to stop seizures and SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy), find a cure and overcome the challenges created by epilepsy through efforts including education, advocacy and research to accelerate ideas into therapies.

Teacher Resources

DREAMMS for Kid( http://www.dreamms.org/)
DREAMMS for Kids is an Assistive Technology information clearinghouse and search facility. Founded in 1988 by the parents of a child with Down syndrome, DREAMMS (an acronym for Developmental Research for the Effective Advancement of Memory and Motor Skills), is committed to increasing the use of computers, high-quality instructional technology and assistive technologies for children with special needs in schools, homes and the workplace.

Legal/Advocacy Information and Resources

National Disability Rights Network ( http://www.ndrn.org/index.php)
Every single day, our Network protects and advocates for the rights of people with disabilities across the United States and the territories. We fight to end abuse and neglect where we find it. We assist people in finding and keeping their jobs and work with kids, parents and schools to combat bullying and ensure educational opportunities for students with disabilities.

Wrightslaw ( http://www.wrightslaw.com/)
Parents, educators, advocates and attorneys come to Wrightslaw for accurate, reliable information about special education law, education law and advocacy for children with disabilities.

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Special Education Resources and Links for Parents and Teachers

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Looking for an organization or website to provide you with more information on a special education or disability topic? Start here! The Federation for Children with Special Needs ( http://fcsn.org/index.php) The Federation for Children with Special Needs provides information, support and assistance to parents of children with disabilities, their professional partners and their communities.

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13. Recommendations / Best Practices for Compliance

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13. Recommendations / Best Practices for Compliance

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- Equip yourself with as much knowledge as possible..
- Stay up to date on issues, trends, techniques, new technology, and resources.
- Be familiar with the federal law, local law, and school policies on special education.
- Be able to provide support and resources to faculty, staff, administration, and parents.
- Know your limitations in  accessing a students needs and refer to a professional as needed.
- Ensure that ALL your students are provided the opportunity to be successful.