Paper Example on Legislative Policy: Individual with Disability Education Act

Introduction

The selected legislative policy is the Individual with Disability Education Act (IDEA). This is a social justice policy that calls for schools to provide educational requirements to eligible students with disabilities (Lipkin & Okamoto, 2015). Basically, all schools in all parts of the nation are tasked with the responsibility of finding and examining students believed to be having disabilities. All this should be carried out at the cost of the state and federal governments, that is, the cost should not be transferred to parents. Furthermore, the Individual with Disability Education Act offers protections and rights to learners with disability together with their parents.

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Generally, the Individual with Disability Education Act was created in 1975. During this time, it was referred to as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. There are two primary purposes for the creation of this policy (Lipkin & Okamoto, 2015). The first purpose is to offer children with a disability a free appropriate public education (FAPE). Once disabled learners are identified, schools in all states, such as Texas are required to offer them special education as well as other related services, such as counseling and speech therapy, in order to meet distinct needs of learners. The main objective of doing this is to enable children to make progress in school.

The second purpose is to provide parents with a voice when it comes to the education of their children. According to the Individual with Disability Education Act, parents have a say regarding the educational decisions made by schools when it comes to their children. Additionally, parents are given specific protections and rights at every point of the process. These are referred to as procedural safeguards. For instance, one specific safeguard is that the approval of a parent has to be obtained before the school decides to provide a certain service to a child.

Related Issue and its Relevance to a State

All schools, irrespective of the state, have to adhere to the Individual with Disability Education Act. However, the Department of Education found that Texas had gone against this special education law. According to a 15-month investigation, the federal authorities arrived at a conclusion that schools across Texas had broken the law by intentionally denying and delaying students special education services (Ayala, 2018). This happened because of the State's dereliction of duty. It emerged that students were denied special education services by the state so as to enable it to avoid state scrutiny and stay under perceived enrollment caps.

In essence, the Individual with Disability Education Act states that all children eligible for special education have the federal right to get it. Texas, being among states governed by this policy, should have provided eligible students with a special education. However, this never happened when it came to the case of Texas. There was an arbitrary number set by the state. Enrollment of students requiring special education was to be kept at 8.5 percent (Ayala, 2018). When this was implemented, the number of students that could get special education services was limited. All the districts that went above the specified rate were to be penalized. Throughout the United States, about 13 percent of learners are identified as requiring special education. This figure is more in some states. The requirement by the state meant that many students requiring special education will be left out of state and federal programs. Those left out of the program could receive the services only if their parents took care of the costs on their own.

Another problem that the state did is that it failed to satisfy its "child find" responsibilities, which is required by the federal law (Kamenetz, 2018). According to this responsibility, all schools are to determine and reach out to children who require special services. Hundreds of thousands of learners have been denied special education services in Texas since the 8.5 percent benchmark was introduced (that is, in 2004). Examples of these learners are those with mental health issues and English-language learners.

In the beginning, many people thought that the 8.5 percent benchmark was introduced by the schools. However, according to the Texas School Alliance, Texas Association of School Administrators, and Texas Council of Administrators for Special Education, they were operating as per the requirements of the Texas Education Agency and state officials. Schools were pressured to implement the 8.5 benchmark. According to Kamenetz (2018), the enrollment rate was reduced because of rising costs attributed to special education services and accomodation. Houston-area school administrator argued that schools tried to do what is right for learners requiring special needs, but the state officials always pressured schools to ensure that special education enrollment was kept down. There are some schools that tried to help learners with disabilities, even if it meant they were to conflict with the state.

This social problem of children being denied special education services was brought into the attention of the United States Department of Education. This happened after the Houston Chronicle reported the matter. The report stated that many children had been denied special education because of a policy introduced by the state (8.5 percent enrollment cap). In 2004, that is, before the introduction of the enrollment cap, there were 11.6 percent students enrolled in the special education program. On the contrary, the figure dropped to 8.6 percent in 2016 (Ayala, 2018). Many people and organizations have tried to speculate how the cap started. According to the Texas School Alliance, the cap started after the 2004 interim House report, which examined some special education issues, such as cost containment. The report stated that the manner in which the school finance system of Texas encouraged over-identification of learners with special needs was being reviewed because districts are getting more state funds for educating these students. Therefore, the policy of the enrollment cap was adopted as a result of this discussion.

Generally, schools are tasked with the responsibility of providing students who qualify special education services or accommodation without imposing any maximum value on the number of students to receive the support. Compared to other states, Texas has removed the accountability measurement. This makes it base the assessment solely on special education enrollment. The state needs to do what is carried out by other states. For instance, there are states that have reviewed their own programs. This has made it possible to determine stumbling blocks various families get. Currently, there are states that have determined the language to be among the major barriers. As a result of this, the states are trying to assist families that speaking Spanish to have increased access to services. Disability rights advocate now argue that the state has violated the rights of children requiring special education service (Jansson, 2014). They believe that the best plan for moving forward is to come up with a system that determines children who should have been provided special education services or accommodations, but was denied.

Other Relevant Laws

There are other several relevant laws that may be involved when it comes to the idea of special education services. This means that there are other legislative policies relating to the IDEA. The first policy is the Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA), which was introduced in 2015. This law calls for equal access to education and the creation of accountability and high standards. Moreover, the law tries to do away with the achievement gaps present between learners through ensuring every child gets equal and fair opportunities to attain an exceptional education (Rothman, 2018; Umpstead, Decker, Brady, Schimmel, & Militello, 2015). The law creates new mandates on requirements and expectations for learners with disabilities. The law further states that different assessment methods should be used for learners with severe disabilities, such as cognitive disability.

The other law that relates to this case is the Individuals with Disability Act (ADA). This law was passed in 1990. "According to the ADA, discrimination against people with disabilities is discouraged in all places of public life, such as schools, transportation, jobs, and all private and public places" (Mascarinas & Blauwet, 2018, p. 371). The aforementioned places are open to the general public. The ADA has the objective of making sure that all individuals with disabilities get the same opportunities and rights as everyone else. All the learners in Texas should have access to fair and appropriate education. The 8.5 percent enrollment cap limited the number students who were to access special education services.

How to Deal with this Legislative Policy Issue

The major reason why Texas introduced the enrollment cap was due to rising cost related to special education services. As earlier stated, there was the problem of over-identification of students. Most of the students who were given qualifications were those from minority tribes.

The best solution to this problem is to clearly define IDEA as well as its elements. The problem of eligibility can be determined through examining the thirteen disability categories that the act covers. Not all students with attention and learning problems are eligible for special education provided by the Individual with Disability Education Act. These categories are deaf-blindness, autism, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, multiple disability, intellectual disability, traumatic brain injury, orthopedic impairment, language or speech impairment, other health impairment (such as ADHD), visual impairment (such as blindness), and specific learning disability (such as dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and dyslexia) (Lipkin & Okamoto, 2015). An individual who has any of these 13 disabilities should require special education so as to make progress in class.

Once all the 13 categories are clearly defined, then the other important thing to do is to follow the six major principles of the Individual with Disability Education Act. The first principle is free to appropriate public education. The IDEA calls for the provision of a FAPE. The second principle is an appropriate evaluation. Schools are required to carry out appropriate evaluations when it comes to determining learners with disability. The third principle is the individualized education plan (IEP). The IEP is written an IEP team, and assists learners get access to a FAPE. The fourth principle is the least restrictive environment (LRE). This principle calls for placement of learners in a general education setting that enables the learners to participate effectively. The fifth principle is parent participation. Approval of the parents has to be obtained when it comes to placement and LRE. The final principle is the procedural safeguard. These safeguards are to help parents and learners enforce their rights.

References

Ayala, M. (2018). State, not schools, denied kids special ed services, Texas administrators say.

Retrieved from https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2018/01/16/kids-denied-special-ed-services-states-dereliction-duty-not-schools-texas-administrators-say

Jansson, B. (2014). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice. California, 7th Edition Brooks/Cole.

Kamenetz, A. (2018). Department Of Education Finds Texas Violated Special Education Law.

Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/01/11/577400134/texas-violates-federal-law-education-department-finds

Lipkin, P. H., & Okamoto,...