My Final Thoughts on Special Education

I’m not an expert. I’m just a college student doing research and making some observations on a topic I’m really passionate about. So it’s hard to say what should come next for special education systems since there are so many variables at play and so much more for me to learn. What I’ve come to at this point is that I don’t think that the current special education systems should be entirely removed from schooling. In fact, I think the opposite in that they should be expanded and better funded to best serve students with disabilities. Nonetheless, I hope that our readers see that there are some serious systemic and functional problems with how special education systems operate currently. Furthermore, there needs to be an institutional shift in the way that special education systems are set up in order to best serve the needs of students.

The biggest problem with the special education system, in my opinion, is the ways in which it limits students as opposed to providing more opportunities for them. This applies to students in a few different ways, from students of color who are pushed into the oppressive system based on racial stereotypes (see Rose’s blog post for more information on this topic), to students whose impairments or official medical diagnoses overshadow their potential as learners, telling them what they can’t do as opposed to what they could do with the right resources. IEPs and special education classrooms as they currently operate have a tendency to hold students back from their true potential based solely on the stereotype that they are “less functioning” or “slower” than their peers, as opposed to providing equal opportunity for them to be as successful as general education students. Expectations are set far too low, which has lasting implications for how students live their adult lives. This is why people with disabilities have lower average levels of education, which leads to their high rates of unemployment and poverty as a constituency (Schur, Kruse, & Blanck, 2013). The stigma around special education classrooms is another aspect of the system that has lasting implications. Removing students from their peers and placing them on a different bus, different lunch schedule, and different class further adds to the “othering” that people with disabilities face. Instead of embracing students with disabilities in the general classroom, students who need accommodations are isolated and made to feel inferior to their general education peers. When we think about special education in this way, as a formative system that has serious consequences on how its students view themselves and their place in society, I think it’s clear how important it is to break down these barriers in education in order to help break down the barriers that disabled people see in their everyday lives.

Once again, this is not to say that special education classrooms should cease to exist. There are many students who have more severe disabilities and do need more accommodations than an aid in a general education classroom can provide. Additionally, the life skills that services like occupational therapy and physical therapy teach are definitely still imperative to providing an equitable education, so I recognize that these separate spaces for certain scenarios are 100% necessary. However, school systems should continue looking for every opportunity to keep children who need accommodations in the general classroom, such as an aid to help interpret for a child with deafness or a behaviorist to help keep a student with ADHD on task. If these types of accommodations are made instead of removing the student from the class all together, the child will likely have a better chance of being properly socialized with their peers and a better chance of getting an education that challenges them and has higher expectations for their future than the stigma of a special education classroom would. The special education system does not have to mean a separate building, classroom, or school entirely; instead, it can mean a system of services that can be implemented in general classroom settings in ways that are just as beneficial to the student’s learning.

I know it’s easy as a wide-eyed college student to say all these things about systemic change. I acknowledge that there are many nuances to the special education system that I am completely unaware of and that might change my opinions or my beliefs about what should come next to improve it. I also acknowledge that I have never been in the special education system and am not a parent or guardian of a child in the special education system who might have a totally different perspective on it. At the end of the day, these are all just my opinions based on my research on the topic and we may disagree on what is needed to improve the special education system. Nonetheless, these dialogues are important to have because, without them, how would we ever progress as a society and uphold the all that IDEA stands for? We can’t make change without opening up a conversation about it and being committed to tackling the problem from all sides, taking into account all the moving pieces and different perspectives people involved may hold. Thus, my final thoughts are not really my final thoughts. I don’t think I’ll ever have final thoughts, because there’s always more to learn and more to improve. So to my readers I say this as my parting statement: Special education systems, while admittedly not set up or carried out perfectly, are imperative to giving every child the opportunity to receive an education. Providing appropriate, public education to all students is a human right that cannot be overlooked, no matter if there’s a pandemic raging or a zombie apocalypse taking over the world. Special education systems cannot be swept under the rug or thought of as a second-rate education; they must be thought of as equally as important to fund, to improve, and to hold high expectations as done in general education classrooms or else their purpose is a disservice to its students. I hope that our analyses will inspire our audience to include considerations of special education when thinking critically about education systems and how they can be progressed in our society.

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References

Schur, L. A., Kruse, D. L., & Blanck, P. D. (2013). Chapter 3: Employment. In People with disabilities sidelined or mainstreamed? New York, NY: Cambridge Univ. Press.