Interesting article/opinion

RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR. THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Special ed as a dumping ground

April 17, 2002

The cool slogan – “Leave no child behind” – doesn’t address the
fact that children are often left behind to languish in special
education classes. It’s a touchy subject that was largely left out
of the Bush administration’s new education reform plan.

Now on its way to implementation on the wings of a 25-city tour
by Education Secretary Rod Paige, the No Child Left Behind Act
promises to make public schools more accountable by requiring
annual tests from third through eighth grades.

But if the administration wants to make public schools more
accountable, the first thing it needs to do is crack down on the
schemes that many employ to avoid accountability.
Independent study, home study and alternative schools are all
innovative ways to sequester and warehouse problem kids
without having to bother with the unpleasantness of teaching
them.

Special education is another such innovation. It took root in
1975 when Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped
Children Act (renamed the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act, or IDEA) requiring public schools to teach
students with disabilities ranging from the emotionally
disturbed to the mentally retarded.

Special education originally served a specialized clientele, but
the floodgates opened in 1991 when the U.S. Department of
Education insisted that IDEA covered students diagnosed with
attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As it happened in the years that
followed, more and more children were diagnosed with
attention-related disabilities.

A study by the Mayo Clinic estimates that 7.4 percent of
school-age children have ADD or ADHD, and the National
Institutes of Health claims that 3 percent to 5 percent of the
overall U.S. population is affected by learning differences.

Little wonder that the last decade was a boom time for special
education – especially since, as with bilingual education, getting
students into these classes is easier than getting them out.
Students can be enrolled on the referral of a teacher; removal
requires a consensus of an Individual Education Program team
consisting of school officials and the student’s parents.

Removals are rare. And that may be because school
administrators have a fondness for special education. After all,
it pays for itself. According to a study by the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., the per-pupil cost of special education classes now stands at more than $12,000, most of which the schools recoup from state and federal government.

It also has not hurt the popularity of special education classes
that they serve as useful dumping grounds for kids with
behavioral problems.

Do the dumped include racial minorities? You bet they do, says
the National Research Council. It contends that more than 14
percent of African-American children are identified for special
education, compared with 12 percent of whites and 11 percent
of Hispanics. And according to Department of Education data,
2.2 percent of black students are identified as mentally
retarded, compared with 0.8 percent of white students.

Some students are mistakenly placed in special education
because schools fail to teach them the basics and then – adding
insult to injury – identify them as disabled because they don’t
know what they were never taught.

Thus the mischievous and the misdiagnosed are mixed with
those who really need special education, those with mental
retardation and other disabilities. The stigma for all concerned is just one reason why, as Paige noted in testimony before
Congress, just one in four special education students in some
states will ever receive a high school diploma.

That’s pretty much what I saw in an earlier incarnation as a
substitute elementary teacher. One day I was assigned to a
special education class. That I lacked training was of no concern
to administrators. In the classroom, I discovered the
educational equivalent of a tossed salad – kids with behavioral
problems mixed with kids with short attention spans and those who were mildly mentally retarded. It is difficult to get any
teaching done in such an environment, let alone any learning.

Congress is now conducting committee hearings on the
reauthorization of IDEA. And President Bush has established a
commission to look into special education. Its report is due this
summer.

Accountability is the new catch phrase. But thanks to the debate
over special education, Americans may discover whether our
leaders even know the meaning of the word.

Navarrette can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

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