Students with Learning Disabilities – School Boards Failing to Meet Educational Needs
School Boards throughout the nation are expected to uphold children disability law and provide students who have been determined to have disabilities with the educational needs that they require to gain adequate and appropriate knowledge. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), U.S. school districts are expected to provide this quality education for students with learning disabilities. IDEA plays a vital role in monitoring how public agencies and states carry out special education, early intervention and various other kinds of important services to over 6.5 million qualified infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities.
A recent Lynchburg News & Advance article discusses a child disability education case in Bedford County, Virginia. Based on the story, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the Bedford County School Board in Virginia did not provide a “free and appropriate education” and failed to meet the educational needs of a former student. This recent ruling is the result of the child’s mother appealing a previous decision at a due process hearing in 2008. Apparently, the Judge recently ruled that the hearing officer in 2008 made a mistake in deciding that the school division had correctly assessed the child with a disability.
As the first time in several years that a special-needs student has obtained a successful case outcome if this kind in the Western District of Virginia, school districts throughout the nation are sure to be reminded of the importance of giving child disability evaluation and educational planning the time and acute attention that it needs. According to the article, the child in this case suffers from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and other disabilities.
Children with specific learning disabilities are entitled to have the same quality education as a student without a disability. If it is determined that a child has unique needs as a result of his or her disability, it is of the utmost importance that school districts uphold their responsibility of ensuring that the child has access to the general curriculum. But this is not all. Special education law provides a special-needs child with curriculum content, methodology or delivery of instruction in a way that meets the specific needs of that child’s disability. While special education services are not required for every child who is determined to have a disability if he or she is able to access the general curriculum with our without accommodations, determining this need is a process that should not be rushed under any means.
