Parents
and teachers struggle to provide education for students with
disabilities
Sunday, October 09, 2005 • By
MEGAN ZARODA • The Express-Times
At 15 years old, the typical teenage girl
would be doodling hearts with boys' names inside, going to
sleepovers and pilfering items from her mother's cosmetic
bag.
But Alaura Mowrey's biggest daily worry
is whether she'll be able to watch Barney, the cartoon
dinosaur.
Alaura, 15, of Lower Saucon Township, was
diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome and multiple physical
disabilities. Due to her handicaps, she functions on the
developmental level of a 6-year-old, her mother, Judy
Mowrey, said.
Down syndrome is caused by an error in
cell division which results in an extra 21 chromosomes that
alter a child's development.
When Alaura reached school age, she was
placed in general education classrooms and received
assistive therapy on the side. As she grew older her parents
realized inclusion was not the best educational option for
their daughter.
"I wanted her to be included all the
time," Judy Mowrey said, "but she was nowhere near a normal
15-year-old and the span was getting wider and
wider."
Alaura was reassigned to a program in
which she spent half of her school day in a regular
classroom and half in a life skills class.
Yet her developmental gap increased again
due to curriculum and social changes, so she moved into a
life skills class full time. Now Alaura is realizing even
those students are different from her.
Because her school district lacks a life
skills program, Alaura is bused to a Wilson Area High School
classroom where she is the only student with Down syndrome.
While the other students have disabilities, Judy Mowrey
said, they look normal to her daughter.
Judy Mowrey said she is thinking about
sending Alaura to a private institution designed
specifically for students with disabilities.
She said that when placed in regular
classroom settings, students with special needs emulate the
behavior of their peers.
And children don't see the disability,
she said. To this day, one girl from her elementary school
days phones Alaura, and the two families have become
close.
As students age, the gap between them
increases academically, socially and physically. This, Judy
Mowrey said, could create stress or angst in students with
disabilities because they realize they may not be able to
perform at the same level.
"The road to go is the way we went," she
said. "We did it slowly, and Alaura was exposed to both
worlds."
Putting it in writing
What enables many parents to tailor an
appropriate program for their disabled children is what
educators call an individualized education program, or
IEP.
It is a written plan for educating a
student who has a disability or is gifted. The plan is based
on individual needs. Collaboration between the student's
parents and educators produces a description of those needs
and an understanding of the special help the child will
receive in school.
"Every child has the right to belong,"
said Donna Hopfsteader, director of speech and hearing at
Pennsylvania's Colonial Intermediate Unit 20.
"You don't just include to include. You
have to ask, how appropriate is it?"
While the primary goal is to include
students with special needs into a regular education
classroom, inclusion is never explicitly stated or required
by federal law. The law does, however, mandate appropriate
inclusive practices and supports, which educators refer to
as the "least restrictive environment."
The phrase refers to the educational
setting in which students with disabilities can receive a
free, appropriate education designed with their needs in
mind. To the maximum extent possible, this goal is to be
pursued in a regular educational environment with
non-disabled peers.
"Least restrictive is a relative term
what's least restrictive for that child?" Hopfsteader asked.
"You start from the assumption they can be placed in regular
education and the child's placement starts and continues on
that continuum."
Barbara Gantwerk, director of the office
of special education at the New Jersey Department of
Education, said the biggest issue facing the Garden State is
to provide the supports needed to include more students with
disabilities into the general education
curriculum.
"The more we can provide access to
general education, the more we will achieve that challenge,"
she said.
Fifty years ago students with
disabilities were shunted off to separate classes or
facilities, Gantwerk said, in the belief they needed
"something entirely different."
Gantwerk says there is now an expectation
that students with special needs will be in every class and
may not be identifiable because they may not be disabled in
a particular class.
"Students with disabilities will graduate
and live in a regular world. That's what the school needs to
be," Gantwerk said.
"You don't want to set up pretend
communities for children in the school."
Gantwerk said that when students with
disabilities are removed from the general education
curriculum, they will fall behind. Therefore, there is a
clear benefit to including them in a regular program rather
than shuffling them into their own classes, she
says.
"We have an over-reliance on
(self-contained) places," Gantwerk said of the New Jersey
school system. "But we're not saying we don't need
them."
According to the National Center for
Education Statistics, about half of all disabled students in
the 2003-2004 school year spent 80 percent or more of their
day in a regular classroom, which was a 5 percent increase
over 10 years ago.
"I don't think there is a type of
disability that is not includable, contrary to what anybody
says," said Gina Scala, chairwoman of the special education
and rehabilitation department at East Stroudsburg
University.
"Kids with disabilities are part of the
typical world. They don't go to special-ed McDonald's or
special-ed movies," she said.
Scala repeatedly insists on the
importance of appropriate support and services. Without
them, she said, educators increase the inappropriateness of
a student's placement in a regular classroom.
"Personally and professionally, everybody
has a chance to succeed. And to succeed with the appropriate
support and services."
Scala said the professors in her
department teach students what the law mandates and how to
use that as a basis for reflective and deliberate
decision-making when it comes to evaluating a child's
placement.
Though inclusion didn't work for Alaura,
Judy Mowrey still supports the practice, especially for
younger children.
"We all learn through observation," she
said. "Keep in mind, it's not any different for
them."
© 2005 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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