History of Special Education

Students with disabilities like mental retardation, speech and vision problems, emotional and behavioral problems, autism and even those suffering from physical handicaps which include deafness, immobility and others require to be educated in such a way that their own individual needs are taken care of. This is referred to as special education.

When did this Awareness Start?

The awareness of the special needs of children with disabilities started after the Second World War when parents of such children formed groups that advocated the need to pay attention to the needs of their children. The pioneer in this was the American Association on Mental Deficiency which first convened in 1947. A lot of other organizations were also formed which led to increasing access to disabled children at schools at local and state levels. Public Law 94-142 passed in 1975 gave legal support to the states and local areas to protect the rights for meeting the individual needs of children with disabilities and their families. It required public schools to provide learning facilities to all disabled children with the least restrictive environment. The law was renamed as the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act” (IDEA) in 1990 and has been expanded since then.

What does Special Education Entail?

Special education is given by specially trained educators who tailor the needs for each individual as per their disabilities and ensure that they get the same level and quality of education that is given to normal children. Their weak cognitive skills and any learning or reading difficulties are also recognized and the curriculum adjusted accordingly.

The Development of Special Education

In the 19th century individuals with disabilities were sent to residential institutions in rural environments for treatment and elementary education. Most of these institutions had facilities that concentrated on some particular disabilities like mental retardation, deafness, sight impairment and the like. . It was believed that such specialization would enable the right amount of attention to each individual. These institutions became places that ensured complete segregation of such disabled people who were then totally out of normal social life. When laws were made in the early twentieth century, making schooling compulsory for children this enabled such disabled children to move out of the special institutions to join public schools. However school authorities preferred to create special classes for such students which did not allow these special need students to assimilate with the rest of the normal children.

It was only after the 1940s that the need to assimilate these children and treat their special needs by the training of teachers to manage behavior and learning problems was felt. The educators however continued to teach children in different settings from normal schools or even at home. When IDEA became law, it required that each student needing special education be evaluated under an Individualized Education Program or IEP, to assess his or her special needs. Such students were entitled to free public education which became the responsibility of the state. This IEP enables the educators to determine the specifications, goals and objectives of the individual’s education including setting up the length of the school year. Each student was to be trained according to his own individual needs

Special education has been oriented towards training such disabled students to complete their education and obtain placement in careers suited to their disabilities. Its relationship to general education has been controversial and still remains a point of debate. There are educators who feel that such special needs education is a kind of stigma and needs of such children have to be integrated with normal children so that they learn to interact with them in spite of their disabilities. This would help them in their future life when they are in the world of normal people where they would not get any preferential treatment.