Have you ever heard the phrase that a teacher is the single greatest ingredient in the recipe of success for a child? Well, this cliché is absolutely true; and the role of a teacher is even more paramount for a child with a disability! Based on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), children with disabilities must receive specially designed instruction to address their unique needs that result from the disability and to ensure access of the child to the general curriculum so that the child can meet educational standards that apply to all children. What is specially designed instruction? How do you determine the "unique needs" of the child? What does it mean to ensure access of the child to the general curriculum?
In order for a child to be identified as having a disability, data must document that the disability has an adverse educational impact. The disability must impact the child in such a way that individualized needs and deficits have to be addressed to ensure access to the curriculum. Specially designed instruction is an adaptation of content, methodology, or delivery of instruction and must be tailored to meet the child’s needs. The most salient point some people tend to forget is that identifying a child with a disability is not an automatic waiver of the grade level expectations of what a child must know and be able to do. More importantly, federal regulations provide protection to make certain that students with disabilities can access the general curriculum with the appropriate supports. Think about the students with disabilities for whom you provide instruction and consider the following questions. How do I specially design their instruction? Do I know the unique needs of each child as outlined in the present levels of performance in the Individualized Education Program? Am I providing supports to enable each child to work toward educational standards for age appropriate peers, or am I providing supports to work exclusively on deficits and needs? These rhetorical questions are a great foundation to start critical conversations about what is really "special" in special education. A plethora of root causes may result in students with disabilities not performing well in a particular school or district. However, if the "special" part of "special education" is missing, then this a great place to start!
