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The Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education (CORE) has published a new article entitled “Decoding the Impact of the Supreme Court Decision on Special Education”, which sheds light on the most important aspects of how educators can better understand the Supreme Court’s decision on special education and how it applies to them as educators and in their classrooms. Educators, special education educators, and other interested individuals can view the full article at https://www.corelearn.com/special-ed-blog/
The article includes several interesting pieces of information, one in particular is that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) established a substantive right to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for children with disabilities but did not establish a standard for determining whether such students are receiving sufficient educational benefits; however, the Supreme Court’s recent decision establishes such a standard.. This should be of particular interest to educators because the court determined that the standard for students with learning disabilities must exceed “de minimis” which means “so minor as to merit disregard”. As stated by the Supreme Court’s ruling, an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) “must be appropriately ambitious in light of [the student’s] circumstances, just as advancement from grade to grade is appropriately ambitious for most children in the regular classroom. The goals may differ, but every child should have the chance to meet challenging objectives.”.
One of the most important pieces of information the article tries to convey and communicate is with this new ruling by the Supreme Court it is more important now more than ever that educators and special education educators are receiving appropriate and relevant professional development services that will enable them to teach students with disabilities and help them achieve the goals set out by the IEP. The best example of this is perhaps found in the following extract:
‘Because of the Supreme Court’s ruling, districts will want to equip special education and regular education teachers with the skills and knowledge to be able to teach all students to a higher level. This will require better and deeper professional development in evidence-based teaching practices, including the best practices to remediate children with disabilities and to prevent learning difficulties from becoming entrenched. It will require selecting and fully implementing the best curricula for all students as well as the most effective materials for teaching students already identified with disabilities. Finally, teachers, both general education and special education, need to have appropriate tools to screen children and to regularly monitor their progress and response to interventions.’
In discussing the article’s creation, Linda Diamond, Founder at CORE said:
“As a professional development learning organization, all too frequently we see that special education teachers are left out of professional development. And what development is provided is short term, not deep and usually does not include ongoing coaching, reflection or study. This is a tall order but desperately important. If districts do not take this ruling seriously or sideline parent advocates, I fear that many more districts will face lawsuits demanding tuition reimbursement for private schools. It is useful to note that the Common Core State Standards and most state standards demand rigor. Now the Supreme Court is ruling that rigor is not just for regular education students.”
Regular readers of CORE will notice the article takes a familiar tone, which has been described as ‘relevant and informative’.
CORE now welcomes comments and questions from readers, in relation to the article, as they are intent on interacting with readers and building an environment where the free flow of ideas can be developed and enjoyed. The reason is simply because they believe this is a way to ignite the most productive discussions on the topic that will only benefit students.
Anyone who has a specific question about a past, present, or future article can contact CORE via their website at https://www.corelearn.com/
The complete article is available to view in full at https://www.corelearn.com/special-ed-blog/.
Release ID: 311952