Editorial: ‘Writing Off Disabled Children’
August 9th, 2008From the editors of the New York Times:
Many of America’s juvenile jails would be empty if the public schools obeyed federal law and provided disabled children with the special instruction that they need. Instead, these children are allowed to fall behind. When they act out, they are often suspended or expelled, which makes them more likely to commit crimes and land in jails where they can count on even less help.
A report from the Texas Youth Commission’s ombudsman says more than 40 per cent of the students in juvenile custody in the state have disabilities. Yet the Texas juvenile justice system provides virtually no special education services to those children.
The legislature should require localities to provide students with the special education services that they are entitled to under federal law, “instead of just dumping them onto streets,” the editors say. And the juvenile justice system must provide educational services as well.
Texas has both a moral and legal obligation to remake a system that is crippling, then writing off, the state’s most vulnerable children.
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on Saturday, August 9th, 2008 at 7:34 am and is filed under IDEA, NOT2BEMISSED, commentary, learning disabilities, special education.
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August 16th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
can you make a global warming editorial?♥♥♥♥
August 12th, 2008 at 7:43 am
I haven’t seen the film but am so disappointed that the simple jack character is in anyway associated with the film. Judging from the previews, the film looks plenty funny without that character; I’m just so disappointed.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:25 am
In Youth with Disabilities in Juvenile Corrections: A National Survey (2005) the authors conclude that the number of youth in juvenile corrections receiving special education services is almost 4 times higher than youth in public school programs. The authors also indicate that there is a huge degree of variability in the kinds and quality of services provided between states.
Quote:
Presently there is very little prevention research that examines the vulnerability and needs of youth with disabilities. The high rates of incarceration among this population should serve as a wake-up call to public schools and community-based programs that a disproportionate number of youth with educational disabilities are in juvenile corrections. Similarly, there is a dearth of empirical research on effective education practices and outcomes for adjudicated youth (Nelson, Leone, & Rutherford, 2004). Without an adequate knowledge base, developing and sustaining practices that promote higher levels of academic and behavioral competence will be extremely difficult. Finally, with high rates of rearrest and recidivism, studies of transition and aftercare of youth with disabilities should be a primary research focus (Bullis, Yovanoff, Mueller, & Havel, 2002).
It sounds to me like Texas is making a start in answering the wake-up call. What about the other 49?
Citation:
Youth with Disabilities in Juvenile Corrections: A National Survey Journal article by Mary Magee Quinn, Robert B. Rutherford, Peter E. Leone, David M. Osher, Jeffrey M. Poirier; Exceptional Children, Vol. 71, 2005