Course 602 Week 2

Course 602

Reflection #3

Last week’s class has broaden my understanding of the rules and regulations regarding the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA). For example, IDEA has a zero reject policy, which guarantees that public schools cannot turn away a student based upon their disability. With the current demand for schools to perform well on different standardized tests, schools would easily turn away students with disability if this policy was not set in place. Another major component of the IDEA that stood out to me is that students with disabilities must receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). This is another area in which I can envision the students with disabilities being rejected if this law was not put in place. Unlike most general education students,

Thus, without FAPE, schools could demand payment and compensations from parents for the extra support they provide to students with disabilities. The nondiscriminatory identification and evaluation is another component of IDEA that intrigued me. To ensure that students are receiving a non-biased, multi-factored evaluation in determining their eligibility for special education services, the parents must give consent and be involved throughout the process. Additionally, the students must receive pre-referral interventions before being referred. That is, the teacher must provide the struggling learner with a high-quality classroom instruction and intervention. Prior to last week’s class, I’ve always thought of the RtI process as a voluntary process. I’ve even read in the textbook for this class (Exceptional Children) that the RtI process was not mandatory in identifying whether a student should receive special education services. Therefore, when my professor proclaimed that the laws of New York require parental consent and