ADA, IDEA, Section 504, and ESSA

What is ADA?
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individual with disabilities in ALL areas of public life. This includes jobs, schools, transportation and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of this law was to give individuals with disabilities access to employment opportunities, public services on a state and local government level, public accommodations and services, and telecommunications. The two key principles of this law include protection from discrimination and general access.

What is IDEA?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides all students with a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) regardless if they have a disability or not. Part B services under IDEA are available to children with disabilities from age 3-21. Part C services under IDEA are available for children from birth to 2 years 11 months. To be eligible for services under IDEA, the child must have one of the thirteen specified disabilities mentioned in the law. 

What is Section 504?
Section 504 is just one section in the Rehabilitation Act which is a civil rights law. This section covers all children who are not covered and protected under IDEA. In the school setting, students would be eligible for a 504 plan that offers accommodations to provide the needed extra support in the general education classroom, if they are not eligible for services under IDEA. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) expanded and broadened the rights under Section 504 to prohibit discrimination for individuals in all agencies and businesses.

What is ESSA?
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This is a main education law that was created to provide every student in every state with a quality education by holding each states more responsible for how they were educating their students. 

Why is knowing and understanding these laws important when working with children, students, and families?
As a future special education teacher, I need to know and understand these laws so I provide each of my students with specialized and unique education to meet their individualized needs. As an educator, these laws will impact everything I do in the classroom, talking with administrators or parents of students. Since I will be the expert in my field for the whole school it is up to me to know and understand what these laws are and how they impact my position. I will also need to know and understand these laws to answer questions from parents who are not as familiar with the laws and the rights they have under these laws. 

HIPAA and FERPA

Hello again! It has been awhile since I have posted anything on my blog. To recap, I am currently a student at Brigham Young University-Idaho (BYU-I), and will graduate December 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Special Education.

As a new semester has started this week, I have been asked to share my thoughts on topics I have been learning and studying each week. This week I have studied two important privacy acts known as HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and FERPA (The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). These are some of the laws that many have heard about or are very familiar with if you work in a medical or educational field.

The question posed this week was, "Why is knowing and understanding these laws important when working with children, students and families?".

Both of these laws have to deal with the privacy, access and security of either medical or educational records. As a future educator, it is very important for me to know and understand these laws because I will be working with children of all ages with different disabilities. It is important for me to know and understand these laws to make sure that I guard and keep all medical and educational records private and secure so I don't get in trouble and penalized. Not only is it important to do but it is also the law so there is no excuse for not implementing the set procedures in the classroom. Abiding by these laws also increases trust and strengthens the relationship between educators or medical personnel and students, children and their families. Without these laws, I think that people would be more judgmental and discriminatory towards others because they would have access to all their information to laugh at or make fun of. These laws provide that much needed element of privacy and security so individuals can keep their educational and medical records private.  

Exceptional Students

What a great semester! I have really grown a lot as a person and as a student. I have learned so many new and interesting things that I am excited to try out in my future classroom.

The most important takeaway from my Exceptional Students class is that we are all children of God and that is made manifest in different school practices. I have gained a greater appreciation for how much patience and sacrifice teachers give to their students. I have been able to reflect on my own teachers and the qualities that they possess that I want to have. I am reminded that each student is different in many ways and it is my privilege to teach them.


 

  

Student Behaviors and Visual Impairments

This week has been a crazy and extremely busy one. To sum it up...it is finals week. It has been hard but it has also been very rewarding. This past week I have learned many different strategies on how to help students manage their behaviors in the classroom. There are also some things that teachers can do to help their students.

One strategy that I think is important to use is positive reinforcement. This can help a student to keep them from displaying inappropriate behavior. This can also help to let the student know that they are loved and valued. I also think that this strategy is a good self-esteem booster.

Also during this week, I was able to complete the last simulation for this class. I had to wear different glasses to experience how it would be to have a visual impairment. It seemed quite easy as first but once I got started my perspective quickly changed. I got frustrated very easily because I couldn't see very clearly. My perception was very different. At one time I almost dropped a cup full of water because I couldn't quite tell where it was. This whole experience was very difficult but it made me more grateful for the eyes that I have and it allowed me to experience what it feels like for someone who does have a visual impairment. This will help me to be able to meet the needs of students with visual impairments in my future classroom.

 

    

How to Evaluate Student Learning

In my Exceptional Students class this week, I learned about a few different ways to evaluate student learning. The most common way to evaluate student learning is through testing. This will work for some students but for others it doesn't work as well.

Another way to evaluate student learning is through performance-based assessments. This type of assessment provides the student with the opportunity to demonstrate their mastery of a skill through the performance of doing a task. This task could be putting together a puzzle, growing a plant, or being able to match the word of an object to the picture.

This has really helped me to see how I can fairly evaluate the learning of my students. I will definitely be applying and using these two methods of evaluation in my future classroom.

I also completed another stimulation for this class that involved asking some questions to different people without using words that contained the letters "l" and "n". It was very hard to talk without using these letters. I had to really think and concentrate on what words I was saying. It also took a lot longer to ask my whole question. Through this experience I have realized that there are many words that I use all the time that contain these two letters. 

 

How to Differentiate Instruction in the Classroom

This week I was able to learn about how to differentiate instruction in the classroom to meet the different needs of the students. This lesson made me really appreciate all of the hard work that teachers, especially special education teachers, do to make sure that all of the students in their class are learning the lesson content.

Here are some suggestions that I found to be very helpful that I am going to apply to my future classroom:

• introduce new content and/or skills at a slow rate
• model the assignments so the students know what is expected of them
• provide lots of opportunities for practice and review
• create simple study guides, concept maps and diagrams
• use cue words and definitions or help with memory and retention
• give instructions orally and have them also written down for easy access

I believe that by implementing these suggestions I will be able to help each one of my students to succeed in the classroom and throughout the rest of their lives.

Looking Past the Phyiscal Disabilities

This week my eyes have been opened to many new and insightful things. It has been a crazy week with a lot going on but I have managed to get everything done that I need to get done.

The first eye opener is that I realized that the students in my future classroom might not have physical or identifying disabilities. I don't know why I never realized this before this week, but somehow it happened. When I think of my future classroom as a Special Education teacher, I think of students in wheelchairs, students who have limited use of their limbs, or students who are unable to talk and/or communicate. My view changed because I was able to learn that not all students who have a disability are in wheelchairs, many times their disability is not seen. What a mind blowing week this has been for me!

The second eye opener that I experienced this week is that I got the opportunity to spend a few hours in a wheelchair. I had certain tasks that I had to complete while in the wheelchair. It was very difficult. I could not go upstairs, I could not reach anything on the top shelf, and it was very difficult to maneuver the wheelchair out of tight corners. I gained new insights into what the world looks like from a wheelchair and a greater appreciation for my brother Jacob, who is in a wheelchair. His life is hard because of all of the things that he cannot do, due to being in a wheelchair. I was truly humbled by this assignment and am grateful for all of the things that my body can do.