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The road to this classroom was rocky, however. Mark’s battle began when his family moved to Loudoun County, Va. There he was allowed to join a regular classroom, but the aide the school supplied had no special training, and the teacher received no help in modifying her curriculum or making other adjustments that would help Mark learn. The results were predictable, say Mark’s parents.
Both the Hartmanns and the school agreed that Mark wasn’t making much progress and that his tantrums were disruptive to other students. But where the Hartmanns saw a child frustrated by inadequate services, the school district saw a child who belonged in a class with other autistic students. Convinced that a special education setting would deprive Mark of intellectual and social growth, the Hartmanns refused to allow the shift. Loudoun County responded by suing them.
Rather than acquiesce, the Hartmanns split their household in two. Mark and his mother now spend the school week in Montgomery County, Va., where the school system is committed to including children with disabilities. After years of legal wrangling, the case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Mark didn’t fail at his Loudoun County school,” says his mother, Roxana Hartmann. “It was the school that failed him.”
A commitment to inclusion
The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) could help Mark’s case. Signed into law last June, the amendments to IDEA promote a new commitment to inclusive education.
“The research suggests that children with disabilities who are integrated into regular educational settings perform better educationally and socially than children who aren’t as well integrated,” says Tom Kubiszyn, PhD, APA’s assistant executive director for policy and advocacy in the schools.
As part of the move toward inclusion, IDEA now requires that regular education teachers participate in the teams that develop the individualized educational programs (IEPs) that guide disabled children’s education, whether that education is provided in regular or special education settings. And regular and special education teachers alike must implement behavior plans that the teams incorporate into IEPs for children whose behavior disrupts their learning or that of others.
The amendments to IDEA also shift the legislation’s emphasis from service provision to outcome measurement, says Kubiszyn. Schools must not only provide services but must prove that the services are effective. That new emphasis on evaluation has some practical ramifications, he notes. Once exempted from annual standardized tests, students with disabilities must now undergo the same sort of evaluation that other students do. And they must now receive report cards just like everybody else.
Problem points
The law has some worrisome points, Kubiszyn added. For example, the proposed regulations allow paraprofessionals to provide school psychological services once provided exclusively by psychologists. Although the proposed regulations require these paraprofessionals to be “appropriately trained and supervised,” the requirements for training and supervision are left undefined for both the paraprofessionals and their supervisors.
The rules regarding discipline are also problematic, says Kubiszyn. The good news is that the reauthorized version of IDEA reaffirms the law’s commitment to “free and appropriate public education” (FAPE) for all children with disabilities by no longer allowing schools to use cessation of services as a discipline option. It also requires schools to determine whether or not a student’s rule-breaking is related to his or her disability.
The bad news? According to Kubiszyn, the hearing officers conducting these so- called manifestation determinations may not have the information they need to make appropriate decisions about the relationship between disability and rule- breaking behavior. And the rules about discipline are extremely complex and subject to interpretation, adds Kubiszyn.
Whether good or bad, IDEA’s changes spell new opportunities for psychologists. For one, psychologists may now be more involved in developing the behavior plans teachers must now implement for disruptive children, says Cathy F. Telzrow, PhD, professor and coordinator of the school psychology program at Kent State University. Because psychologists are experts in shaping behavior, they can play a key role in helping teachers implement IEP directives.
Psychologists can also help teachers overcome any personal barriers they might have that affect their ability to educate children with disabilities, including belief systems, affective issues and other psychological issues.
The new requirement that students with disabilities participate in district- and statewide assessments also offers new opportunities for psychologists, says Telzrow. “Our role might be to think about what kind of alternative assessments should be developed,” she says, noting that school districts and states must develop alternative assessments by 2000. “We have to be very cautious about how we design our ruts, because we’ll be in them for a long time. We have to do it in a way that really makes sense.” she says.
The law’s new requirement that parents participate as members of teams evaluating their children for service eligibility also opens up new roles for psychologists, says Telzrow. Although she is pleased by the potential for collaboration, she worries that parents and educators’ differing worldviews may make it hard for them to participate as co-equals. Psychologists, she says, can offer their skills in interpersonal relationships and their insights into how to make schools truly inviting places for parents.
Randy W. Kamphaus, PhD, who worked with APA to help get the IDEA amendments passed, is excited by the prospect of psychologists helping to put the law into action.
“Psychologists are increasingly looking toward the consultancy model,” says Kamphaus, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Georgia in Athens. “The changes in the law give us an unusual opportunity to impact many children by influencing one of the most important caregivers in their lives.”
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