All students, including those with disabilities, have a legal right to an appropriate education. Each of us has a moral obligation to create an inclusive classroom.
Halloween with VPF (Credit Voorhees Pediatric Facility Facebook)
I have been volunteering at the Voorhees Pediatric Facility (VPF) weekly since they reopened their doors to volunteers in July 2022. Since 1982, VPF has been a program for medically fragile children (birth to age 21) and has grown into a nationally recognized pediatric specialty care center that offers 119 in-patient beds and the largest freestanding pediatric ventilator program in the country. One of the programs under the VPF umbrella is The Bancroft School at Voorhees Pediatric Facility, an onsite private school for medically fragile/technology dependent children. More about VPF here.
It’s incredible that The Bancroft School at Voorhees Pediatric Facility educates 65 students aged 3-21 with a 35 member staff! The ultimate goal is reentry of the students into the home or community. The Bancroft School is a private school, but I wonder: what about families who can’t afford a private education? Does the Americans with Disabilities Act protect and provide for the education of those with disabilities? No, the ADA aims to protect the rights of adults with disabilities, but there is a law that guarantees an education to students with disabilities. Congress enacted the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142), also known as the EHA, in 1975. It guides states and localities regarding the rights, needs, and optimal outcomes for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities and their families. This landmark law became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in a 1990 reauthorization. According to this and other laws, “disability” is a natural part of the human experience. Disability cannot impair the rights of individuals, including the right to education. Providing education, and improving educational results for children with disabilities is an essential element of our national policy (More on that here). IDEA makes appropriate public education available to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children. IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and other related services to more than 7.5 million (as of school year 2020-21) eligible youth with disabilities. Infants and toddlers with disabilities, and their families, receive early intervention services under IDEA Part C. Children and youth ages 3 through 21 receive special education and related services under IDEA Part B.
Additionally, IDEA authorizes grants for a wide array of services, technology and access related to education. IDEA was again reauthorized in 2004 and updated in 2015 (IDEA).
Tr. Matthew Sharp, Head of Haddonfield Friends School
To understand how families in America afford private education at a medical facility, I interviewed the Head of Haddonfield Friends School who, prior to coming to HFS, was the Principal of Bancroft’s Early Intervention Program in Cherry Hill, NJ. According to Tr. Matthew, students with disabilities are educated without cost to their families. In the state of NJ, there is a list of “Approved Private Schools for Students with Disabilities,” and if a public school can’t properly educate a student, the student’s home school district will pay a daily rate to one of these approved private schools. This allows the student to be both educated at the private school, as well as receive door-to-door transportation (University of Akron).
Equal access to education of global importance. According to a study done by the International Labour Organization, countries lose 3-7% of their GDP by excluding people with disabilities from their workforce. Comparing global data on educational views for this blog post proved difficult. Some of this difficulty is due to the fact that only 21 countries collect data on chronic illness and disability. Also, the definition of disability varies between countries, and sometimes disabilities are not reported due to cultural discrimination.
One country excelling in education outcomes for people with disabilities is Finland. In Finland, the educational system aims to optimize learning for all students, regardless of ability status. All Finnish schools have a special education teacher who works part-time with about 23% of the students. They also utilize a “large team” which includes: the principal, school nurse, special education teacher, school psychologist, social worker, and classroom teachers. This group meets bi-weekly to discuss students’ progress, which optimizes outcomes and demonstrates a prioritization of this group of students. Educating people with disabilities leads to better access to healthcare, better employment and greater awareness of their rights.
But what about in the classroom itself? There must be something each of us, as global citizens, can be doing to create equal access. As I wrote this blog post, I was forced to answer some challenging questions about my language. Is “disabled” a politically incorrect word? Is the term “differently-abled” preferred? What about “handicapped”? Words matter. Inclusive language combats ableism, a misguided and biased understanding that the life of those without disabilities is not worth living. I think reviewing inclusive language gives every student the power to challenge their implicit biases, and fashion a more inclusive classroom. Below is a worldwide guideline I found that I invite everyone to use.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities set the following communication standards that we should aim to follow:
- Use people-first language (person with a disability as opposed to disabled person/handicapped)
- Avoid labels and stereotypes (don’t use terms like brave or survivor, it’s patronizing)
- Make sure to acknowledge disabilities and make disability inclusion a priority
- Do not use condescending euphemisms (differently-abled is problematic because we are all differently-abled)
- Disability is not an illness or problem
- It is not something that someone suffers from
- Use proper language in written and informal speech
- When in doubt, ask the person or group how they choose to identify
How do you think that students with disabilities should be included in educational systems around the world?
Works Cited:
US House of Representatives. “Public Law 94-142.” Govinfo, 29 Nov. 1975, www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-89/pdf/STATUTE-89-Pg773.pdf. Accessed Nov. 2022.
“A History of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.” Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, 18 Nov. 2022, sites.ed.gov/idea/IDEA-History. Accessed Nov. 2022
“Children With Disabilities.” Theirworld, 4 Aug. 2022, theirworld.org/resources/children-with-disabilities. Accessed Nov. 2022
The Price of Excluding People With Disabilities From the Workplace. 1 Dec. 2010, www.ilo.org/skills/pubs/WCMS_149529/lang–en/index.html. Accessed Nov. 2022
Rueckert, Phineas. “7 Reasons Why Finland May Be the Best in the World for Education.” Global Citizen, 8 Feb. 2018, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/finland-best-country-in-the-world-education. Accessed Nov. 2022
United Nations. “Disability-Inclusive Language Guidelinges.” Ungeneva, www.ungeneva.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/Disability-Inclusive-Language-Guidelines.pdf. Accessed Nov. 2022.
