Children with Disabilities and Assessment Issues

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Children with Disabilities and Assessment Issues

• Tiffany Bolen
• EDF 435

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The Defining Aspects of Special Education

• Special education involves providing a free and
  appropriate education for every child with
  disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21,
  regardless of how serious the disability may be.
• This is know as the Public Law 101-476, now
  commonly know as the Individuals with
  Disabilities Act (IDEA).

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The following requirements are mandated by the
IDEA

• All children with disabilities, ages 3 through
  21, have the right to free and appropriate
  education.
• All children with disabilities have the right to
  the least restrictive environment. This means
  that children with disabilities should be placed
  in the most normal setting as possible. They
  should be mainstreamed or placed in the regular
  classroom whenever possible.

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• Each child with disabilities should have an
  individualized education plan (IEP) written by a
  multidisciplinary team composed of the classroom
  teacher, the special education teacher, the
  school psychologist, and the childs parents.

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• All assessments used to measure, diagnose, or
  place children with disabilities must be free
  from racial and cultural bias.
• Children with disabilities will be identified
  through psycho-educational evaluation composed of
  a series of appropriate assessments.

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• The final decision for placement in a special
  education program will not be made until after a
  thorough evaluation. This decision for placement
  will be made by a multidisciplinary team composed
  of teachers, administrators, school
  psychologists, and the parents.

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Special Education Categories

• The different categories of children with
  disabilities have changes since the inception of
  Public Law 94-142. In particular, the growth of
  the category of children with learning
  disabilities if frequently noted.

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• Learning disabilities now account for over half
  of all special education placements.
• Speech impairments account for nearly 20 percent
  of all placements.
• Mental retarded account for 11 percent of all
  placements.
• Emotionally disturbed account for 8 percent of
  all placements.

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• These four categories account for nearly 90
  percent of the 5.5 million children who receive
  special education in the U.S. schools
• (U.S. Department of Education, 2000)

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Assessment and Diagnosis of Children with
Disabilities

• It is important for regular classroom teachers to
  understand the different assessment criteria used
  to diagnose students.
• It is even more important for teachers to be able
  to detect any signs of disabilities, particularly
  in the areas of learning disabilities, emotional
  disorders, and ADHD.
• Regular classroom teachers often initiate the
  process for detecting, assessing, and referring
  these categories of children with disabilities.

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Standard Deviation and Special Education

• Many state regulations for determining who
  receives special education are based solely on
  standard deviation scores.
• Generally, IQ scores that are two standard
  deviations below the mean or lower are a
  diagnostic sign of mental retardation.

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• On the Wechsler test battery, this would be an IQ
  score of 70 or lower.
• Based on the normal curve, the percentage of the
  population that will score 70 or less is
  approximately 2.5 percent.
• On the Standford-Binet, the cut off score is 68
  or two standard deviations below the mean.

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• In determining if a child has a learning
  disability, a frequently used diagnostic sign is
  a one standard deviation or greater difference
  between the Verbal and Performance parts of the
  WISC-III.
• For example, if a childs Verbal score is 84 and
  his Performance score is 107, it could be
  indicative of a language-related learning
  disability such as dyslexia.

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The End!

• Any Questions?

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