Explain how many children who do not really have learning disabilities end up placed in special education?

Question

Explain how many children who do not really have learning disabilities end up placed in special education?

Answer 1

the schools get alllllloooottttt of money for each child that they have on an IEP (Special Ed). Hundreds of thousands of dollars every year is given to schools, by the government to help these children get a "fair and appropriate education"

Answer 2

Your children don't just end up in special education. You have to sign many papers to allow them to go there. They can only put children in special education if they have been tested for learning disabilities. You should talk to the special education teacher to find out what they are. Parents have to sign a form saying the child can be tested for learning disabilities. You must talk to the special ed. teacher and find out the reasons. You will feel better.

Answer 3

I'm in a study hall for kids who have minor disabilities and you know it's not that bad for me because people with a disability have a lot harder of time doing their work and it's not their fault but I have ADHD and 1 in 5 people are ADD/ADHD and there NOT stupid no special ed kid is stupid because Thomas Edison and Leonardo Divinci and Ben Franklin were dyslexic and they weren't stupid to the least! But ADD/ADHD people get frustrated at get distracted and have a harder time than most kids and they also get confused when there are a lot of directions given at one time. but mental disabilities sometimes aren't even visable or noticeable others are!

Answer 4

because its easier to lump everyone into a single group than try to figure out their individual needs.

Answer 5

I believe that this is one of those things that perhaps at one time may have been true - it is typically not the case now in any place that I am familiar with.  There is specific criteria that a student has to meet and specific ways they have to meet it.  

You cannot just 'put' a kid in special education and for learning disibilities there typically has to be an IQ score in an area - like Math for example that is high or even average - but the students grades and functioning in that area is significanly less than what you would expect with that IQ.

Special education funding is a whole other ball of wax. The federal government indicated that they would pay 40% of the cost of special education services - they have never exceeded 13%.  State funding typically lags behind the actual services by several years and is typically about 60% of the costs of some time 3 years ago - or some other random year.  So you have had to spend the money on aides teachers bussing etc and then the state can change how much you get for services you've provided several years earlier.

It's sort of like buying a car and driving it for 2 years and having the dealer come over and say - oops - that engine doesn't come with the car and take it out and walk away.

Special Education money has to be used for special education services and students - no limos  - no football stadiums.  Matter of fact for every special ed dollar there is likely to be 2 people from the state looking over to make sure you spend that dollar correctly (which is a budget issue in itself)

Answer 6

First of all, the vast majority of students who are placed in special education are properly diagnosed with disabilities.  Saying "many" who don't have disabilities are improperly placed is inaccurate.

Some people have misconceptions about the definition of "learning disability." Basically, a learning disability is when a student with average or above average intelligence struggles in their classroom performance and academic achievement.  Now, it must be stated that this discrepancy between intelligence and achievement can occur because of any variety of reasons (and is often unknown).

Although simple observation indicates that a gifted student and a ld student often exhibit similar classroom behaviors, achievement testing should indicate that the ld student performs below his intelligence level and a non-ld student performs at his intelligence level.  Plus, students who are placed in the special ed program are re-tested at regular intervals.  Fortunately, many students are able to be exited from the program once the student (with the help of specially trained teachers) learns strategies to overcome their disability.

Incidentally, students with disabilities can also be gifted.  

Although there are a few bad apples out there, I'd like to think that the entire team of professionals (and parents) that is required to place a student in special education would not be so incompetent as to place a student in special ed inappropriately.

Answer 7

well, there are 2 ways to look at your question- there are 12 other categories for special education besides learning disabilities.   Although LD is the the one that gets the most attention, there are more kids with speech/language services.  People don't realize these services are granted under Special Education.  Also served under Special Education are deaf/blind students, kids with Other Health Impairments (ADHD, Muscular Dystrophy, Diabetes, Seizure Disorder, etc.).  There are kids with purely emotional issues who may have few cogntive or academic problems, but they have trouble learning due to behavior.  Kids with Traumatic Brain Injuries also can get placed in Special Education.  Kids with the issues I've discussed (and the other areas I haven't discussed here) qualify for special ed if their issues have an adverse impact on their education and they would benefit from services.

Now if you're talking about kids who are misplaced, in my experience, it can be due to the kid having temporary troubles that result in poor academic performance.  I hate when schools test kids who are in foster care, or otherwise going through a crisis.  Many times, the crisis gets resolved, and the students are better able to learn.  It's my hope that the individual attention they got helped them to catch up, but I can't know that for sure.  I've also seen kids placed in special ed who had terrible attendance. Schools are supposed to not place kids who haven't been adequately taught, but that rule isn't clearly defined- thus there is a lot of leeway, and abuse if you ask me.  I just retested a kid who the year before  she was placed, she had been out over 40 days and that doesn't count tardies!  No wonder she had trouble in school- I wouldn't have placed her, but then I wasn't on her team then.  I am now, and she is no longer getting special education services.  A success in my book.  Kids with hearing, vision, or cognitive delays are also not supposed to be called LD, but I've seen that happen, too.  Thankfully not too often!

Edit:  The funding schools get depends on the type of label a child gets.  A kid with Autism will get 4x the funds an LD kid gets.  Even kids with some Other Health Impairments get more cash than LD kids.  So it would be more cost effective to call a kid OHI than LD.  The thing that moderates this is that you have to qualify for special eduation.  Each state sets its own rules as to how any child can qualify, and a lot of states want to keep that number low.  Did you know schools can get fined by the state if they identify too many kids?  They can and do!  In my district, we were fined for identifying too many kids as mildly mentally retarded.  So now it's almost impossible for anyone to qualify under this label.  States also conduct periodic reviews of districts to monitor how many students are qualifying and how.

Answer 8

I would suggest a.d.d. as one cause. Possibly other mental issues as well, such as bipolar disorder. Also, home life will play into this, as a student with no help or support from parents, or in the worst case, students with drug or alchohol dependant parents may not even be able to study, or even care if they do. They just want to be away from a terrible home situation, and the parents probably don't want them around anyway. All these things can make an intelligent child seem like a special ed candidate, just through ignorance. Ignorance is in no way a measure of intelligence, it is simply the lack of education. This often gets confused with a learning disability, especially in overpopulated schools, where they are just another headache to be dealt with.

Answer 9

they are misplaced because of a teacjers bias opinon of them I was stuck in the special education program from 2nd grade to 9th beacuse my 2nd grade teacher didnt like me. now i am in the gifted program, i was just bored in class so she said i was learning disabled

Answer 10

I truly believe that some teachers who test kids, put them there because they feel for them - for whatever reason.  Don't get me wrong placement absolutely must be JUSTIFIED if they don't have the "numbers".  When I taught Spec. Ed. I tested more kids out of the program than in!  The teacher who was there before me "justified" many kids into spec. ed.  Some of the reg. ed. teachers said she had her "pets" I guess whom SHE had tested.  

There are tons of kids who need help in school, but not everyone needs to be in a special ed. program.  I am a little tired of our label-happy society.  Whether it's money-driven or "it's not my responsibility"- driven!

Answer 11

This is only my opinion, but all I have read about this makes sense.

Schools are famous for saying they dont' have enough money to help kids thru special education.



Which doesn't make sense because --

1) the law that mandates special ed, IDEA., states that schools can not use lack of funds as a reason to refuse services.

2) Schools get funds for each child that is in special ed

SO, I believe that they put in the kids who don't really have problems because they dont' have to spend as much money or time on them as they would with kids with real problems.

ANd they get money for each of these children that they don't have to spend it on so they can use it for football fields and  limosine services for superintendents

YES this is really happening!!

Answer 12

While I believe that there are many children placed in special education who do not qualify or belong there, I don't think that LD is the label they are placed under.  To qualify as having a learning disability, there must be a significant discrepancy between the child's IQ and their achievement...this is something that isn't really based on observer judgement.  On the other hand emotional and behavioral disabilities are a bit more subjective and those are the areas where I think children are often placed who do not belong.

***The schools get no benefit from the extra money for special education...that money is spent hiring aides, buying equipment, etc. and they still come up short.