Ethical Issues In Special Education

Will regular education staff and students understand that my child has a disability or will they think they are just behaving "badly"? How will staff be educated to insure my child's "psychological safety"? Will my child receive appropriate mental, health, and behavioral services as provided by the special programs?

The author describes how these concerns may be the reasons behind the choices made by the parents of any E/BD student as to removed their child from the main stream and request their child’s placement to be in a special education setting. During the first IEP meeting, the negotiation strategy used by the school’s officials with the parents was a transactional analysis approach. They

Standard 10 of the Florida Leadership Standards describes the leader’s responsibility, “demonstrate commitment to the success of all students, identifying barriers and their impact on the well-being of the school, families, and local communities”. The barrier that limited Jerry’s achievement was identified by counselors and therapists when he was diagnosed. The ethical approach to limit Jerry’s participation in school activities was to use objective and quantifying data to demonstrate that his exclusion would be in his best interest. The feeling of the faculty should not had been used to decide the placement of a student. His behavior was being used to measure his learning gains. Section 1008.25 (6)(a), Florida Statutes adopted 06-19-01 ordered, “No student may be assigned to a grade level based solely on age or other factors that constitute social promotion” (2001). A school leader must evidence that each student was objectively assessed using methods that would score the student learning gains of the academic standards, not his

The majority of the school personnel who works with the E/BD students lack of a proper training to manage the different situations that could result in a regular or special education classroom. Most educators are not well trained in the class management with one or more E/BD students. Additionally, most of the professionals that are supposed to help these students have a vast number of misconceptions of this type of disability. The faculty did not try to engage Jerry. They did not set realistic expectations with clear learning goals. They must have described the academic standards that the student needed to learn in order to be consider successful. Marzano (2003) identifies the essential steps for a clear action, “identify and communicate the content considered essential for all students” (p.