Summary Of The Seattle Decision On Race And Public Schools

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Barrett, D. E., & Katsiyannis, A. (2008). The Seattle decision on race and public schools: Implications for special education. TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus, 4(6) Retrieved from http://escholarship.bc.edu/education/tecplus/vol4/iss6/art6
In the article, The Seattle Decision on Race and Public Schools” Implications for Special Education by David Barrett and Antonis Katsiyannis the authors give information on why Special Education shouldn’t be used to segregate kids of different races. The purpose of this article was to provide past historical information to support how special education should be implicated. In the first case, the court ruled race couldn’t be the only factor for placing a child at a public school. Petitioners stated that …show more content…

There have been counterarguments such as groups believe their right to self-determination in the area of education is limited. The case of Parents v. Seattle demonstrates the previous statement. Students were subjected to a student assignment plan that used race to determine where the child would go to school. The Court ruled again that this was not fair for the students. According to the authors, a number of educators and academics responded negatively to the ruling of the Seattle case because they felt it harmed the tradition of the integration movement and approach to educational equality. However, the Court really is aiming to elevate individual educational benefits over social gains when considering the education policy. IDEA emphasis the importance of individual educational benefits. The child with disabilities has to receive meaningful services that will help him or her reach his or her potential. The Court has interpreted IDEA as meaning a child with disabilities only has the right to be in a general education classroom if he or she benefits from it more than in another setting and doesn’t disrupt the class. Overrepresentation of minorities in special education can occur. Some people argue special education segregates the students. Having access to educational services isn’t enough. There are different views on the implication of special education, but emphasizing individual educational benefits for all students is a worthy