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New Reqs For Sped
By Matt Margolis | December 3, 2004
Likely to go unnoticed and unappreciated, President Bush signed two bills into law today worth noting.
The first, is an internet tax ban. This is good news for bloggers and all internet users. The bill, signed today by George W. Bush prevents state and local governments from “taxing connections that link people to the Internet,” from dial-up to high-speed cable connections.
Also signed into law today was a bill updating the requirements for special education. I’ve been outspoken about this, particularly in the past, namely back at the University of Hartford where I dared to suggest that students who had been indiscriminately classifed as “learning disabled” were abusing the “privileges” that were meant to help legitimately LD students. But, that’s a whole other story.
According to the Associated Press, “[a] key provision aims to boost discipline, giving schools more freedom to remove disruptive children if their behavior is not a result of their disability.”
It also seeks more accurate identification of which children have disabilities, earlier intervention for struggling students, and stronger enforcement of how states comply.
More accurate identification sounds good to me. At my alma mater, I knew a number of students who bragged about the benefits they got for being classified as LD, and explainsed just “how it is easy to be tested” for LD. Afterwards, one could enjoy benefits like taking all your tests without time limits, and early registration to ensure you got all the classes you needed wanted — just to name a couple. I on the other hand had to maintain a high GPA to earn the right to register early.
I hope this bill is a step in the right direction.
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December 3rd, 2004 at 10:22 pm
My brother is dyslexic and recieved special education when he was a kid. I personally don’t think many children abuse the elementary system of special education, judging from how most school districts are already cutthroat in limiting the number of kids in it. Chances are some school districts might actually use their new expanded “discipline” powers to discard legitimate cases from their special education programs. It took tooth and nail to get my brother the help he needed, I know from personal experience that there are school districts who just don’t give a damn.
December 3rd, 2004 at 10:42 pm
and then there are some who classify anyone as LD for the increase in funding…
I’m sure there are also plenty of cases like the one you mentioned. I guess there just needs to be a happy medium where people who need it get it and the people who don’t don’t.
December 4th, 2004 at 12:06 pm
But no matter what, there will always be people who need it and don’t get it
December 4th, 2004 at 7:33 pm
Hopefully this also means that schools can’t putz around so much and screw up services for (real) LD students. (personal gripe)
I also really dislike the kids who “fake” LDs for the advantages you mentioned. They’re an insult to all those of us with LDs, who need things like extra time to try and be on a level playing field.
One often reads about how wealthy parents are doctor shopping to get their kids LD classifications for their standardized exams (SATs/ACTs)…those people really suck.
As an individual with an LD and who is very familiar with working with LD students, I think this is a step in the right direction.
December 5th, 2004 at 9:09 am
the dutch have the right idea we should do it here too.
if you eliminate the deminted, retards and freaks you will have no conservitives or republicans
December 5th, 2004 at 11:08 am
Um Yeah your a fucking idiot.
Your lauding something morally reprehensible and correlating political beliefs and disabilities to a person’s rights as a human being.