Compiled by David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest
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Part 1: These States Are Failing To Follow Disability Law, U.S. Says
Michael Yudin, assistant secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, stressed that (the) … movement toward integration "shouldn't be separate from, this shouldn't be apart from" the general education system, he said. "We have to own these kids. We all have to own these kids."
Joy Resmovits, Huffington Post
06/24/2014 | U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday focuses his quest to improve classroom performance on the 6.5 million students with disabilities, including many who perform poorly on standardized tests.
Duncan, who has spent his years in the Obama administration using accountability measures in existing laws to drive improvements in student performance, on Tuesday joins Michael Yudin, assistant secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, to announce a new framework for measuring states' compliance with the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, the federal law that supports special education and services for children with disabilities. The law originally was known as the Education of Handicapped Children Act of 1975.
Joy Resmovits covers education for the Huffington Post
Part 2: Why Are Huge Numbers of Disabled Students Dropping Out of College?
Photo Credit: Steven Frame via Shutterstock.com
June 20, 2014 | When Andrea Chandler, a disabled Navy veteran, used her GI bill funds to go to college, she expected to graduate with a BA that would allow her to build a career and establish a new life for herself. Instead, she never completed the requirements that would have allowed her to transfer to a four-year college, joining the ranks of the many disabled students who are unable to attain a four year degree—despite the rising number of disabled students entering academia.
Today, an estimated 60% of disabled young adults make it to college after high school, yet nearly two thirds are unable to complete their degrees within six years. Is this the fault of their disabilities, or is something more complex at play? The testimony of disabled students suggests that the problem lies not with their disabilities, per se, but with the numerous barriers they encounter in higher education, from failing to provide blind students with readers, to the refusal to accommodate wheelchair users in otherwise accessible classrooms.
s.e. smith is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in Bitch, Feministe, Global Comment, the Sun Herald, the Guardian, and other publications.
Related:
Colleges are full of it! Thomas Frank, Salon
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Happiness and disability, Tom Shakespeare, BBC News
Surveys reveal that people with disabilities consistently report a good quality of life, says Tom Shakespeare. So why is it often assumed they are unhappy?