Peggy and I were involved in an early civil rights, bi-racial group, later it became the Tuscaloosa branch of the SCLC, inspired in part, by Dr. King’s leadership.
That inspiration helped guide us to the successful effort to develop a federal policy embracing “Free, appropriate, Public, Education”, PL 94-142. Federal and State courts found Constitutional bases, (14th Amendment, primarily), for “appropriate” education, which be law meant special educational instruction specifically designed for a given child’s educational needs. (This plan included needed related services, physical, psychological, speech and language, etc.)
The crux of Dr. King’s work was the entrenched system of racial segregation in law, including the “separate but equal” school policy ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court years earlier, (1954).
These worthy causes support each other, but there is a specific requirement in federal Special Education Law, that defines education for children with disabilities, not just inclusion in a classroom, but an Individual Education Plan, developed specifically for a child’s specific educational needs.
Special Education Today Newsletter 2(32)
Peggy and I were involved in an early civil rights, bi-racial group, later it became the Tuscaloosa branch of the SCLC, inspired in part, by Dr. King’s leadership.
That inspiration helped guide us to the successful effort to develop a federal policy embracing “Free, appropriate, Public, Education”, PL 94-142. Federal and State courts found Constitutional bases, (14th Amendment, primarily), for “appropriate” education, which be law meant special educational instruction specifically designed for a given child’s educational needs. (This plan included needed related services, physical, psychological, speech and language, etc.)
The crux of Dr. King’s work was the entrenched system of racial segregation in law, including the “separate but equal” school policy ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court years earlier, (1954).
These worthy causes support each other, but there is a specific requirement in federal Special Education Law, that defines education for children with disabilities, not just inclusion in a classroom, but an Individual Education Plan, developed specifically for a child’s specific educational needs.
Ed Martin