INTRODUCTION
After years of effort by lots of different people, many pieces of
legislation were passed in an attempt to get appropriate services
in the public schools for children with disabilities. This manual
was developed around the laws and their procedural safeguards,
yet recognizes that laws, in and of themselves, do not change
attitudes. People change attitudes.
Children with disabilities have as many and varied gifts,
strengths, skills and weaknesses as anybody else and need to
belong, to be taught and nurtured so that these strengths,
skills, gifts, and even weaknesses can grow, develop and change.
This manual attempts to provide you with information about the
laws that may be useful to, and supportive of you in your effort
to advocate for your child’s right to a free and appropriate
public education. There are names, phone numbers, and addresses
of people and agencies who may help you in your efforts. There is
also a list of resources and some ideas that may be useful as you
try to achieve an inclusive education for your child.legislation
were passed in an attempt to get appropriate services in the
public schools for children with disabilities. This manual was
developed around the laws and their procedural safeguards, yet
recognizes that laws, in and of themselves, do not change
attitudes. People change attitudes.
Children with disabilities have as many and varied gifts,
strengths, skills and weaknesses as anybody else and need to
belong, to be taught and nurtured so that these strengths,
skills, gifts, and even weaknesses can grow, develop and change.
This manual attempts to provide you with information about the
laws that may be useful to, and supportive of you in your effort
to advocate for your child’s right to a free and appropriate
public education. There are names, phone numbers, and addresses
of people and agencies who may help you in your efforts. There is
also a list of resources and some ideas that may be useful as you
try to achieve an inclusive education for your child.
More than that, this manual has tried to share with you the
spirit behind the legislation. Our federal government has
expressed repeatedly, through laws and case law, the preference
that there be one education system that values all students. They
have further expressed a strong preference that the regular
classroom in the neighborhood school should be the first option
for educating students with disabilities. It is up to all of us,
as a community, that administrators and teachers receive the
information, training, and help they need to make this option not
only the first considered, but the best and most successful, as
well.