Report Says More Inclusion Needed ~ Progress Seen In Special Ed,

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Hawke wrote: Report Says More Inclusion Needed ~ "Progress Seen In Special

Ed," Hi Wilbur, Found these two articles interesting since our Florida DOE ESE MH Rule change is about to have a new name change...to Intellectually Disabled (ID). I have listed the direct links and also copied/pasted the articles below. Please pass this on as I know MANY families raising children with Down syndrome will agree with much of what these articles have to say about the 'R' word today! Advocacly yours, PODS

Angels Down Syndrome Support www.podsangels.org http://blogs.courant.com/news_opinion_hunter/2007/01/the_r_word.html January 08, 2007 The 'R' Word A

Madison reader wrote in response to the story "Progress Seen In Special Ed," published Jan. 4: "As a parent of a beautiful, bright, 7-year-old child who happens to have Down syndrome, I read with interest your article pertaining to the PJ settlement. Our son is a member of that class, as he is intellectually disabled. Our son is not mentally retarded. The term 'mentally retarded' is archaic. It denotes something very negative and is used and viewed in society in a demeaning and hurtful way. Not all people with Down Syndrome, are 'mentally retarded,' nor are all people who are intellectually challenged. "Further, there is drafted legislation in the State of Connecticut to eliminate the 'R' word from Department of Mental Retardation, specifically because of the hurtful nature of this word. In the future, when referencing our children, or people

with intellectual disabilities in general, please refrain from using such a widely known hurtful term meant to portray a population in an ugly way. Ironically, your usage of the term 'retarded' describes the underlying, fundamental spirit behind the entire PJ lawsuit, which you were attempting to report about. "This is not about being 'politically correct.' It's about describing accurately a group of people with respect and dignity." It should be noted that The Courant's stylebook continues to state: "Avoid general terms such as the retarded or retardate in favor of people with mental retardation or mentally retarded people." http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-inclusion0104.artjan04,0,7502437.story Progress Seen In Special Ed Report Says More Inclusion NeededJanuary 4, 2007 By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer Since a court settlement opened regular classrooms in Connecticut to hundreds of special education students, the number of mentally retarded children in regular classrooms has tripled - increasing to 34 percent since 2002, a state report says.Those numbers include children such as

12-year-old Hultgren, who has Down syndrome and had been placed in a separate class as a first-grader but has been in regular classes since then. He now is in sixth grade at the Dag Hammarskjold School in Wallingford. "Without that [legal settlement], would not be where he is today," Hultgren, his mother, said. "It was not easy at first, but through hard work on the part of the school and ...[he] is extremely successful."The numbers, however, fall short of goals recommended by an expert advisory panel established under the court settlement - and much remains to be done, three members of that panel told the State Board of Education Wednesday."We are particularly concerned about the number of school systems that are not making progress," said W. Alan Coulter, a professor at the

Louisiana State University Medical Center.The settlement, which is limited to mentally retarded children - also referred to in the case as intellectually disabled - was the result of a lawsuit, P.J. vs. State of Connecticut, filed by a West Hartford parent.Educators across Connecticut are still adjusting to the ramifications of a 2002 court settlement that requires the state to ensure compliance with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act - a law requiring schools to educate students with disabilities in regular classrooms whenever possible.Coulter, along with two other panel members - Indiana University education Professor Leonard Burrello and University of Kansas disability specialist Wayne Sailor - said that some school districts have made progress, but others have felt threatened by the settlement and have resisted.In one case, Coulter said, a superintendent "basically told me you can't tell her what to

do."Coulter praised the state's effort to offer technical help to school districts and urged state officials to use what he called "woodshed meetings" to prod lagging districts to comply with the court settlement.The panel also said that some barriers continue to hinder efforts to bring more disabled students into the mainstream, including the existence of separate programs for disabled students operated by regional education service centers, such as the Capitol Region Education Council in Hartford.However, that criticism is a "gross misunderstanding" of the role of those centers, said Bruce , the council's executive director.The agency, said, does provide some separate services for profoundly handicapped children, "but the majority of the time, children are in the mainstream school."His agency operates under strict guidelines of the court settlement as monitored by the state, said. Shaw, the

attorney who represented P.J., said that intellectually disabled students historically were the most segregated of all children with disabilities - initially committed to institutions and later admitted to mainstream schools but segregated in special classrooms. The settlement calls for integrating the students in regular classrooms with appropriate support to ensure their success.However, since the settlement, suburban schools have done little to integrate the youngsters while large, urban districts, under pressure from the state, have dumped children in regular classrooms without training teachers or giving the students the support they need, Shaw said."You have teachers being confronted with students with a broad range of disabilities that they don't know how to deal with," Shaw said."If they get the support they need, the children are typically satisfied and the teachers are satisfied."That is what happened in Hultgren's case, his

mother said."He's learning what all the other children are learning, and he is ... completely accepted for who he is. He has a lot of friends," she said. "It's the teachers who rolled up their sleeves and made it happen."Contact A. Frahm at rfrahm@....Courant Staff Writer Gottlieb contributed to this story. __________________________________________________