WHAT CAN CAN DO FOR YOU?
What can CAN do for you? No, not the popular dance from the mid-19th century in France. What can the Children’s Action Network (CAN) do for you? The Children’s Action Network of Pennsylvania Association of Council for Exceptional Children and the National Council for Exceptional Children are resources for you to utilize as a member of Council for Exceptional Children.
Each Action Newsletter includes an article from the CAN Coordinator on a topic related to public policy and special education. The goal of these articles is to provide clear information about the subject matter yet be motivational to provoke a response. Please provide feedback if you would like a particular topic addressed in future articles.
As your CAN Coordinator, I am a resource for you as a professional in the field. The goal of the CAN Coordinator is to help influence policy pertaining to students with disabilities locally, across the state, and federally as it relates to issues of public policy. Whether you have a question that needs answering, research to be completed, need assistance in training or tools for advocacy, I am an available resource. Whether you are advocating at a grassroots level for one particular student in your school, a classroom full of students or a larger state or federal topic, I am here to assist you. I can provide you with easy information about how to research and become knowledgeable about topics, how to approach and interact with administrative staff or elected officials and how to built your own network to advocate.
Please feel free to contact me at any time by using the contact information below. Regular updates are sent out approximately once a week about public policy issues, and if you would like to be added to the email list to receive these and other updates, please email me at christabakin@melmark.org about your interest and I will add you to my list.
Below are Internet resources to get started in grassroots advocacy right now:
Pennsylvania CEC website: www.pacec-sped.org. The Political Action center is a resource for information including position papers and articles on topics related specifically to Pennsylvania Council for CEC’s public policy efforts.
National CEC website: www.cec.sped.org. The Policy and Action center is where the Legislative Action Center can be accessed allowing you to directly contact public officials. This can also be accessed through the PACEC site listed above. Without going into a whole informational session on the center, this resource is invaluable for educating yourself on current public policy topics and contacting your elected officials in a simple and easy to navigate way.
As a whole, students with disabilities in this country and those of us who serve them have good reason to count our blessings. Look past all of the public policy rhetoric and political red tape and reflect for a moment with me. The goal of this reflection is to help us appreciate what we have now and strive for more resources and opportunities in the field.
A specific situation has been on my mind since a recent trip to Central America with my wife. We were on a local bus riding towards the border of an adjacent country, three-hours away. This brought us to the more remote and undeveloped area of the country. It was hot, bumpy and dusty on the ride, with people crammed in every open seat and standing in the aisle of this old school bus converted into public transportation. About halfway into the ride, a young boy of about ten got onto the bus. I could tell from the moment he got on that he had some form of disability. From the facial characteristics and general demeanor, it appeared he had Down syndrome with mild to moderate mental retardation. This boy was with his family but was making an effort to be independent of them. He walked past and sat in a seat about two rows behind us. Not wanting to turn around and observe (being the only non-national people on the bus, this would have been very obvious), I just began to think. What was his life like? What was his education like? Did he receive any adaptation or “special education” at his school? What were the opportunities for him this week, next month and five or ten years from now?
I soon was able to observe the boy some more since I gave up my seat for a mother with two small children and stood further back in the bus. I was now behind the row where the boy was seated. He was very quiet and well behaved. He was looking around with interest but not focusing on anything in particular. He played with his book bag on occasion. He opened a bag of Doritos and enjoyed eating them but was perplexed about his cheesy fingers and what he should do with them. Since it was Friday, I wondered why he was not in school like his peers, eating these Doritos at lunchtime. As I observed him more, my curiosity and concern for him and others who had any disability in this country heightened. I had a long time on the bus to reflect that this boy obviously did not have the same opportunities that children in the United States do. The economy of this Third World country was unstable and funding of education in general, especially as it relates to special education, must have been meager at best.
My time of reflection ended that day when I got off the bus near the border. I smiled at the boy as I walked past him, but he was more interested in evaluating his still cheesy fingers than the sunburned foreigner walking past him. After I returned to the United States, I researched special education services in the particular country I had visited, but was unable to find a great deal of information. This led me to believe that the special education opportunities were few and far between. On the government’s website, there was a section for the Ministry of Education and Sports. The Special Education Unit of the Ministry of Education and Sports had a “mission statement,” which stated that the goal was provide students “with special educational needs” the same opportunities to improve independence, skills and educational success. However, I found this information at the absolute bottom of the web page after every other department’s information. Another headline I was able to locate on the government’s site was that “a third workshop” has been held for teachers of students with special educational needs. I am unsure of additional details because the article was in Spanish. However, in a mostly rural country roughly the size of New Jersey with a population of over 250,000, I cannot think that three trainings are enough to serve the students. Without knowing all of the facts or details, I do not want to surmise too much about the state of special education in the country. However, what I can say is that we can be thankful for the resources pertaining to special education that we have available in the United States.
The opportunities that students with disabilities have in this country are far more advanced than a majority of the world, including many others economically developed countries and even other “world leaders.” With the amount of safeguards and funding that students have access to in this country, I hope we never lose sight of the fact that we are truly and unquestionably blessed. This does not mean that we should become complacent and say “thank you” to those in office and roll over. There is a great deal of room for improvement across the educational board in this country. However, let’s not forget that we live in a world where many are less fortunate, whether down the street or across an ocean. I can almost guarantee those of you who are reading this are blessed in comparison to many. So, appreciate all that we have as it relates not only to students with disabilities, but also as citizens of this country. Keep up the good fight for advancement here in our own schools and country. Perhaps if we continue to advance our own special educational system within this country, we will be able to help those with disabilities in other countries.
If anyone is interested in the topic of international special education, please contact me. I would welcome the opportunity expand my own knowledge on the subject matter.
Thank you.
M. Christopher Tabakin
CAN Coordinator
WHERE ARE WE? THE STATE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION 2005
In a time of so many changes, it is often helpful to slow down and reflect on where we have come from and where we are going. One must not linger too long on evaluating the past and lose sight of the future, but reflection is sometimes necessary to propel us forward.
So where are we headed as we go into spring of 2005? We are in the 30th year of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act. It has recently been reauthorized and feedback is being gathered for the regulation process. We are still only approaching 19% of full funding for the excess cost of educating students with disabilities under IDEA. Schools have more money available than ever for special education, but there is not enough to go around because more students are identified as needing services. We have teachers who are excellent at instructing students with disabilities and who have been in the field for years, but now they are being told they are not “qualified” according to the No Child Left Behind law. We have students with disabilities at all levels making true progress, but we do not have appropriate measures to assess that progress. What do we have? We have a dichotomy. We are better off then we were in 1975, but still not anywhere near where the students need us to be. Simply put, we are in flux between an antiquated system and a new idea (no pun intended). We are at a crossroad for special education.
More than ever, concerns and issues related to the education of students with disabilities are in the headlines. There is no shortage of attention being paid to these issues by parents, the general public and legislators alike. This is certainly a good thing. The more public that issues can be, the better the opportunity for us to advocate and fight for what is needed. At this point in time, we are basically at the “fork in the road”. There is a focus on special education but what can we do and what will we do at this time? We have more funding than ever, yet not enough. We need to show honest appreciation while standing our ground that more funding is still needed. We have laws, regulations and reforms, but how can we make them better to truly benefit our students? Again, we need to acknowledge the progress, but fight for more. There is no one easy answer to the question “How do we do all of that?”
At this point in time, we are starting to move our society towards a better system concerning students with disabilities and how they are best served. If we reduce the pressure and become satisfied with the status quo, we will not be successful. Politicians will be perfectly happy riding the tide of the passage of the IDEA 2004. We are at the cusp of a new special education system. I cannot predict what it will look like, but the potential is great. However, the new system could be disastrous for students if we do not push it in the right direction. We need to keep up the fight. We need to work on the areas we have been working on, such as full funding for IDEA and more appropriate qualifications for highly qualified special education teachers. Yet, we also need to see what is on the horizon and begin to proactively approach these areas as well. Please take a moment to stop and look around you, both literally and figuratively. Take a glance at your classroom, the students, the staff and the materials. What is needed and what improvements could be made? Look past the dollar signs; we know that funding is an issue. What else is needed? Do you have qualified staff and ancillary service professionals? Do you have assessment materials to demonstrate progress? Now think about our system outside of the classroom walls. Generally, how does the state stack up? What guidance are the federal government and our state providing for No Child Left Behind and other issues? When we look at where we have been and where we are now, we can often gain meaningful insight into where we need to go. The bottom line is that now is the time to reflect, evaluate, organize, and push the system. This is the opportunity to affect the future. Let’s make sure that we are leading the way in determining when, how, and in what direction the system will go. Advocacy starts with you!
M. Christopher Tabakin,
CAN Coordinator
If you are interested in any issues regarding children with disabilities or if you have a comment about the above information or issues please feel free to contact your CAN Coordinator. Your CAN coordinator is:
2600 Wayland Rd.
Berwyn, PA 19312
Voice: 610-325-2910
Email: CAN@pacec-sped.org
Success Stories for CEC's Annual Budget Book It's time for CEC to begin preparing the FY '07 Budget Book. CEC's annual Budget Book, officially known as the "Federal Outlook for Exceptional Children," is an education tool that our members use with their members of Congress and staff from a variety of federal agencies. If you have a story you'd like to share, click here for details and examples of past stories.
For your ease, letters are already drafted and can be sent from CEC's Legislative Action Center, go to: http://capwiz.com/cek/home/ For more information about these issues, go to CEC's home page, http://www.cec.sped.org and click on Public Policy and Legislative Affairs.
At the Federal level, the US Senate and the House of Representatives are considering bills to fully fund IDEA. The full funding bill, called the "Helping Children Succeed by Fully Funding the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)," changes the funding stream under IDEA from discretionary to mandatory and guarantees that the federal special education funds would increase by $2.5 billion each year beginning in Fiscal Year 2002 until Fiscal Year 2007, when federal funding would reach 40%.
CEC is backing the proposed legislation and has joined a coalition of nine national education organizations to form the IDEA Funding Coalition, with a goal of fully funding the Part B Grants to States Program within 6 years. Members of the coalition include the American Association of School Administrators, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the National School Boards Association, the National Parent-Teacher Association, the Council of Great City Schools, the National Association of Secondary School Principals and The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, along with CEC.
It is important to note, however, that while both bills dramatically increase funds for special education programs and services under Part B of IDEA, they fail to secure increased funding for personnel preparation, research and other national activities that will improve educational services for children with disabilities. The proposed legislation also fails to provide additional funding for pre-school and early intervention programs for infants and toddlers. CEC will continue to work to obtain increased funding for these vital programs.
ACTION YOU CAN TAKE
Urge your members of Congress to co-sponsor bills supporting full funding for IDEA.
Support CEC!!!
CEC's two leadership initiatives, the ASPIIRE and ILIAD Partnership Projects, have a wide variety of IDEA-related information and materials on their website, called the IDEA Practices Web site. Funding for the two initiatives comes from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (Agreement Nos. H326A80005 and H326A80006). The Partnership Projects also receive support from CEC's Association Partners. This rather extensive list is here for you. Click here to see it!
Last Update 7-06