Previously, children with special needs were dealt with in one of two ways.  Either they were segregated from the general population, if their needs were so noticeable that they could not operate in a regular classroom, or they were ignored.  The current trend in education is to attempt to identify these special needs and provide any and all accomodations possible to help a student operate successfully in a regular classroom.  The two main mechanisms for this are 504s and IEPs.

Essentially, a 504 or IEP identifies a specific disability that a student has (i.e. dyslexia, ADHD, below grade level reading abilities) and informs the teacher of how to best help the student learn.  Some parents are hesitant to classify their children, and so they shirk from the very idea of creating an IEP for their child.  Others think that these classifications are a type of panacea that will solve all of their child’s problems.  I am here to tell you that there are both advantages and disadvantages to having these classifications, and that it is neither damning stigma for the child nor a cure-all for their troubles.  Read my article at Helium (”Benefits of a 504 plan for children with ADHD“) for a more extensive discussion of my opinions of how such a plan could help or hinder a student.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 7:41 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.