Educational Reforms and Special Education. Education Essay

Educational Reforms and Special Education
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Educational Reforms and Special Education
For many years, people with special needs have been treated differently by the general public. There are incidences where people with special needs have been discriminated against. These incidences have led to many people filing petitions in court to complain of the occurrences. It is not fair to treat them as if they are different from us. They are not to be blamed for being in such a position. The essay discusses some of the court cases filed by people with special needs in addition to reviewing how the outcome of the cases has affected education generally.
The first case is the one between Brown and the Board of Education that happened in the year 1954. The suit was filed by Brown and his friend Scott where they were fighting racial segregation. The students were being separated depending on the color of their skin. The Supreme Court came to a ruling that the racial discrimination of the students was a violation of the fourteenth amendment of the constitution (Bersoff, 2014). The decision was later reversed and replaced by another ruling which stated that it was okay to have separate but equal segregation in public schools.
The decision of the Supreme Court led to one massive change in the country and the education sector. The ruling led to the passage of the civil and voting rights ten years later. There was also another case filed in the court. This was between Larry and Riles where the issue was that the black children had been placed and maintained in the special classes for the educable mentally retarded. The act was purely based on race and culture, and it was against the federal laws of the state (Baker, 2015). The case ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the black children. The ruling has led to the children who were thought of to be mentally retarded being included in regular programs with the other kids. Another court case was between the Board of Education of Hendrick Hudson Central School District and Rowley that happened in 1982. The reason for the petition was about how people understood the education of disabled children. The case was about a deaf student who was denied an interpreter by the school. The parents ended up taking the issue to court where a ruling was made. The jury decided that public schools were not entitled to provide sign language interpreters to deaf students who are...