December 2017

SCHOOL
National Special
Education Day
by Jane Silver
Do you know someone who
has his or her own style
when it comes to learning?
National Special Education
Day recognizes, respects, and
celebrates those differences.
National Special Education Day has
been celebrated on December
2 since 1975, the date the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
was signed into law by President Gerald
Ford. IDEA aims to provide support for
individuals with disabilities, ensuring they
receive a free and appropriate public
school education.
The law continues to evolve with
amendments protecting the rights of
individuals with disabilities, enhancing
their capacity to learn and become
productive members of society. Finding
the right services for you or your family
member is not an easy task. It is
important for parents to know their child’s
learning style.
Paula Hyman, a teacher and parent in
Boca Raton, advises parents to meet
regularly with their child’s teachers.
“A collaborative environment will give
your child the tools and possibly the
confidence to help them through school.”
Dr. Judith Aronson-Ramos, M.D., the
medical director of Developmental and
Behavioral Pediatrics of South Florida
stated, “LD is best understood as learning
differences instead of learning disabilities.
Finding your child’s strengths and how he
or she can best learn and master subjects
that are difficult is a more productive
attitude than ‘my child is disabled’.”
EARLY INTERVENTION
Early intervention is strongly
recommended by teachers and parents
familiar with Special Education. Learning
differences may not always turn out to be
disabilities with the proper interventions.
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“By identifying significant
developmental problems at
young ages we can provide necessary
therapies and treatments so children
can catch up with age-appropriate
milestones,” Dr. Aronson-Ramos said.
Though, she admonishes, families must
be “cautious and savvy to avoid scams
and time-consuming programs that
promise unreasonable gains.”
Baila Gansburg, executive director of
South Florida Jewish Academy, also
believes early intervention is key to a
child’s success. “Using an analogy, if
a child is critically injured, timing then
becomes a life or death issue. My staff
has the same regard when it comes
to the cultivation of a child’s mind. As
trained professionals, they understand
the urgency of critical care in their
instructional and managerial practices
with students.”
INDIVIDUALIZED
EDUCATION PROGRAM
An IEP, or Individualized Education
Program, is a legal document with
specific goals and interventions to help a
student succeed in school. Hyman said
IEP’s could be helpful to understanding
a student’s needs; however, she said
“labeling” students could lead to
misjudgments.
Dr. Aronson-Ramos supports that if a
student needs an IEP, parents should
not be afraid to have one. “Labels are
negative only if we allow them to be.
Parents need to advocate for their child
and form alliances with the teachers who
can help them.
There will always
be those who
judge a child
and deem him
or her lacking
because of
receiving special
services. This is
DECEMBER 2017
not a reason to deny a child what he or
she needs. Becoming a champion for
what your child needs is the best way to
change people’s discriminatory attitudes,”
she said.
INCLUSION
The importance of inclusion cannot be
stressed enough. Students need to
feel safe and empowered rather than
stigmatized and stifled in the school
environment.
“The opposite of inclusion is exclusion,
and excluding children from integration
among their peers and healthy
interactions with other staff members is
not only counter to our school’s mission
statement, it is profoundly detrimental to
the healthy psychosocial development of
any child,” Gansburg said.
Sabrina Turnier, an Exceptional Student
Education teacher at Boca Raton
Community Middle School, agrees. She
said she is “extremely happy” there are
many programs that provide a perfect fit
for students with learning differences. In
the Palm Beach County School District,
they place students in the least restrictive
environment as required by law.
According to Dr. Aronson Ramos, having
special education teachers work with
regular education teachers in mainstream
classrooms is a growing trend, which will
hopefully lead to better outcomes and
prevent students from feeling left out and
left behind.
Though considerable progress
has been made in developing
strategies and early intervention
programs for individuals
with disabilities and learning
differences, there is still a
way to go. P