Carli J. Riblett
SPE-226
November 20, 2015
Mark Mendez
Special Education and the Implications of Attitude, Litigation, and Legislation
A person’s initial reaction when they see a child with special needs is typically compassion; however that is not and has not always been the case. For this very reason the federal and state governments have put into action certain laws to protect these children and their families. There is always room for improvement but it is a good start and has helped with providing education to fit the individual needs of these children.
Attitudes are formed by a person’s experience or first impression of a situation or the particular environment they may be in. the human race holds certain expectations for how people should look and act because of these expectations we tend to surround ourselves with a group of people that have the same or similar view and expectations. When a child does things different or has a different appearance they tend to be excluded from the typical or popular groups. These children are different for many reasons most that are out of their control. Children that look, act, or communicate differently because of where they come from, because they have special needs, or even a language barrier are typically not accepted by the popular or dominate groups. Because of these differences and the fact that these children may not live up to the expectations of the general population it cause discomfort because the people are unaware or uneducated on how to interact and accept others for who they are. In reality students with special needs is truly exceptional and amazing, “special education services were given to more than six million for the 2015-2016 school years” (US Department of Education, as Cited in Heward, 2009, p. 10). The attitude of stereotyping these students because we only see their disabilities and