Education matters

'It is a lonely experience': the students barred from camps and excursions

Henrietta Cook and Timna Jacks, The Age, 29 May 2017

Sometimes when Angus arrived at school, his classroom was empty. All the students were on an excursion, except for him ...

Principals under pressure to enrol children with disabilities without support
Andrew Taylor, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 May 2017
A lack of support and resources to teach children with disabilities or special needs has resulted in unsafe classrooms for teachers and students, a survey has revealed ...
Students with disability lack government funding to excel at school, statistics show
Norman Hermant, ABC, 20 May 2017
The revelation earlier this year that hundreds of thousands of students with a disability are in school without any additional funding to support their education has been reinforced by new statistics ...

It’s Time to Address Teacher Bias Against Special Education Students

Teresa Cooper, The Educator's Room, 1 May 2017

As a special educator for eight years, I can honestly say that most teachers have good intentions when it comes to reaching all children. That said, not all teachers are comfortable with, or even express happiness with, having special education students in their classrooms ... teacher bias against special education students is real, and given the fact that a more positive attitude leads to more positive results (MarFarlane and Woolfson), it must be addressed ...

The Path to Higher Education With an Intellectual Disability
Hayley Glatter, The Atlantic, 1 May 2017
Like many college students pestered by nosy relatives, Sydney Davis, a sophomore, is not exactly forthcoming when her boyfriend comes up in conversation. The couple has been together two years, Davis says with the exasperated tone of a young adult clearly trying to change the subject. Davis’s friend, Annsley James, a sophomore wearing a windbreaker with her sorority’s letters on it, sits on the opposite side of the room giggling.

It’s a scene that takes place across college campuses: two friends exchange knowing glances during history lectures, at basketball games, in line at the dining hall. But unlike the majority of young adults pursuing higher education in the United States, James, Davis, and their classmates are doing so with intellectual disabilities ...

The Pro and Cons of Disability Inclusion in School: Inclusion vs. the Self Contained Classroom

Meriah Nicholls, 26 April 2017

This week in the “Pro/Con” series we have Liz (from Ruby’s Rainbow) and Megan (from My Stubborn Little Miss) talking about Disability Inclusion in school. Both are talking about it from the perspective as a parent to a child with Down syndrome.

I need to say that I asked begged Megan to do this because she’s a Special Ed teacher and can; she doesn’t actually have her own daughter in a self-contained classroom, she’s just providing food for thought here ...