An Inclusive Education

Exploring the obstacles in accommodating disabled students.

The 7.3 million disabled students in the US made up 15% of all students enrolled in the public school system last year. As that number climbs, an increasing number of students need accommodations to stay at the level of their peers. 

In 2021, people without disabilities earned a median of $40,948, while people with disabilities earned $28,438. As the number of students with disabilities increases, a need for accommodations is becoming more apparent. While laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) have made it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities and ensure students and all people who need them receive accommodations, there are still many issues concerning accommodations. 

In the 2020-2021 school year, there was a massive vacancy of 40% in Special Education professionals, with schools struggling to fill those positions and ensure that kids with disabilities receive assistance. Even with the advocacy for accommodations and laws that ensure people receive them, many students still aren’t getting the assistance they need to get a quality education, and a lack of people in support roles further exacerbates this issue. 

Accommodations themselves vary widely, with some educational accommodations being aids like extra test-taking time or being able to use a calculator during an assessment, and others being provided notes or reduced quantity of work. 

“In order for people to be able to access the information that they're being taught and to be able to show people what they know that accommodations are extremely important…it's really important for people…to understand that what an accommodation provides is access and equality and it levels the playing field [in the classroom],” says Sarah Durantini, an upper school administrator that helps students with disabilities at New Roads. 

New Roads School’s focus on giving students a fair education helps to avoid the issues with accommodating students, and with constant and willing support from teachers and faculty, students with disabilities can find a safe space at the school. As members of the school’s community, it’s essential to acknowledge how New Roads does well in accommodating disability and recognizing that many other people don’t have the help that the school provides. 

One obstacle disabled individuals face when trying to secure accommodations and fair treatment is the lack of general understanding regarding the complexities of disabilities, a problem that can be attributed to a lack of educational resources regarding Special Education. 

Lack of school funding also makes it significantly more challenging to provide support for disabled students. Disabled students, on average, cost schools $26,000 annually, nearly triple the $9000 that students without disabilities cost schools. Especially as inequality grows, those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged and in poorer school districts receive much worse disability support, making it even more difficult for those students to receive a fair education. 

In a 2017 article, The Hechinger Report outlines that “Special Education students across the country reported low expectations in school, regardless of their ability level or future plans. The vast majority of those interviewed said that the problem often isn’t the fault of individual teachers, but a failure of the system.” And for lower-income students, that problem is even worse.

It’s much more common for poorer students to be placed in separate Special Education they don’t need, which puts them behind their peers, as opposed to mainstream classrooms that accommodate their differences while still providing the same info their peers receive. 

“Some research finds that the extent to which students benefit from disability accommodations is a function of their social class, with children from higher socioeconomic families experiencing more of the benefits of Special Education and children from lower socioeconomic families experiencing more of the negatives,” Dara Shifrer, a professor of sociology at Portland State University explains. Due to poor management of Special Education, many students are being left behind in their education and not receiving the help they really need.

“Educating people on disabilities is key. For one, it is common for people to think that a learning disability (e.g., dyslexia, dyscalculia) equates to a low IQ when the reverse is actually true. With increased understanding of the subjectivity and inconsistency of disability classifications, people will be less likely to pigeonhole people based on their disability label,” Shifter said. 

A notable issue in how we accommodate disabilities is the significance of a student’s needs, which can be contested, and that problem can end up costing school districts and parents alike. With all disabled children having a federal right to free appropriate public education, whenever parents believe their children aren’t receiving that, they can send a complaint to the Special Education Division of the Office of Administrative Hearings to use what is called “due process” to resolve any issues with the accommodations being provided. 

An elementary school classroom in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, provides an idea of what accommodations look like in an early educational setting. (Photograph: Upper Dauphin Area School District)

These due process hearings can drain resources from parents and districts by being time-consuming and costly, with money that can go towards the student’s education ending up being used to pay for lawyers. In 2018, San Diego Unified paid 2 million dollars to settle 128 due process cases, which indicates the greater costliness problem with the due process system. At the same time, due process is often very much needed for parents to get their children the support they need when the district doesn’t offer assistance. 

The way due process hearings function can often make the exchange between families and their school district hostile and combative, and it serves as a necessary but defective system that can address the problems several students have with receiving the education they need.

Due to the vastness of the disabled student population, it’s becoming increasingly necessary for teachers to have the tools to support these students. With the federal protections for disabled students, many people are given a level playing field in the classroom and can work successfully alongside their peers, but the issues within the system impede many from learning in an improved environment.