So. It's been awhile, and sometimes it takes me a little longer to get things done than others. Previously I suggested we would post some information and/or data from the Department of Educations' public records.
I had also mentioned and posted a link, I think, w/ respect to Susan Schweik's book, The Ugly Laws, N.Y. University Press, 2009.
Another time, I vented about health care and health care insurance.
Since then, I did conduct some research into special education due process cases and the decisions of DOE appointed hearing officers. I was not particularly surprised by what I found, but was rather overwhelmed by how much I discovered. So far, I've entered the data into an Excel workbook, and did some preliminary comparisons with charts & graphs. Putting it all together is something that will take more time than I realized.
Maybe, however, there's something to be learned here. A thread connecting individual experience (in this case, with special education and health care insurance) with the gatekeepers entrusted to distribute resourses and provide what is needed.
Some school districts seem more willing to spend significant amounts of money to oppose parents trying to get services for their children, than it would cost to provide the services which they consider unnecessary. A common concern, often implied but left unspoken, is that special education is a "drain" to the general population-- that providng special education to a child with a disability must be "at the expense" of their more deserving peers.
Why is opposition to providing services, including education, to persons with disabilities so pervasive, so vehement? In the big picture, how far has our community come in 2010?
Susan Schweik wrote, regarding the history of disability in the United States between 1867 and 1920:
Ugly law was begging law, although contemporary American disability activism did not know this. Unsightliness was a status offense, illegal only for people without means.
Think about it.
