Commenter:
Susan Foster, SIEFA (Supporting Inclusive Education For All)
Allow Developmental Delay through Age 9
I urge the Board to adopt the federal definition which allows states to use DD for students through age 9. Children begin their formal education at age 5; some parents choose to hold their child back until age 6. Labeling a child at age 6 with a stigma-laden label, such as MD or MR that drives low expectations and segregation, will ensure these children never receive quality research-based reading instruction! They will be segregated before their education even begins. Give them a chance to make progress with real reading and math instruction. Give them until 10 to be held to a high bar and see if they do not stretch to meet higher expectations.
Schools in Virginia should not route students into segregated classrooms based upon their label. This is in direct violation of currentVirginia regulations which require that a child receives services not based upon a label but upon his/her unique needs. (8 VAC 20-80-64 B.3.) Under IDEA 2004, a child is not required to have a label in order to be considered a child with a disability who needs special education, a fact that schools do not typically share with parents.
A disability category label should not result in low expectations but that is the reality in many schools in Virginia. States have a legal mandate through NCLB and IDEA 2004 to improve educational outcomes for students with disabilities and close the achievement gap. And this means raising expectations. Giving a child an MD or MR label at a young age will not accomplish this, nor can continuing to practice segregation. Outcomes are being improved with inclusive education which gives children access to the general ed curriculum and thus a higher bar. In inclusive schools in Virginia and across the nation, labels are not even used. Teachers do not even know their students’ labels nor do they need to know it. In these schools, development of a child’s IEP is driven by the child’s unique strengths, weaknesses, and needs. This is in compliance with federal and state regulations. In these schools, children are not called the MiMD kids or the MoMD kids; they are called Sarah and Emily and Molly and Jack. They are individuals and members of their classrooms, not a diagnosis. Unfortunately, inclusive schools are the exception in Virginia and not the rule. Keeping the DD label until age 10 would result in more children with disabilities being educated in the regular classroom. I would like to point out too that gifted students are not given their label until 3rd grade.
In conclusion, I urge the Board to adopt the federal guideline of allowing children DD for ages 3 through 9. I believe this would improve educational achievement for children with disabilities in Virginia. With IDEA 2004 specifying that a child is not required to have a label in order to be considered a child with a disability who needs special education, this would be a positive step towards achieving the high expectations that are required by both IDEA 2004 and NCLB.
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” - Benjamin Franklin, inventor
