Importance of Special Education: A Sister's Point of View

[Editor's Note: Danielle Schwartz is a Fairfield native and a freshman at the University of Hartford. Schwartz told Patch that the importance of is "something I believe in" and feels "it is not discussed enough." The following is an essay Schwartz wrote for one of her politics class.]

When people hear the words special education, what do they think of? Children with severe disabilities who would not be able to function without some sort of change to the education system. There are many different forms of special needs that require the use of special education in a school system. There is autism, downs syndrome, ADD/ADHD, and many others. What would happen if you had a child with special needs but they could not get the education that they needed to get through school? What if this was because the government was cutting down on special education funding? This is happening around the country to families right now.

As of February 2011, the GOP members of the US House of Representatives proposed cutting special education funds. “And as Education Week reported, House Republicans also decided to cut funding for special education by $557 million” (Garofalo). What does this mean? This means that kids are not going to be able to get the necessities that are going to help them out in the long run. This also means that schools are not going to be able to have as many paraprofessionals or special education teachers for the many kids who need it.

Just think about it. The amount of children who are getting diagnosed with autism has gone up in the past number of years. “The old ratio for children with autism was 1 in 150…. Specifically, there more current numbers show that the current ratio appears now to affect about one in 91 U. S. children, and about one in 58 boys” (Rendine). So what does this mean? This means more kids are getting diagnosed with autism, which means there is a greater need for special education teachers. But the issue is that with these budget cuts, schools are not going to be able to pay for as many teachers, which then leads to larger class sizes and children are not getting the attention that they might need from their teacher in order to succeed.

'Not Everyone is Able to Handle Children with Disabilities'

These teachers have a special gift. Not everyone is able to handle children with disabilities. It takes a lot out of you. These teachers need to have all of the patience in the world and know exactly what they are talking about when they are teaching. If they do not know their material, the students are going to have a much more difficult time learning. Even more than they already do compared to the “typical” students.

Special needs children need more attention from their teachers. And in a mainstream classroom, a teacher cannot pay as much attention to each individual child. Children need help and attention when they are trying to learn, and special needs children need even more attention.  It is also very difficult to teach when you have special needs children in your classroom; they are distractions, causing more problems for the teacher. That is why we have special education classrooms and teachers. This is also why we have paraprofessionals that way when students are mainstreamed, the special needs student can have someone focus on them one on one so that they are not distracting the student. I should know what it is like to have to deal with mainstreamed special needs students. My sister was one of them in high school.

A Sister's Point of View

Growing up my older sister Brittany and I were in the same grade. The reason for this is that she has special needs and was held back a year. Before we started kindergarten, Brittany could barely speak. She made up her own words and everything sounded like gibberish. She had been in speech therapy from the time she was three years old. But when she got to school it took a lot of work to get her to fully understand what was going on. She had a special needs teacher, Ms. Prins, who was the most amazing woman I have ever met. She is one of the reasons I wanted to go into special education. Ruth Prins was the calmest teacher I had ever seen. She knew exactly what Brittany needed and when Brittany needed it. She knew how to calm Brittany down when she was having an episode. She even was able to get Brittany to start speaking and start understanding language.

After elementary school, Brittany had good special education teachers but nothing would compare to the person who kick started everything for her. From middle school through high school the special education teachers helped her get to where she is now. Someone who always wants to be a part of the conversation and someone who knows how to speak her mind. If it was not for these teachers and the programs that she was in, I do not know if I would feel like I have a “real” sister.

To think of what would have become of my sister if these programs were not fully funded and were not as strong as they should be. She would be a totally different person. The whole reason my parents moved to the town that I grew up in was because they wanted to best special education program in our area. If my town did not have that, my sister would have probably been mainstreamed from the very beginning and most likely would still be in school because she would not have been able to pass the classes.

Budget Cuts and Special Education

Some schools do not know what to do with their special needs students. If governments continue cutting budgets and funding, schools are not going to be able to do anything with their special needs students except either keep them in the “normal” classrooms or isolate them and give them no contact with the other students. They need this contact. It is one of the main ways that the students learn language is by imitating what they hear and see on a day-to-day basis. Also what will happen to all of the certified special needs teachers if budgets get cut? Not only do the students lose out but also all of these wonderful and highly qualified people will be out of jobs.

I understand that budget cuts need to be made and things do need to be changed, but governments need to think about what is going to happen to all these intelligent kids. They are going to end up not living up to their full potential and that will be because they will not have the teachers or the programs to help them get to where they need to be.

If you are someone like me, who has a family member with some sort of disability, think about how different his or her life would have been. Their special education classes is what got them where they are right now. I know my life and my sister’s life would be completely different if it was not for Mrs. Prins and all of Brittany’s teachers that helped her learn everything she needed to know in order to succeed in the real world.