The administration of public schools encompasses myriad generic issues having to do with curriculum content, instructional methodology, human resource and financial management, and of course, the guidance and counseling of students. Woven into this tapestry is the obligation to individualize educational programs to accommodate the needs of a wide and diverse student population. The needs of children may be categorized by economic, social, ethnic, physical and mental differences unique to each child and family. It is incumbent upon the public school to accommodate these differences with specially designed educational programs and to remediate any effects that may be detrimental to learning. Prominent and unique among such programs is special education, for which the program of learning is usually separately funded at both federal and state levels, but even more importantly, the learning regimen is individually calibrated to address the needs of each child determined to have a disability. Indeed, assuring children with disabilities their statutory rights constitutes a substantial segment of public school administration in the United States today. The various ramifications of the educational needs of children with disabilities and their attendant circumstances are so extensive that one book on the subject cannot be sufficient to address the magnitude and broad scope of the field. However, in this book we have attempted to discuss several of the salient issues that are of prominent concern to both school administrators and teachers. The book proceeds from the broad consideration of rights and costs to more specific issues regarding the categorization of children and the disproportionality of the various racial and ethnic groups of children who may be improperly designated as disabled. Within the context of such classifications the book discusses the screening strategies on which the rights of children with disabilities are so delicately balanced. To inappropriately classify a child may result in a form of subtle discrimination or denial of a statutory right to the provision of a particular type of educational instruction or accommodation. As is indicated throughout this book, the assessment methods by which a child's free appropriate education is determined have become a science of considerable importance. Incident to this necessity of precise assessment is the need for risk screening strategies and protocols to identify symptoms, behaviors and indications of learning disabilities requiring particular and specialized educational redress. Among issues of greatest importance is the determination not to exclude children with disabilities from the regular classroom and the mainstream of learning. Inclusion or mainstreaming is among the most contentious and perplexing issues confronting school administrators. What constitutes the legal requirements and the educational considerations of the least-restrictive environment comes directly into play in provision of an appropriate education. Beyond the all-important inclusion issue, other chapters of this book address problems of cultural and social mores that affect children with disabilities, symptoms of depression in parents of children with disabilities, maltreatment of children with disabilities, and symptoms of children who have suffered post-traumatic stress from catastrophic events in their own lives. Each chapter suggests measures to be taken by educators in identifying and redressing such matters. Policy implications for the enhancement of the effectiveness of special education programs are identified for the school administrator to consider.

Giving Voice to Profound Disability is devoted to exploring the lives of people with profound and multiple learning difficulties and disabilities, and brings together the voices of those best placed to speak about the rewards and challenges of living with, supporting and teaching this group of vulnerable and dependent people – including parents, carers and teachers. Along with their personal insights the book offers philosophical reflections on the status, role and treatment of profoundly disabled people, and the subjects discussed include: Respect and human dignity Dependency Freedom and human capabilities Rights, equality and citizenship Valuing people Caring for others The experience and reflections presented in this book illustrate the progress and achievements in supporting and teaching people with profound disabilities, but they also reveal the challenges involved in enabling them to develop their full potential. It is suggested, also, that these challenges apply not only to this group, but also to people who, through sickness, accident and old age, face equivalent levels of dependency and disability. Giving Voice to Profound Disability will be of interest to all those involved in the lives of severely and profoundly disabled people, including parents, carers, teachers, nurses, therapists, academics, researchers, students and policymakers.

This introduction to human dignity explores the history of the notion from antiquity to the nineteenth century, and the way in which dignity is conceptualised in non-Western contexts. Building on this, it addresses a range of systematic conceptualisations, considers the theoretical and legal conditions for human dignity as a useful notion and analyses a number of philosophical and conceptual approaches to dignity. Finally, the book introduces current debates, paying particular attention to the legal implementation, human rights, justice and conflicts, medicine and bioethics, and provides an explicit systematic framework for discussing human dignity. Adopting a wide range of perspectives and taking into account numerous cultures and contexts, this handbook is a valuable resource for students, scholars and professionals working in philosophy, law, history and theology.

"What exactly is special education? Let's begin with the basics. It is a civil right. A student with a disability who is of school age has the same right to an education as a student who does not have a disability. Now, let's expand on that basic message. Special education is more than a right. It is specially designed instruction and supports for students with disabilities. Its purpose is to enable them to make progress in school so that they will achieve valued goals and outcomes-goals and outcomes they can attain and enjoy in the same places as students and adults who do not have disabilities"--

A life of liberty and responsibility does not just happen, but requires a particular kind of education, one that aims at both a growth of the human soul and an enrichment of political society in justice and the common good. This we call a liberal education. Forgetfulness of liberty is also a forgetfulness of the multi-dimensional nature of the human person, and a diminution of political life. Keeping in mind what can be lost when liberal education is lost, this volume makes the case for recovering what is perennially noble and good in the liberal arts, and why the liberal arts always have a role to play in human flourishing. Each of the authors herein focuses on the connection of three primary themes: human dignity, liberal education, and political society. Intentionally rooted in the hub that joins the three themes, each author seeks to unfold the contemporary significance of that hub. As a whole, the volume explores how the three themes are crucial to each other: how they illuminate each other, how they need each other, and how the loss of one jeopardizes the wellbeing of the others. In individual chapters, the authors engage various relevant aspects of liberal education. As a result, the volume is organized into three parts: Liberal Education and a Life Well Lived; Thinkers on Dignity and Education in History; Contemporary Topics in Dignity and Education. As education is increasingly channeled into an ever more narrow focus on technical specialization, and measured against professional success, students themselves face a maelstrom of campus politics and competing political orthodoxies. These are among the issues that tend to militate against the operative liberty of the student to think and to speak as a person. This edited collection is offered as an invitation to think again about the liberal arts in order to recover the meaning of education as the authentic pursuit of the good life or eudemonia.