Making high school ‘special’ for all students

The recently signed SB 673 contains important implications for how Texas runs its special education programs.

Senator Judith Zaffirini’s (D-Laredo) bill permits special education students who will continue receiving program services from a school district to participate in senior year graduation ceremonies with their graduating classmates. The special education student would still receive their diploma only after all of the work in their Individualized Education Program, a mandatory and yearly plan for all students who are enrolled in special education, is completed.

There are a number of potential services for eligible students in special education programs, from academic instruction to life skill classes. The state allows public schools to provide special education services to qualified people until age 21.

However, special education’s perpetual objective is supposed to remain focused on providing as ‘normal’ an environment for students with disabilities as possible when compared to the education received by their peers without disabilities.

Since people are only supposed to be barred from participation in their graduation ceremonies for not having successfully met their program objectives (i.e. flunking something), students merely receiving special education services would inadvertently be ‘punished’ — deterring them from a tool for obtaining future success in a society still not necessarily ready to acknowledge the right to inclusion of special needs individuals.

Texas’ policy reversal is a welcome beginning to a long overdue and badly needed dialogue on reformation of state special education policies. Somebody who has to receive special education services until the age of 21 has not actually failed any classes; they are only completing the mandatory requirements contained within the text of their IEP — and hopefully transitioning to a successful post-secondary outcome.

It’s now more or less accepted that people with disabilities have a right to obtain a free public education, but Texas and the United States presently remain hung up on just what to do with them upon successful IEP completion.

What constitutes a ‘post-secondary transition’ versus just graduating high school has long been an uncomfortable question because there are some critical differences between how people with disabilities can independently operate in society compared to people without disabilities — let alone each other.

Maybe it was one of those high school classmates without a disability that encouraged a student with disabilities to continue on with their educational and other aspirations against their many incurred personal challenges. When faculty/staff in a public school either do not know how to or do not want to encourage plans, supportive classmates can and do nicely fill in those psychosocial gaps. Emotional support and encouragement is important to realizing future dreams. The friends of students with disabilities do share in their general sense of accomplishment, not to mention in all of the ‘fun’ extracurricular and after-hours events which make up practically everybody’s school experience at some point along the adventure.

Isn’t a high school student with disabilities therefore entitled to sharing in one last goodbye with everyone when the entire class gathers together?

With its infamous and unrelenting focus on standardized testing, many facets of Texas education policy certainly earn criticism. But, this recently enacted law readily earns an A+ from me!