Going To School

Going To School- Ir a la Escuela

A Richard Cohen Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV_riKQPtQk

"A society is measured by what we do for those most in need"

Argument Statement

Students with disabilities deserve access to their neighborhood schools.  They should not be required to travel out of their communities/district to attend a school that marginalizes and segregates them from the general education population.  The Individuals with Disabilities Act helps students with disabilities. This film looked at one school district who continued to keep the special education and disabled population separate from the general education students.  They also lacked the means to provide the necessary accommodations for many students with disabilities.  Parent advocates had to especially help those parents whose first language was not English.  

Three Talking Points

1. Before the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Act in 1975, millions of children received inadequate special education services and about 1 million kids with disabilities did not get to go to school at all.  

2. Students with disabilities are often in a separate part of the school, essentially segregated  from the general education population.  Students in a wheel chair would also be placed in a special education classroom simply because they were in a wheel chair.  Parents had to advocate for their children to be placed in a general education classroom and fight for the appropriate accommodations. 

3. Los Angeles Unified School District was accused of systematically violating the civil rights of 65,000 students and not following students IEP.  General education and special education were/are treated as two separate groups.