Recent children articles
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- Bush rolls over 10 school children in Michigan
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- New laws for special-needs children
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New laws for special-needs children
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Amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law recently by President Bush, will make more students eligible for accommodations. In the past, the ADA was often interpreted in a way that blocked classroom accommodations for children with conditions that could be remedied at least in part by medication, such as attention deficit disorder, allergies or diabetes.Although the law protects people with disabilities from discrimination, courts had ruled that if a person's abilities could be brought up to average standards through 'mitigating measures' such as medication, that person wouldn't be eligible for accommodations.
In practice, this meant a small but significant number of students who might need, say, extended-time testing for ADHD, or looser attendance requirements to permit diabetes monitoring, were denied. The amendments change that by forbidding schools and employers from using the effect of mitigating measures as a reason for denying accommodations.
Many schools already bend over backward to help children with such conditions. In my experience as a parent of two children with special needs, most school administrators do their best to help. The new legislation may cause friction, though, among critics who resent the rising cost and resources channeled into accommodating the growing number of children with special-needs diagnoses. Teachers face a tough task in providing individual attention or tailor-made learning materials for one or two children when the classroom is bursting at the seams with several dozen. More.
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