RIGHT OF ACCESS TO PUBLIC EDUCATION BY CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL DISABILITIES (Essay Sample)

RIGHT OF ACCESS TO PUBLIC EDUCATION BY CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL DISABILITIES Abstract It is a matter of public knowledge that access to public education is not only a human right but also a critical basic need for survival in our modern society. However, access to such a basic need by children with disabilities may not be as easy as compared to normal students putting into consideration the various challenges that come along with their disability status. The campaign aimed at ensuring the right of access to public education by students with special disabilities has been made difficult by states that have willfully neglected to protect and respect the right to education of children with special disabilities in order to achieve an ‘inclusive education system’. The neglect to protect and respect the right to education by students with special disabilities states has occasioned suffering on them as they cannot compete favorably in our modern society. Introduction An estimate of close to one billion people experience some form of disability during their lifetime of which 93 to 150 million of them are children (The World Health Organisation, 2011, p Xi). Further reports indicate that children with disabilities are less likely to attend school than children without disabilities (Plan International,2013,p.14) .The estimated likelihood of children with disabilities to attend school was more than ten times greater than that of normal children (Plan International, 2013, p.14). This paper seeks to identify the challenges faced by children with special needs in pursuit of public education and propose the possible recommendations to necessary to achieve ‘inclusive education system’. It is undisputed that access to education is a very fundamental right that should be preserved and protected by each and every society and taking away such a right from any child is equivalent to denying the child a key weapon needed for survival in our current modern society. The Individual with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 recognizes 13 special types of disabilities including autism, deafness, hearing impairment, intellectual disability and visual impairment among others. Children with the above mentioned special types of disabilities require special attention at school and other public areas for them to cope up with normal children and also to feel loved and appreciated in the society. The Individual with Disabilities Education Act, 2004 serves gives and recognizes and protects rights of children living with disability from birth to High School graduation. The Act places responsibilities on States and public schools including provision of free appropriate public education to children living with disabilities that ensures least restrictive learning environment between children living with disability and normal children.it also places a great responsibility on States to make an evaluation on children living with disabilities at no cost referred to as child find. Before the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975 which later on the name changed to Individual with Disabilities Education Act, States used to place children with disabilities in separate classrooms or schools from the normal ones. The implication of the separation was that their education was underfunded and therefore their academic performance was wanting. The Education for All Handicapped underwent several changes and amendments to attain the new name as Individual with Disabilities Education Act of which the last amendments were made by the Congress in 2004. The Courts have also played a major role in fighting segregation declaring segregation in schools to be unconstitutional as red in the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The enactment of the IDEA together with Section 504 of the Federal law that prohibits entities that receive Federal financial assistances from discriminating persons living with disability has seen a great improvement in terms of ...