History of Special EducationTaken from Marvin Lazerson’s “The Origins of Special Education.” Published in Special Education Policies: Their History, Implementation and Finance edited by Chambers and Hartman. 1983

These sightless eyes, deaf ears, mute tongues and vacant minds are a perpetual witness against us; hereafter we cannot escape our responsibility by pleading ignorance of the fact.New Jersey Commission on the Deaf and Dumb, Blind and Feebleminded, 1873

You can’t put my Tony in the dumb-bell school.

“Slavonian” woman in Los Angeles, mid-1930’s

There is nothing more repulsive to me and nothing more unwarranted than to single out little tots, under 12, put them in a separate room and label them….Before you give the child the Binet test, be sure to give him first the Borden and Sheffield test, and for the benefit of out-of-towners, by the Borden and Sheffield test, I men find out if they have enough milk—just plain cow’s milk.New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to a conference of special educators, 1929

In general, crippled children in Boston are not allowed to attend school. As a regular practice, school officials make no distinction between those crippled children who doctors say are able to take part in normal school activities, and those who are not. Except for isolated instances, they are prevented from attending school altogether.Take Force on Children Out of School, 1970

ExclusionProtected the normal from the deviantCreated an outsider/a second class citizenPublic education never provided access to all who might benefit and has been used to exclude some from full participation with others

Who is handicapped?Need aid to survive physically or economically?Learning disability?Couldn’t “get along” in schools.Failed to stay on grade level?Scored low on IQ tests.

Some said that special education did not do enough to help children while others said that special education too readily placed kids in special schools.

Special Education was the least accepted of all the public school programsTo paraphrase John Dewey…if a society ought to provide for its children that what the best parent would provide, special education stands out as a measure of the failure of public responsibility.

19th CenturyDisability was a private troubleA few private charities/institutionsValue driven

Limited governmentIndividualismPrivate responsibility for child rearing

Children were only institutionalized if:Threat to themselves or others (determined by justice system)Parents decided they could not control the child

20th CenturyThings changedComplaints about institutionsCreation of mass public schoolCompulsory education# of students doubledAverage daily attendance increasedLength of the school day increased

Leonard Ayre’s “Laggards in the Schools” 190933.7% of all school children were retarded

Ayre’s concerns: illness, irregular attendance, late entrance, loosely enforced or non-existent compulsory attendance lawsU.S. Immigration Commission: Immigrants are to blame, can’t adjust to American LifeNumbers became a problem and school men began studying the issues and creating sp.ed. legislation

• New Jersey 1911-find kids 3 or more years behind in schools. In each district with 10 or more of these children, the BOE shall establish a special classroom with no more than 15 kids.

Special Education received its impetus from the enforcement of compulsory attendence, the retardation studies which followed, association of retardation with foreign born truants and the mentally deficient.Having fought to get all kids in schools we now had to teach them.There was also the belief that gov’t interventions would have positive outcomes

Progressive Era expansion

Health careVisiting nurses and social workersAmericanization classesVocational preparationCounselingKindergartensSpecial Education

HUMANITARIAN

CONTROLLING

Who should be included?

Physically handicappedMentally handicappedThree benefits

To handicapped studentsRegular students and teachersSociety as whole

This was not always accepted and some officials argued to keep handicapped kids out of schools

The bad guysHenry C. Goddard and Lewis M. TermanThe unattended or uneducated feeble-minded were carriers of social malignancyThe recommended:

1% of students be institutionalized and sterilized2.5% go to special classes15% receive manual/vocational training to avoid a drain on society

Thus special education became a way to isolate children.

States begin to pass laws

New Jersey 1911New York 1917Massachusetts 1920Minnesota 1915Pennsylvania 1919Wyoming 1919 Missouri 1919

• Connecticut 1921• Washington 1921• Oregon 1923• California 1920• Wisconsin 1921• Louisiana 1921• Ohio 1921

1920’s• Due to advances in IQ testing special

education expands in cities across the country

1930’s• Special Education comes under question

– Economic conditions led to slow down in sp.ed. Growth– Questions of the benefit of segregating sped students– Early finds on IQ test challenged

• 1930 White House Conference on Child Heath Protection– Committee challenged that lot of kids remained un-

served (10 million maladjusted kids, 1 million in sped)– Poor conditions in sped classrooms/programs– Poor attitudes toward the advancement of sped kids

based on dollars

The response• Extend sped to more kids• Early diagnosis• Treatment• Training• Modify the curriculum• Vocational orientation• Establish a national council and state advisory

councils• Public PR campaigns

1930’s continued• Conditions did not change• Funding was cut• Kids were tolerated based on mandates not

humanitarianism• Parents did not what kids in special classes for the dumb• The jargon changed

– Opportunity classes– Programs for exceptional children– Emphasis on gifted– Department of Sped becomes International C.E.C.

• Those who had led change in the 1920’s ceased to acknowledge Sped.

Post War Reassessment• Little Change• Focus leave values to economic benefit to

society• Professionalization and a focus on

assessment, pedagogy, classroom management and curriculum

Handicapped Children Book

• Post war baby boom increases the number of handicapped children born

• Improved medical technologies kept more babies alive

• New concerns– Speech impairments– Reaction to polio epidemic– Discovery of learning disabilities

o Kids with disabilities being born to middle class families

The move is on• Parent groups and professionals begin lobbying

for additional dollars to fix the disparity between kids and spaces in programs

• Parents from groups for different needs worked together

• Parents agitated for better programs• Greater public criticism• The Civil Rights Movement

Legal Battles• Brown• PARC• Mills• Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973• PL 94-142