There's no evidence that there's broad support to segregate kids with special needs. If it had mainstream support, someone would be willing to openly advocate for it. People might secretly like all kinds of discriminatory practices, but the inevitable backlash stops almost all of them from going anywhere as a matter of public policy. Democrats aren't going throw kids with special needs to the wolves, and Trumpers don't particularly care about this issue except to the extent they can use it to push for private school vouchers. |
This attitude, by the way, is why disability rights advocates will fight to prevent any watering-down of the LRE provisions in IDEA. The people (anonymously) pushing for that aren't interested in actually providing separate programs that are equal in quality. It also means you'd immediately see 14th amendment challenges if anything snuck through. |
What about the rights of the 95% of kids who are well behaved and just want to learn but cannot? |
Shame on you for using the word segregate. Different kids have different needs. |
Then you're going to have to convince people that separate can be equal, despite history to the contrary. Proposing to prevent kids with special needs from going to school isn't going to help your case for that. |
Just like it would be much easier for schools if they didn't have to worry about building ramps and elevators for kids with physical disabilities, or providing interpreters or special programs for kids with visual or auditory impairments. Yes, disabilities can be challenging and expensive to accomodate. That's exactly why we have laws saying they must be accomodated. |
Why should a disruptive/violent kid be in a normal classroom, impeding the education of everyone else? |
Not the same at all. We are talking about disruptive/violent kids. |
It doesn't necessarily have to be a "normal" classroom, but you're going to have to demonstrate it did provides FAPE and isn't discriminatory. Attempting to ban them from schools is neither. |
You'd need to determine whether the violent or disruptive behavior is a manifestation of a disability. If it is, you can't expel them from school as you're suggesting. |
You just proved the point. The needs of the majority matter less than the needs of the few. |
Yes, we have laws that protect the rights of minorities, even when inconvenient or expensive. It isn't unique to education. This shouldn't be surprising to you. |
No disability laws say that people with disabilities need to be accommodated to the point that they have exactly the same outcomes as non disabled people AT ALL COSTS, which is what you’re suggesting. A company for example can absolutely refuse to accommodate an employee if it’s deemed too expensive to do so in a reasonable way. If school districts can show that they’re actually accommodating special needs kids with TWICE the money that they’re spending on other kids, and that they all start in gen ed until it’s clear that they are infringing on the rights of other students to receive an appropriate public education, then I don’t see how anyone could claim that people with disabilities are being discriminated against. Well I guess someone could claim it, but I don’t see any jury or reasonable judge agreeing with them about it. |
Oh, but you see, they don’t have any rights. They aren’t even legally entitled to FAPE. For now. |
You are so incredibly dull. |