Homeschooling Advice

I have been away due to a family emergency that I won’t go into here for sake of privacy. However, this emergency has led me to think more and more about why the public schools are so interested in diagnosing children with “disabilities.” Unfortunately, I do not feel that the schools are trying to identify those children who have disabilities for the sake of the welfare of the community. Instead, they are simply concerned about how they are accountable to the government if a student fails. As such, they are trying to cover their own selves.

Through evaluations of students the schools are now able to say that the reason the student fails is not because of teacher incompetence. Instead, it is because the student has a “disability.” Herein the school is only responsible for providing an appropriate or adequate education for these children. This, by no means, has to be the “ideal” or best education possible. For this reason there are a lot of parents today who are not happy with the school as it does not provide their child with what they need. However, the schools will only do what is necessary to get your child up and functioning or participating adequately in the classroom. Therefore, the schools should only be seen as just a piece of the intervention puzzle, not the solution.

For those parents who can actually prove that the school is not providing an appropriate education for their child, there may be a case. However, you have to actually prove that this education is not adequate, not that it is not the “best” education available but that it is clearly out of compliance with federal regulations. You do need to recognize though that the schools do have a lot of resources to hire the state’s top, corporate lawyers who can interpret the special education laws to their advantage, formulate their goals and procedures for implementing special education, minimizing their losses, maximizing their gains. They have all of this down to a science. Therefore, it is unlikely that you can win any type of law suit unless it’s a case of blatant noncompliance.

Furthermore, in order to qualify for special education services, the student has to perform at least 2 years behind grade level regardless as to what type of disability the student has. This is because the typical classroom has a range of student achievement anywhere from a year behind grade level to a year ahead.

In my opinion, this simply makes yet another great argument for homeschooling children who have even the slightest of disability.