Special Education: Physical and Health Disabilities

A web-based community linking people and resources to help children and youth with disabilities (birth to 22).

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) is dedicated to improving results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities ages birth through 21 by providing leadership and financial support to assist states and local districts.

The move toward higher standards in our nation's schools has raised a major dilemma for educators committed to the inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom. How can these students truly succeed in a learning environment where academic standards and formalized testing are increasing? In "Standards and Inclusion: Can We Have Both?" Dorothy Kerzner Lipsky and Alan Gartner, from the National Center on Educational Restructuring and Inclusion at the City University of New York, address this question and many other critical issues facing educators who are supporting students with disabilities in inclusive settings. In a dynamic and powerful presentation, Drs. Lipsky and Gartner discuss: consequences of higher standards; seven factors of successful inclusion; the reauthorization of I.D.E.A (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act); the restructuring of America's schools. In addition to hearing from Lipsky and Gartner, viewers will go inside schools across the country and observe first-hand how the learning needs of all students are being successfully met in general education environments.