Disruptive Children Need Education Too : But Experts’ Judgment Should Get First Consideration

From the halls of Congress, where the laws originated, to the corridors of Orange County schools, where they are carried out, there is agreement that children with disabilities are entitled to be educated in regular classrooms, along with children without disabilities, as much as possible.

It means students should not be shunted off to segregated classrooms because they are “different.” Experts say that in regular classes, those with special needs get a chance to see how other students act and to use them as role models. So far, so good.

The problem comes when one student so disrupts a class as to deprive other children of their right to learn. Then the rights of the individual must be balanced against those of the group.

Officials at Circle View Elementary School in Huntington Beach argued last month that 6-year-old Jimmy Peters should be moved from regular classes to a special-education program because, they said, he hit other students. His father said the child was not violent or a danger to other students and deserved to stay in the regular class. The matter quickly went to the courts--too quickly--and the father won; the boy was ordered returned to class. A subsequent agreement will have the boy receiving special-education classes this summer, which is good.

But the problem of how best to obey the law on serving special-education students without interfering with other students is complex.

Across the country, there are 5 million special-education students. Orange County has more than 36,000, or nearly 9% of its total student enrollment. Most schools appear to be doing as much as possible to include special-education students in regular classes. Parents usually have agreed on reassignments recommended by educators whose training in serving the disabled should make them the experts.

However, given an increase in the number of objections and court cases, school administrators are rightly worried that they may find themselves spending too much time in court. Legal battles are expensive and of less help to a child deserving the best education possible than are productive discussions between educators and parents.

When parents and teachers disagree, Congress should give more leeway to schools seeking to remove students considered a threat to others. While pupils considered disruptive can be reassigned to special-education classes temporarily under current law, the schools should be allowed to make the assignment longer. That will allow time for hearings and another chance at getting a parent who may be in denial to understand that a youngster really can benefit most from special attention.

Determining that a special-education youngster is too disruptive to have in a class is not and must not amount to the same thing as to accuse him or her of wrongdoing. The reality is that putting a child in a regular class is the ideal, but there are times when it cannot be done. Parents do have appeal panels and, as a last resort, courts to protect their children’s interests in the event of flawed assessments or outright discrimination. But the teachers and school officials are the professionals whose judgments ought to be given great weight at the outset, pending administrative or judicial resolution. It doesn’t seem to be working that way now, as the impasse in the Huntington Beach case suggested, regardless of whoever ultimately was right or wrong in that instance. Allowing the educators to make judgments is part of the reason we entrust our children to them in the first place.