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This round of amendments changed more than just rights, it was a spotlight on the fact that people's minds were changing about children with disabilities. PL 101-476 changed the wording and terminology of the original law.

Children was changed to individuals, and handicapped became with disabilities. Also, the "Education of the Handicapped Act" name was retired, and IDEA, or Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, became the legal name of this set of laws.

PL 101-476 required that every special needs child have an Individualized Transition Plan (ITP) worked into their IEP by age 16. An ITP is a plan for the preparation of individuals with special needs to become capable and ready to leave school and get a job, attend college, and become a contributing member of society.

The involvement and progress of the child with a disability in the general curriculum. All related services for which the child qualifies. Appropriate educational accommodations necessary for the child to be successful. The child's present levels of educational performance. Measurable annual goals and objectives for the child's education.

Educators

Instructional technology seeks to disprove the idea that "great teachers are born, not made."

"Students today can't prepare bark to calculate their problems. They depend on slates, which are more expensive. What will they do when the slate is dropped and it breaks? They will be unable to write." From a Teachers Conference, 1703. "Students today depend on paper too much. They don't know how to write on a slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves. They can't clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?" From a principal's publication, 1815. "Students today depend too much on ink. They don't know how to use a pen knife to sharpen a pencil. Pen and ink will never replace the pencil." From the National Association of Teachers Journal, 1907. "Students today depend on store-bought ink. They don't know how to make their own. When they run out of ink they will be unable to write words or cipher until their next trip to the settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern education." From The Rural American Teacher, 1928. "Students depend on these expensive fountain pens. They can no longer write with a straight pen and nib. We parents must not allow them to wallow in such luxury to the detriment of how to cope in the business world, which is not so extravagant." From the Parent Teachers Association Gazette, 1941. "Ballpoint pens will be the ruin of education in our country. Students use these devices and then throw them away. The American values of thrift and frugality are being discarded. Business and banks will never allow such expensive luxuries." From Federal Teachers, 1950.

What this suggests is that all technologies, be they things that plug in or advances in thought, have various affordances that make them at times useful and at times not useful. The trick is to figure out what makes them useful in what situations in order to leverage their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.

As the term indicates, a visual impairment involves an issue with sight which interferes with a student’s academic pursuits. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) officially defines the category as “an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.”

Early intervention can help a child strengthen his or her vision. This means that as a parent, you should waste no time if you suspect that your child possesses a visual impairment.

While the causes vary, there are several common signs which may indicate that a child has a visual impairment. These include:Irregular eye movements (for instance, eyes that don’t move together or that appear unfocused)Unusual habits (such as covering one eye or frequently rubbing eyes)Sitting abnormally close to a television or holding a book close to the face

While SEL alone will not solve longstanding and deep-seated inequities in the education system, it can help schools promote understanding, examine biases, reflect on and address the impact of racism, build cross-cultural relationships, and cultivate adult and student practices that close opportunity gaps and create a more inclusive school community. In doing so, schools can promote high-quality educational opportunities and outcomes for all students, irrespective of race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, and other differences.

If your child has an Individualized Education Program (IEP), the IEP team will meet every year to bring it up to date. One of the first steps is to update your child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance. Some states/school districts refer to this as PLAAFP, some as PLOP and others as PLP.

What does PLOP include?

To write the PLOP, the IEP team draws information from several sources. They should include teacher observations and objective data, such as test results and scores.

A public board of education or other public authority within a state that maintains administrative control of public elementary or secondary schools in a city, county, township, school district, or other political subdivision of a state.

School districts and county offices of education are both LEAs.

Under the Local Control Funding Formula, charter schools are increasingly treated as LEAs.

According to the Department of Education, the country will need 1.6 million new teachers in the next five years. Retention of talented teachers is one key. Good teaching is about making connections to students, about connecting what they learn to the world in which they live, and this only happens if teachers have history and roots in the communities where they teach

The film-makers betray a lack of understanding of how people actually learn, the active and engaged participation of students in the learning process. They ignore the social construction of knowledge, the difference between deep learning and rote memorization.

Waiting for Superman has ignored deep historical and systemic problems in education such as segregation, property-tax based funding formulas, centralized textbook production, lack of local autonomy and shared governance, de-professionalization, inadequate special education supports, differential discipline patterns, and the list goes on and on.