Distinguishing disability parents, privilege, and special education - Ong-Dean, Colin (University of Chicago Press, 2009)
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-195) and index
From social reform to technical management: the legal evolution of the Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975 -- Disabled children's parents -- High roads and low roads to disability -- Looking for answers: the literature on disability -- Whose voices are heard? Due process hearings and parents' challenge to special education evaluations and placements -- Reflections on disability and social reproduction
Students in special education programs can have widely divergent experiences. For some, special education amounts to a dumping ground where schools unload their problem students, while for others, it provides access to services and accommodations that drastically improve chances of succeeding in school and beyond. Distinguishing Disability argues that this inequity in treatment is directly linked to the disparity in resources possessed by the students' parents. Since the mid-1970s, federal law has empowered parents of public school children to intervene in virtually every aspect of