Students with disabilities constitute an important demographic of learners in the US. Physical and intellectual limitations create obstacles to the learning and as well as communicative processes. At the same time, the lack of consideration of such students’ difficulties in regulatory environment leads to learning ineffectiveness. Understanding these issues is essential in ascertaining what guidelines schools and districts should follow when working with students with disabilities.
The most contentious regulatory issue pertaining to students with disabilities is enforcement of discipline. Statistics shows that the number of students of disabilities among the students who are subjected to such measures is disproportionately high to the number of nondisabled students (Katsiyannis et al., 2019). Combined with the overall low academic performance of students with disabilities, the uncertainty regarding disciplinary measures adds further complexity to regulating disabled learners.
The specific set of rules providing guidelines that have to be followed by schools is known as Universal Design for Learning. It is an inclusive learning approach that emphasizes individual’s characteristics in learning, which also encompasses students with disabilities (Canter et al., 2017). In essence, schools should treat each student as a separate individual with a diverse set of needs and weaknesses, thus avoiding discrimination of students with disabilities.
Addressing the regulatory issues requires understanding the obstacles that students with disabilities face when learning and communicating with other students. Districts should accentuate the importance of meaningful interaction with all learners in schools (Katsiyannis et al., 2019). It implies that more attention should be given to communication between students and teachers (Canter et al., 2017). The more individual preferences teachers will be able to consider, the more effective teaching, learning, and discipline will be.
References
Canter, L. L. S., King, L. H., Williams, J. B., Metcalf, D., & Potts, K. R. M. (2017). Evaluating pedagogy and practice of universal design for learning in public schools. Exceptionality Education International, 27(1). Web.
Katsiyannis, A., Counts, J., Adams, S., & Ennis, R. P. (2019). Excessive force and students with disabilities: Legal and practice considerations. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28(4), 885-893. Web.