Legal Rights and Wrongs of Special Education

Extract

What kind of legal scene will the special educator face in the 1990’s? It will be a scene whose genesis was in the bright idealism of the 1960’s. It will be marked by much greater accountability by the teaching profession for its mistakes and shortcomings than is possible under existing legal mechanisms. It will be marked by much greater public scrutiny and influence over educational policy making than is possible under the last vestiges of the Westminster system by which we are presently governed. It will be marked by greater use of the federal education funding power to achieve observance of human rights in the educational context, for both public and private sectors, than is at present politically possible. And it will be marked by the introduction of a wide range of external policing authorities, acting as watch dogs for students’ and parents’ human and legal rights.