Sharing Accountability for Educating Children with Special Needs

Abstract

Who is accountable for the education of children with special needs? We can begin to find out by considering these additional questions:How can the school improve its approach to teaching handicapped children?What kinds of help can parents be expected to provide?How important is the influence of nonhandicapped peers and what role is best for them?What kinds of curriculum should the public favor in order to achieve integration?In what ways can the government offer effective leadership and support?When we pose these more specific concerns, some useful changes take place in our point of view. There is a shift in emphasis from who is at fault to who can be helpful, from limitations to possibilities. The resulting perspective identifies other people with whom we must work more closely in order for children to succeed.During recent years educators have made it a practice to specify the learnings for which they are willing to be held accountable. This policy is worthwhile but insufficient. I believe that we need a more inclusive definition of accountability, one that will acknowledge and clarify the different roles and obligations for those who teach elsewhere than the classroom or whose influence on child development is indirect. Surely the helping environment for educating children with special needs must include the collaborative efforts of school faculty, parents, students and the government. Let’s consider how each of these parties are implicated in the concept of shared accountability.