Perceived Needs of Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities in Rural Areas

Abstract

We examined the general perspectives of service providers, administrators, and parents who are linked to the provision of special education and related services to learners with low-incidence disabilities in the United States. The intents of the investigation were to gain information from the various respondent concerning the adequacy and availability of appropriate educational services for pupils with low-incidence disabilities and provide information regarding the ne for additional services and supports. A detailed view instrument that included a variety of open-end answer items was developed and mailed to the membership of sum of two units professional organizations with strong connections to rural special education. rejoinders indicated that the biggest areas of ne were for highly qualified personnel with the necessary skills and knowledge to qualified the needs of learners with low-incidence disabilities and for timely information that would support the education of these learners. Implications for in what manner these concerns can be addressed are provided within the framework of four major functions including: information provision, teacher preparation, local gymnasium support, and research.

The educational necessitys of learners with lowincidence disabilities-those who are blind, deaf, or who have hard disabilities-and the concomitant educational practices and services to convenient these needs, have received scant attention in the research literature (Freeman & Alkin, 2000; Lytle & Rovins, 1997) The provision of programs and services for learners with lowincidence disabilities has typically been described as attempting to be under the orders of a traditionally underserved population (Innes et al., 2000) In rural areas, the provision of these programs and services might be awaited to present special challenges in confines of adequate personnel, opportunities for professional disclosure available material and technical resources, and informational resources upon recommended or proven practices.

Critical shortages of special education teachers show one of the most serious challenges to achieving the promise of providing a independent and appropriate education to pupils with disabilities (Billingsley, 2002a; Carlson, 2001) and the teaching field of special education has experienced an upward incline in the number of teachers exigencyed over the past 25 years. Local academy administrators reported job openings for nearly 70000 special educators in the 1999-2000 gymnasium year, and over 12,000 special education teaching positions were left vacant or filled by means of substitutes because suitable candidates could not be ground There were more than 9 percent of all special education teachers who were not full certified for their teaching assignment (Study of Personnel wants in Special Education, 2003). This has l to significant increases in class size and caseload waivers that combine the difficulty for special educators who are already operating at capacity with multiple expectations in small and rural gymnasium settings. In many states, the general [i]or[/i] abstract notion of "urban flight" exists, whereby endowed special educators in rural seminarys move predictably to the relative stability of districts with greater resources in population center (Boe Bobbitt, & prepare for the table 1997; Rude, 2001).

The greatest in quantity critical factor that enhances the programs and services available to scholars with low-incidence disabilities is the availability of qualified special education teachers, who are in short stock in all regions of the geographical division (American Association for Employment in Education, 2003) While the precise causes of special education teacher shortages are not completely known, there are many similarities noted among those who research the problem. The prevailing themes that come up include perceived lack of administrative support, perceived lack of collegial connections, and the bureaucratic requirements of special education compliance expectations (Boe Barkanic, & Leow 1999; Boe prepare for the table Bobbitt, & Terhanian, 1998; Brownell & Smith, 1993) Teacher quality is a central theme of common educational policy initiatives that emanate from the U Department of Education from one side all 50 state education agencies to the greatest in quantity rural and remote school districts in the United States (Hirsch, Koppich, & Knapp, 1998) This dilemma is combineed when considering the requirements for more specialized service providers with the necessary skills and competencies to address the urgencys of learners from low-incidence disability populations including scholars with deafness, blindness, and sharp disabilities (Ferrell, 2002; Jackson, 2002; Luckner 2002)

Teachers accompany to leave their positions when they lack the skills to be felicitous in coping with the unique, stressful aspects of rural education (Cole & Leeper 1995; Lemke 1995; Rosenholtz 1989) Westling and Whitten (1996) base that many of the teachers who locate in rural and far off settings are uncomfortable with the challenges of the rural multicultural classroom. The drift of this concern has been demonstrated [i]or[/i] part of to the other Izzo's (1997) findings that 20 percent of all rural special education teachers leave their piece of works each year to pursue craft in larger school districts and communities. A promising strategy to address the critical and growing shortages of special education teachers of low-incidence disability populations is to assess specific urgencys and provide professional development and support to teachers in their abiding-place communities (Wald, 1998).