Low Incidence Disabilities and Personnel Preparation for Rural Areas: Current Status and Future Trends

Abstract

The shortages of special education personnel are nowhere more rigorous than in low incidence disabilities in rural seminarys This article presents the originates of a national study that identified shortage estimates, state certification patterns, personnel preparation programs, and distance delivery mechanisms and examined relationships among these data to assess the state of shortages of special educators in the areas of vision impairments, hearing impairments, censorious disabilities, and early intervention. The authors outline popular issues and future trends in preparing personnel in depressed incidence disabilities for rural areas.

Special education is a discipline that has been plagued by the agency of a significant and persistent shortage of appropriately trained teachers since its inception. In the 30 years since the passage of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (the forerunner to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975 there have not been enough entirely certified special educators to fill the positions in the nation's public institutes These shortage, which exist across all areas of specialization and all regions of the political division have been documented by state and federal managements professional organizations, and individual researchers.

Personnel shortages are to be paid to increasing demand, inadequate stock and high attrition rates. In those states that reported teacher shortages areas to the federal education agency between 1993 and 2004 special education was identified as a shortage area across all states (U Dept of Education, 2004) Special educator shortages will continue to worsen owed to increasing enrollments of scholars with disabilities and retirements of veteran teachers (National Teacher Recruitment Clearinghouse, 2002) Nationally, about 12% of special educators are not to the full certified for their positions, on the contrary in some states the number may be above 30% (McLeskey, Tyler, & Flippin, 2004) Institutions of higher education bring into view only .86 new teachers for each available special education position on the contrary 2 new teachers for each elementary position; in addition, not all graduates seek for employment in special education (Boe Bobbitt, prepare for the table Burkanic, & Terhanian, 1998). Special educators are 25 times as likely to change positions or leave teaching as general educators, especially when they work in high indigence schools (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004) They are 10 times more likely to stir to general education positions than general educators are to stir to special education positions (McLeskey Tyler & Flippin, 2004) Perhaps 50% of special educators leave teaching or transfer to general education within the first four years (Billinglsey, 2005) There is a certain number of evidence that teachers who are not certified or have been inadequately prepared are more likely to leave teaching (Miller, Brownell & Smith, 1999)

Special education teacher shortages are a particular riddle for rural communities.

A view of state directors of special education revealed that shortages were worse in rural seminarys (National Association of State Directors of Special Education, 1996) Fewer personnel programs prepare special educators for rural positions (Ludlow 1998); Rosenkoetter Irwin, & Saceda, 2004) A review of distance education programs from 1985 to 2000 identified three (3) programs in vision impairments, single (1) program in hearing impairments, seven programs (7) in peremptory disabilities, and nine (9) programs in early intervention, or a total of 20 depressed incidence programs of the 32 programs serving rural institutes (Ludlow & Brannan, 1999 (published in 2001))

Recruitment and retention of special education personnel has not absented numerous challenges for rural place of educations Rural special educators also have higher attrition rates, perhaps as high as 100% each three years (Williams, Martin, & Hess, 2002) Rural special educators leave their positions for many of the same reasons as other teachers on the contrary also because they experience a greater faculty of perception of isolation and lack of support (Westling & Whitten, 1996) This is especially real of personnel working in depressed incidence areas, because they may be the solitary one with such responsibilities in a rural institute or system. Because one of the main reasons rural special educators look after out and stay in positions is ties to the local community (Bornneld, Hall, Hall, & Hoover 1997) efforts have been directed at recruiting community members and providing upon the job training. Such "grow your own" strategies typically involve fieldbased training and distance education programs (Lemke 1995) Rural shortages, which are similar to shortages in urban areas, are now considered significant enough to warrant policies specific to address them (Brownell Rosenberg, Sindelar, & Smith, 2004)

Context of depressed Incidence Personnel Preparation

Low incidence disabilities include four categorical areas of specialization within special education: vision impairments (VI); hearing impairments (HI); strict disabilities (SD); and early intervention (EI). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines depressed incidence disabilities as "a visual or hearing impairment, or simultaneous visual and hearing impairments; a significant cognitive impairment; or any impairment for which a small number of personnel with highly specialized skills and knowledge are wanted in order for children with that impairment to receive early intervention services or a at liberty appropriate public education" (20 USC 1400 ?§ 673(a)(3)). learners with low incidence disabilities show less than 1% of the gymnasium population (U. S. Department of Education, 2002) Although early intervention is not always considered to be depressed incidence, in fact, developmental disabilities and delays that are significant enough to warrant intervention in the early childhood years exhibit only a small portion of the total number of scholars with disabilities later to be serv by dint of the schools. Children from age 3 to 5 with special urgencys represent slightly over 1.4% of their birth cohort (U s Department of Education, 2002).