Emerson, E, et al. "Poverty Transitions Among Families Supporting
A Child With Intellectual Disability." Journal Of Intellectual &
Developmental Disability 35.4 (2010): 224-234. CINAHL Complete. Web. 22 Mar.
2015 .
This article
focuses on testing three hypotheses: first, that having a child with a
disability leads to poverty; second, that growing up in poverty leads to a
child having a disability; and third, that there is some “third factor(s)” that
lead to both disability and poverty. In order to test these hypotheses, the article
breaks down the families under consideration in their study into three family
types: families with an intellectually disabled child, families with a child
whose disability is non-intellectual in nature, and families who do not have
any children with disabilities. The article then asks four questions that
utilize this breakdown of family types in order to test their hypotheses. The
conclusions that were reached were that families with a child with some type of
disability were more likely to be living in income poverty and hardship when
compared to those families who did not have a child with disability. Those
families with children with some type of disability were also more likely to
transition into hardship and less likely to transition out of hardship than
families without children with some type of disability. The article did also
mention, however, that those families who started with higher socioeconomic
status and had a child with a disability were less likely to experience a
decrease in household occupational status. This lent itself to the suggestion –
and apparently growing body of research – that poverty conditions may lead to
disabilities.
This article broke
down its categories and statistics well, but only checked in on the families at
the beginning and end of a twelve month period. As such, it may have left out retrospective
details of other transitions into and out of poverty that may have went
unnoticed. It had a sample size of just over 9000 total families, which I
believe to be of sufficient size in order to deem significant.
Pasachoff, Eloise. "Special education, poverty, and the limits of
private enforcement." Notre Dame Law Review Aug. 2011: 1413+. Business
Insights: Global. Web. 18 Mar. 2015 .
This article
explains what the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (I.D.E.A.) is in
general terms, and does a through analysis of the execution of its enforcement.
The article starts by identifying shortcomings in enforcing this policy in both
its private enforcement and also its public enforcement. It then gives a number
of suggestions on how to reform both the shortcomings in the private
enforcement as well as the public enforcement. It finishes off by looking at
how future programs could better allocate the enforcement responsibilities in
order to ensure that the program makes the impact that it intends to.
It seems to me
that this article has a lot of focus on the legal side of this issue, taking
apart the way that the I.D.E.A. has been enforced. I believe that this could
give me a good core of information with which to frame discussions of policy
suggestion. This article will also be helpful in examining how effective
current programs which attempt to aid with this issue have been.
Ryan, James E. “Poverty as Disability and the Future of Special
Education Law.” Georgetown 24 March 2015 .
The main goal of
this article is to discuss the I.D.E.A. and the author’s view that it is too
exclusive. The article begins with a focus on the exclusionary cause of the
I.D.E.A. It then moves on to an in-depth analysis of poverty and the brain. In
this analysis, the author hopes to go against what he feels is the common
belief that disabilities are caused by internal factors. In fact, the author
suggests that there are external factors that can cause disabilities, such as
growing up in poverty. While the author presents a body of work that points to
a correlation between poverty and disabilities, he also admits that the
evidence is far from conclusive. However, he still feels that the neuroscience
community increasingly believes that external causes, such as poverty, can be a
reason for disabilities to occur. As such, he claims that the I.D.E.A.
currently is not inclusive enough, and that a number of students who require
special education are left out of it. The author suggests a policy change of
giving students who may need help special assistance before they are diagnosed
with a disability as a way of making the aid broader and possibly reducing the
number of disabilities by providing students with the necessary tools to
improve and succeed.
I feel as though
the author of this article may be somewhat biased towards believing that
external causes can cause disabilities, seeing as he supported that notion
without conclusive evidence. Nevertheless, I believe that this will be helpful
in both my understanding of the link between poverty and disabilities as well
as an insightful look as to the effectiveness of current attempts to aid with
this situation.
Schutzki, Norma J. "Whose I.D.E.A. is it, Anyway? A Look at the
Involvement of High School Students with Learning Disabilities in the
Individualized Educational Planning Team Process." Order No. 3036746 Michigan State University Ann Arbor 20 Mar. 2015
The
focus of this article is the idea that the I.D.E.A. is not something that is
well-known by students with learning disabilities and their families, and as
such it is not properly taken advantage of. It also focuses on the desire of
students with learning disabilities and their families to have more of a voice
in the type of assistance they receive, despite them being unsure on how to
properly communicate their desires in such a way that an appropriate change
could be implemented. As the article says, “just handing a parent a pamphlet
outlining their procedural safeguards does not sufficiently address their
needs.” (Schutzki 193)
While
this article does raise some valid points that there are those who do not know
to what extent they can be helped by the I.D.E.A., the study only looks at nine
students and their families. While it was able to conduct a much more in-depth
study based on these intimate encounters, the number is so low that it makes
the information gathered from it seem insignificant. However, this does give
more background as to all of the things that the I.D.E.A. is comprised of, and that
combined with the focus of this article can hopefully give me some more
background information and possible policy suggestions.
Zosky, Diane L., Deneca Winfrey Avant, and James Thompson. "Social
work and special education students' attributions of poverty: a leadership
opportunity for school social workers." School Social Work Journal 38.2
(2014): 77+. Health Reference Center 24 Mar. 2015 .
This
article focuses on the link between poverty and education. This article points
out that children from lower income families obtain lower academic achievement
than children from more affluent families. It also points out that the types of
schools that those in poverty are able to attend are of lower quality than
those that someone of a higher income could attend. Such schools would have
lower funds and thus less advanced materials with which to educate students.
These schools would also have less rigorous curriculums, and as such provide
the students with less of an ability to grow in their academic skills and
learn.
I
believe that this article is fairly unbiased. It focuses a lot on the research
of those who have published prior, and it also looks at the statistics and does
not seem to be attempting to push an agenda. It does urge educators and social
workers to attempt to help students who may be struggling academically due to
poverty. It showed that those who worked with a social worker to help them with
their problems performed better than those who did not. I believe I will be
able to use it to look at the link between poverty and learning disabilities,
if at least to show that intervention can be effective.
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