Learning to Talk about LD

The first step to being an effective LD advocate is understanding the issue and how to talk about it. Your personal experiences may be motivating you, but it is important to educate yourself about the facts and figures and broaden your understanding of LD beyond what you've learned through those personal experiences. Knowing some of the "hot button" issues and how to deal with them is also essential. Regardless of whether these issues are of interest to you, one or more is likely to come up in discussions with policymakers and the media.

There continues to be substantial misconception about learning disabilities and how to best deal with children who struggle to learn. But misconceptions cannot simply be overturned by confronting them with statistics, no matter how compelling those statistics may be. Learning how to choose the right words and frame messages so that they have the greatest impact should be your priority. Both policymakers and the general public have preconceived ideas about what learning disabilities are, and it is your job to speak clearly and effectively to those concerns while persuasively explaining that it is in our nation's best interest to respect and support the rights of individuals with learning disabilities.

 

Describing Learning Disabilities

For many people, it is difficult to understand these commonplace, but hidden, disabilities. This is complicated by misinformation and the deliberate distortions of those who claim that learning disabilities are an excuse for poor academic performance.

 

Clear, consistent and concise language should be used to describe learning disabilities. When working with policymakers, using alternative phrases that exclude the word "disability" such as "learning disorder," or "learning difference" does little to change the perceptions. If anything, alternative descriptions, like "learning difficulties" or "learning differences" can soften the intensity of concern and make the issue seem insignificant.

 

Because the term "specific learning disability" is used in the federal law that provides special education services (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), advocates should use this term in their communications with policymakers and the media.

 

The definition of "specific learning disability" in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004) is as follows:

 

• The term 'specific learning disability' means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical calculations.
• The term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia and developmental aphasia.
• The term does not include a learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor disabilities; of mental retardation; of emotional disturbance; or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. [34 CFR 300.8(c)(10)]

Important points to remember when describing LD:

• Learning disabilities are real. Scientists have proven the biological basis of learning disabilities through the use of brain scans and other techniques. Also, there is proof that learning disabilities can be genetic.
• Learning disabilities occur often. Most scientific experts agree (and school data confirm) that at least five percent and likely more of our school-age children have severe problems with learning.
• Learning disabilities are not the same as mental retardation or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). People with LD have average to above-average intelligence, which is not the case for people with mental retardation. While there are a significant number of people with LD who also have AD/HD, AD/HD is not a learning disability. (If AD/HD and LD are confused during your conversations, it can often help to distinguish between them by stating that AD/HD is a neurobiological disorder characterized by developmentally inappropriate impulsivity, inattention, and in some cases, hyperactivity, while LD is a neurological disorder that affects the brain's ability to receive, process, store and respond to information.)
• Learning disabilities are lifelong. Many children can be taught to compensate for them with early diagnosis and appropriate instruction.

 

Legal Protections

People with learning disabilities have legal protections available to them through several federal laws. Being familiar with these laws will help support your advocacy efforts.

 

• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004)

• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

  Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs and activities, public or private, that receive federal financial assistance. The law does not provide funding for special education or related services, but it does permit the federal government to take funding away from programs that do not comply with the law.

• Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)

  The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is a civil rights law that protects individuals with disabilities from discrimination in the workplace, as well as school and other settings. ADA does not provide funding for services or accommodations.

• No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)

  While not offering any protections specific to students with disabilities, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is a federal law that requires significant accountability measures for elementary and secondary education in the U.S. It is important legislation for students with disabilities because it ensures that academic standards be set for all children, including those with disabilities.

 

Prevalence or Frequency of Occurrence

The prevalence of learning disabilities is frequently addressed by the media and is often brought up in discussions with policymakers so it's important to know the facts on this issue. While there is no exact data regarding the total number of Americans who have learning disabilities, it is estimated that as much as 15 percent of the U.S. population has some type of LD.

 

Fortunately, there are reliable data on the number of children served in the LD category under IDEA, which is often the group singled out for discussion. While there has been substantial growth in the LD category during the 30 years since enactment of the IDEA, the number of students in the LD category has increased less than the total number of students served under IDEA in each of the past 13 consecutive years. In fact, there has been a decline in the number of students identified as LD in each of the years between 2000 and 2005.

 

Some important numbers

• 2,780,218 students (ages 6-21) are being served in the LD category of IDEA today, using the most recent data. This is 45 percent of the total number of students served under IDEA and 5.2 percent of the U.S. resident population of students in that age group.
• The percentage of the estimated population of students in the LD category has increased from 4.4% to 5.2% in the five years between 2000 and 2005.
• The percentage of students served in the LD category varies significantly from state to state, partially because of the varied methods that schools use to qualify students as LD and eligible for special education services. Currently, state identification rates range from a low of 2.2% in Kentucky to a high of 7.7% in Iowa and Oklahoma. (These are the numbers from a national perspective — to get the specifics for your state, visit the Data Accountability Center (DAC) website.) (Source: Data Accountability Center (DAC)

Over Identification

With less than five percent of the school-age population currently receiving special education services in the LD category, there appears to be little evidence supporting the persistent claim that students are over-identified as LD. In fact, Congressional testimony by Dr. G. Reid Lyon, former chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health, indicated that approximately 6 percent of school-age children will experience learning difficulty, particularly in the area of reading, even when provided with early and intensive interventions. It is these children who should be served by special education.

Another frequent issue raised by both media and policymakers is that of overrepresentation of minority populations in special education. The data are relatively new since states were not required to collect special education data by race/ethnicity until the IDEA was reauthorized in 1997. While there is reason for concern about over-identification of minorities, the disability categories and race/ethnic groups of greatest concern are that of emotional disturbance and mental retardation as it relates to black and Hispanic students.

 

As with the overall rate of identification of students as LD, the disproportionality of race/ethnic groups varies among the states. The determination of disproportionality is generally made by comparing the race/ethnic distribution of students served within each disability category of IDEA with the distribution of those groups within the resident population for a state or school district. Additional information on disproportionality by race and disability is available at http://nccrest.eddata.net/maps/index.php.

 

Cost of Special Education

The cost of delivering special education services to students with disabilities is a frequent topic for the media and policymakers alike. Recent studies have helped identify the true costs associated with IDEA services, most notably the Special Education Expenditures Project (SEEP) . http://csef.air.org/

These expenditures include spending on all regular and special education services used to educate students with LD. The majority of students with LD spend more than 80 percent of their instructional time in general education.

 

Outcomes and Expectations

The difficulties faced by people with LD can often be best communicated by providing data on the outcomes being experienced by those served by special education. While there is frequent reporting on the remarkable achievements of a few notables with LD, in general, people with LD are experiencing poor outcomes in important areas such as high school graduation, postsecondary education and average earnings. Overall, learning disabilities compromise abilities and aspirations and can lead to problems such as drug abuse and poor mental health.

 

Graduation

Graduation from high school with a standard diploma for students with LD covered under IDEA in 2001-2002 was 57 percent. This was up from just under 54 percent in the previous year.

 

Dropout

The dropout rate for students with LD was 35 percent in the school year 2001-2002, versus almost 39 percent in the previous year. Dropout rates vary greatly by racial/ethnic group for both general and special education population.

 

Postsecondary Education

Among high school graduates who enrolled in postsecondary education, 28 percent of those with LD enrolled in four-year institutions compared to 62 percent of those without a disability. (Source: National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988)

 

Parental Expectations

Based on a 2001 survey, 59 percent of parents expect their student with LD to graduate from high school with a standard diploma. Regarding postsecondary education, 14 percent of parents expect their students with LD to graduate from a 2-year college, while just 10 percent expect graduation from a 4-year college. A majority of parents (64 percent) reported that they expect their students with LD definitely or probably won;t graduate from a 4-year college. (Source: National Longitudinal Transition Study 2)

 

Cost of Procedural Safeguards in Special Education

There are many reports about the high cost of litigation in special education. Like other assertions regarding special education, this is difficult to substantiate. Recent studies of due process hearings, such as those conducted by the Project Forum at the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, indicate that the number of due process hearings held in the U.S. is declining. A lot of this can be attributed to the requirement that all states make mediation and other dispute resolution strategies available to schools and parents in conflict.

 

A report by the SEEP (Report #4) indicated that total expenditures on special education mediation, due process and litigation during the 1999-2000 school year was approximately $146.5 million for all K-12 special education students in public schools (6.2 million students). This breaks down to an expenditure of approximately $24 per special education pupil and accounts for only .3 percent of total special education expenditures.

Report #5 of the SEEP indicates that per pupil expenditures for students in special education range from a low of $10,558 for students with learning disabilities to a high of $20,095 for students with multiple disabilities. The average per pupil expenditure for a typical regular education student who receives no special education services is $6,556. Therefore, the average expenditure for students with LD is 1.6 times the expenditure for a regular education student.