utopian school district: An overview

Individualization is the key to effective special education. That is why every child in a special education setting has an individualized education plan (IEP). The needs of, for example, a child with autism who is nonverbal are very different from the needs of a highly verbal child on the autism spectrum with social deficits. Allowing more individualized assessment and delivering more individualized treatment would be a critical component of any 'utopian' school district.

However, as well as creating individualized instruction plans for all students in their supportive environments, the larger environment of the school should also be supportive of learning differences. "Consider children with disabilities as general education children first: Special education and general education are treated as separate systems, but in fact share responsibility for the child with disabilities" and there should be more similarities between the two than differences (Peterson & Tamor 2003:...
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