... interest groups are often instrumental in collecting information, supoorting and publishing research, and facilitating federal and state legislation to help students with special needs. But probably the most influential factor affecting educators' use of categories and labels, at least in the United States, is that federal funds, available to support special educational services for up to 12 percent of the student population, are provided only when students have been formally identified as having a particular disabling condition. In accordance with IDEA, federal funds are provided to support special services for students who fall within the following categories of special needs: specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, emotional disturbance, autism, mental retardation, including sever and multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairments, traumatic brain injury, hearing impairments, including deafness, visual impairments, including blindness, and other health impairments. Special educators do not necessarily use the classification system and labels of IDEA. For example, rather than talk ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now