Jeff Sessions and Special Needs Education
My wife wrote an essay about our experience and how Jeff Sessions seems poorly suited to look after the interests of special needs education: Many people in the disability community are concerned that Sessions may fail to uphold the educational rights of children with disabilities. In a 2000 speech to the U.S. Senate titled, Education Discipline and IDEA , Sessions argued that “special treatment for certain children…may be the single most irritating problem for teachers throughout America today.” He was referring to children with documented disabilities who meet the strict eligibility criteria for receiving special education services. The underlying message in the speech is that children with disabilities who exhibit behavioral challenges should be disciplined or segregated from their peers in general education.