The quality of life of rural high school special education graduates: A follow-up study

In light of many of the recent cut-backs in education and the general lack of morale among educators in respect to those cuts in funding, some teachers are beginning to question the effectiveness of our present special education system-a system that expends considerable amounts of resources on persons with disabilities. The purpose of special education, as stated in Public Law 94-142, is to provide a free and appropriate public education for all exceptional children (Kneedler, Hallahan, & Kauffman, 1984). An overriding goal of special education is to provide supplemental educational services to students with disabilities, either to enable these individuals to return to regular education or to ensure that they have similar skills and knowledge as their peers without handicaps or disabilities. Yet, according to Edger (1989), no instructional technology, placement,law, research institute, or interagency agreement would ever allow for equal opportunity for learning that would truly make a difference. The U.S. Department of Education reported in 1985 that over 4 million students with handicaps received special education services supported, at least in part, by federal funds (deBettencourt, Zigmond, & Thornton, 1989). Many of the conditions that our society now faces-lack of health care, dim employment figures, and low family income levels, are exacerbated by mental retardation or learning disabilities. With the almost astronomical amounts of money being expended for special education services, it is important to revisit the question of wether individuals with mental retardation or learning disabilities can achieve a quality of life comparable to individuals without mental retardation or learning disabilities by means of special education. As Schalock, Keith, Hoffman and Karan (1989) have noted the quality of life has become the major issue in the 90s replacing deinstitutionalization, normalization and community adjustments.