According to a US Department of Justice investigation's finding
The province of Georgia is discovered to be wrongfully isolating students that they deem to have behavioral and emotional inabilities (Reynolds, 2017). A probe into the situation found that this sort of segregation has not only resulted in about 5,000 children getting a substandard education but also acted as a constraint to accessing the specialized curriculum and behavioral resources that are otherwise available for such students in integrated systems. This paper, therefore, seeks to examine Georgia's rationale of segregating these children as well as to identify some of the possible effects that the discriminatory system has had on the children involved. The paper also gives possible corrective measures that the state can seek to undertake to combat the effects.
Georgia's Segregation of Students with Disabilities
In reference to a two-year investigation on four schools and four students with mental and behavioral issues in the state of Georgia, the US Department of Justice found that Georgia is illegally segregating the students. Some of the segregation programs were even found housed in various dilapidated school buildings that were formerly used to house black school going children during Jim Crows era. The following are some of the findings as uncovered by the US Department of Justice.
Georgia's Rationale for this Practice
According to ProPublica (Gross, 2018), a letter sent to the Georgia Province's Governor details how schools in Georgia were quick to transfer children they deemed as having disabilities and behavioural issues out of mainstream classrooms. The letter further explains that in some of the cases, students were often recommended for placement after only a single incident or even a string of minor occurrences, such as the use of inappropriate language when addressing a teacher.
Damaging Segregation
In some of the instances, the children affected experienced entire segregation from the rest of the school with examples such as having different lunch and recreational hours as well as being housed in totally different buildings away from all the other mainstream students (Gross, 2018). An example is given of a thirteen-year-old student who was kept in a seclusion room for 19 out of all the 30 days that he had attended school. In the end, the secluded boy is reported to have committed suicide with the rope that he was given to use as a belt. In addition to the examples given, segregating students with mental or behavioral challenges limits them from accessing the specialized needs and education that they deserve making it impossible for them to get over their mental challenges (Goodley, 2014).
How can Georgia Address this Issue?
To address the issues of ableism as raised by Department of Justice against the state of Georgia, the country needs to find ways through which the education system in all schools can be desegregated. They could either completely shut down all segregation facilities, try and the mainstream of the children deemed to have behavioral issues or find private facilities that can take in and properly educate these children with special needs.
Conclusion
Based on the information gathered so far, Georgia seems to be the only state with the so-called psycho-education system, unlike other states that have tried to mainstream the education of special needs children alongside other healthy children. There is, therefore, a need to have the state revise its educational policies as regards special education.
References
Goodley, D. (2014). Dis/ability studies: Theorising disablism and ableism. Routledge.
Gross, A. (2018). Georgia is illegally segregating students with behavioral problems. There's a better way.. [online] Mother Jones. Available at: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/behavior-segregation-georgia-doj/ [Accessed 21 Apr. 2018].
Reynolds, J. M. (2017). “I’d rather be dead than disabled”—the ableist conflation and the meanings of disability. Review of Communication, 17(3), 149–163. doi:10.1080/15358593.2017.1331255
