CEC Policy Manual, 1997
Section Three, Professional Policies, Part 1 Chapter 6
Community-Based Services
- Prerequisites
- Characteristics
- The Need for Flexibility and Development
- Prevention of Handicapping Conditions
Prerequisites
Significant nationwide trends, both to reduce the populations of
institutions and to improve the services provided for those who are
institutionalized, necessitate comprehensive public policies on
community-based services. Numerous exceptional children and adults
reside in institutions. The quantity and quality of educational and
other service programs provided in these facilities vary greatly.
Considerable evidence, however, has been collected demonstrating that
many institutions for exceptional citizens have failed to meet the needs
of their residents. Institutionalization, in many instances, has
violated basic individual rights and fostered inhumane deprivation.
Rights violated include the opportunity to live in a humane environment
and be provided with individual programs of treatment designed to allow
each person to develop to the greatest degree possible.
Despite public and professional awareness of deplorable institutional
conditions, persons with exceptionalities who could not live in natural
homes were routinely placed in institutions. Alternative service
arrangements were usually not available and an implicit assumption was
made that some persons with disabilities were incapable of growth. The
lack of quality services and the stigma of negative attitudes must be
changed.
The Council, recognizing the necessity for community-based services,
maintains that the human services system must adhere to the principle of
normalization to avoid destructive individual and societal consequences
and adhere to the following prerequisites:
a.Central to a person's growth and dignity is a right to live within
the community, with access to high quality and appropriate services.
b.A legal mandate with fixed responsibility must exist providing
community services for all persons, including those now
institutionalized.
c.The goal of community services is to assure the greatest developmental
gains on the part of the individual through maximum flexibility in all
services.
d.The ongoing process of normalizing the service system requires
developing a continuum of community-based living environments and the
selective use of the full range of services available to the entire
community.
e.Multiple and diverse methods of safeguarding program quality are
essential at every level of responsibility.
f.All programs provided to exceptional persons must include written
standards governing service delivery.
g.When a state restricts an individual's fundamental liberty, it must
adhere to the principle of least restrictive environment and, further,
absolutely guarantee due process.
Characteristics
A comprehensive community-based service system for exceptional persons
should reflect the following characteristics:
a.Services must meet the needs of persons of all ages, must
accommodate the problems of individuals possessing all degrees of
disabilities, and be available when needed and where needed by the
individual.
b.Services must be appropriately located in populous neighborhoods and
should be compatible with the surrounding community.
c.Services must be based upon a systematic plan for continuity which
interrelates with other established services.
d.Services must have a legally vested authority which enables the fixing
of responsibility and accountability with implementation power.
e.Services must be designed to permit the placement of exceptional
persons in high quality programs in the least restrictive
environment.
f.Services must be economically sound in meeting human development
needs.
The Need for Flexibility and Development
Because of rapid changes and developments in the environmental factors
that influence the characteristics of children and the conditions of
their lives, special education should maintain a flexibility that
permits it to adapt to changing requirements.
Some of the events and changes that have had major impact on special
education in recent years are the following: a rubella epidemic,
discovery of preventatives for retrolental fibroplasia, increasing
numbers of premature births, increasing awareness of the deleterious
effects of poverty and malnutrition, new techniques in surgical
intervention, invention of individual electronic hearing aids, and
adaptation of low-vision aids. Changes and developments in public
health, medicine, technology, and social programs may have only a small
total effect on school systems, but they frequently have major impacts
on special education programs. Changes in one aspect of special
education quickly are reflected in other aspects of the field as, for
example, the rapid development of day school programs for children with
exceptionalities which has been reflected in a more severely disabled
population in residential schools.
Special educators must seek to be highly flexible in the provision of
services and the use of technology and techniques to meet the changing
needs of children with exceptionalities.
School administrators and special educators have particular
responsibility for sustaining their professional awareness and
development as a basis for changing programs to meet changing needs.
Prevention of Handicapping Conditions
Increasing knowledge of the biological and social causes of many
handicapping conditions now makes some conditions preventable. The
Council believes that appropriate prenatal counseling and care and
intervention services could prevent or reduce the severity of many
handicapping conditions. Therefore, The Council believes that there
should be substantial governmental attention and resources devoted to
prevention and the amelioration of the impact of handicapping conditions
including:
a.Research and development
b.Public awareness
c.Prenatal services
d.Child- and family-centered early intervention services
e.Family and parenting education and support programs for teenagers and
other high-risk populations
f.Reduction of social and environmental factors that cause handicapping
conditions.
The Council for Exceptional Children.
(1997). CEC Policy Manual, Section Three (pp. 71--92)
Reston, VA: Author
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