Opening Doors: Students With Disabilities Who Require Unique Support Structures

“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”

Public education in the United States is a grand experiment that has its roots in the early 1800s in Massachusetts, with the appointment of Horace Mann as the first Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education (1837–1848). Mann argued for a universal, free, nonsectarian education funded by taxes to educate children, regardless of their background (Mann, 1957). He believed that a free public education was the great equalizer that would impact social mobility for all who engaged in it. The end result is an educated population that strengthens democracy.

Mann’s thoughts on the synergy between education and democracy were strengthened by Thomas Dewey’s (1916) writings, which held that schools should be laboratories for democracy. He maintained that educational democracy was a process of living, learning, and participating through which democratic habits were cultivated. The habits learned in school provide an educational framework for living and interacting with others through the democratic process (Dewey, 1916).

More recently, Mike Rose (2009, 2014) directs educators to ponder the constructs that make education truly democratic. He maintains that the answers have implications for us as a nation, for how we imagine our future, and for education’s impact on that future. How an educator views democracy and its application shapes their classroom goals and how they go about meeting them with their students in mind (Rose, 2014). The contribution of educators to democracy has powerful personal, public, and political dimensions and, as such, teaching is a significant cultural activity (Toporek, 2009). Thus, what is done daily in the classroom—teaching children/youth, teaching other adults, teaching ourselves something new—continues as a contribution to democracy. This grand pluralistic educational experiment, deeply rooted in the United States’ educational history and in which democracy and culture are intertwined, moves into the third decade of the 21st century.

This historical reflection reminds us that education is a function of the access afforded to children and youth. However, we know that access is only the beginning step to learning or educational success. Access without accommodations, modifications, or individualized programming does not address each student’s specific learning needs or strengths. Access opens the door, but what happens in the classroom once it’s open is the key to educational success.

Education has addressed the provision of evidence-based practices formulated around individualized teaching (Slavin, 2020). The application of these teaching or behavioral methods breaks down learning or behavioral barriers within the classroom and focuses on the needs or strengths of each individual child/youth. Access, in conjunction with individualized learning strategies and interventions, opens the door to learning and behavioral outcomes that move a student forward on their educational and life journey. Access is not a reality unless what happens in the classroom is democratically developed and tailored to each student’s strengths and needs. In short, it is what occurs in the classroom once access is achieved that expands access from the opening of the door to actual learning, achievement, and growth. The accommodations, modifications, and individualized programming move access from a theoretical concept to reality for each child/youth within the school environment.

Education serves as an access point in life for all of us. History continues to teach us that education serves as a democratic base for all children/youth who walk through the school door. However, it is what happens once access is achieved that is most important. For example, what are the opportunities provided to each student that help them become their smartest self, their most well-behaved self, their most literate self, their most self-assured self . . .? It is through the application of the individualized considerations presented in this issue of Intervention in School and Clinic that each learner is invited to share in the egalitarian ideals that lead to lifelong positive outcomes in a democratic society.

In the lead feature, Language-Rich Classrooms: Unlocking the Potential of All Students, Spies provides guidance on how to build language-rich classrooms not just for students who are English Learners, but for any student who may have struggled with language-based learning. In the second feature, Education as a Practice of Freedom: Humanizing Pedagogy for Students with Disabilities, Holbrook challenges current pedagogical practices and emphasizes a shift toward a more humanistic approach. In the third feature, Opening Doors Behind Closed Doors: Strategies to Improve Educational Access for Adjudicated Youth, Mathur et al. highlight the often discussed but never addressed issues of teaching in juvenile justice facilities, highlighting strategies and supports that can meet the needs of students being educated in a complex system that may change day to day. The last feature, Empowering Paraeducators to Support Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Through Practice-Based Coaching: A Collaborative Approach, Baltodano-Van Ness et al., outlines a supportive professional development model that equips paraeducators through strategic coaching and mentorship from their cooperating teacher. The final manuscript is a Global Perspectives Column, Introducing School-Wide PBIS through Family-School-University Learning Lab in Türkiye, in which Afcan et al. highlight the adaptations that can be made to implement School-Wide-Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports in school districts outside the United States through coordinated efforts and engagement with school districts, school administrators, teachers, staff, parents, and students.

We hope you enjoy this special series. The term barrier has become synonymous with special education, and while it may be true that there are many barriers for students with disabilities in schools, it presents a narrative of constant struggle (Gargiulo & Bouck, 2021). In opening doors, rather than continuing the narrative, we consider the barrier and how to remove it. We hope this series of manuscripts helps you open doors in your own schools and classrooms.