Johnson has seen many changes in special education

By Trisha Marczak (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, June 14, 2008

Special education has gone through some dramatic waves of innovation over the past 35 years. Nancy Johnson, who is retiring this year as the Fergus Falls Area Special Education Cooperative Director, has been around for it all.

Johnson began teaching special education in Underwood in 1972, before the federal government had enacted laws that mandated schools to provide adequate services for special needs students.

It wasn’t until the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) of 1975, that schools were legally obliged to offer services for physically and mentally handicapped students.

Before laws existed, districts like Underwood did what they could to make the learning environment as accessible as possible.

“You did the best at the time with what you had,” Johnson said.

Two years before the EAHCA, now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Fergus Falls Area Special Education Cooperative was created. The Cooperative provides services to nine area schools and, to date, serves the needs of 7,395 students.

According to Johnson, the co-op style was, and is, an efficient way of offering much needed resources to students. The cooperative’s 57 employees are able to provide services throughout the various schools. Smaller schools, that would otherwise not be able to afford a psychologist, are able to serve children in need.

During the beginning years of the cooperative and the EAHCA, there were only a handful of special education categories, and much of the law focused on providing accessibility for physically handicapped students.

Since then, lawmakers and specialists have worked to incorporate the latest research into curriculum guidelines and teaching methods.

New research is constantly being created, and the cooperative has been busy keeping up to date.

The 1980s saw a great deal of growth relating to medicine and diagnoses for milder forms of learning disabilities. Along with such changes came new categories that sought to provide assistance.

“Things like autism came onto the scene,” Johnson said.

Programs now offer services in 14 different categories, ranging from Severely Multiply Impaired to Emotional Behavior Disordered.

Special education is now going through its third major wave, Johnson said. The focus has begun to shift towards accountability and inclusion through mandated standards and progress reports.

“It’s taking a kid where they’re at and moving them forward,” Johnson said.

Johnson expects technology to play a role in the next phase of special education.

Services for hearing impaired children may expand to include technology that would translate teachers’ words onto computer-like devices on childens’ desks.

“It’s such a young field and it’s changing fast,” Johnson said.

Johnson is leaving the special education field after 35 years of experiences.

Because research is on-going, Johnson and others don’t ever expect special education to stand still.

Shannon Erickson, who has worked with the cooperative for about 20 years, is taking over next year as the director.

Johnson said she’s confident that Erickson will be able to lead the organization through upcoming changes.