The Ethics of Special Education

Since publication of the original edition of this book, there have been significant changes across the landscape of special education. This new edition addresses those changes and revisits enduring ethical issues that are most salient and pressing to special education teachers and administrators. Using a case-based approach, this popular text encourages students to reason and collaborate about ethical issues rather than simply master a set of principles and precepts. The issues highlighted in this volume include due process, the distribution of educational resources, institutional unresponsiveness, professional relationships, conflicts among parents and teachers, and confidentiality. The Ethics of Special Education, Second Edition emphasizes the perspectives and predicaments of special educators, but is also germane to the professional lives of a much wider range of individuals, from classroom teachers engaged in inclusion to administrators and school psychologists involved in negotiating IEPs (Individualized Education Programs).

Book Features:

• Real-life cases that raise personal, institutional, and policy issues endemic to special education.
• A philosophically grounded framework for discussing the cases.
• An approach that helps students work as a group to disentangle the ethical problems associated with the case.
• Examples of what reasonably careful and comprehensive analyses look like.
• Updated and completely new cases based on feedback from special educators and administrators.
• An updated version of the Council for Exceptional Children’s code of ethics.

Kenneth R. Howe is professor emeritus of educational foundations, policy, and practice at the School of Education, University of Colorado Boulder. Amy L. Boelé is assistant professor of special education at the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver. The late Ofelia B. Miramontes was associate professor of education and associate vice chancellor for diversity and equity at the University of Colorado at Boulder.