Moral Issues in Special Education

The book identifies and analyzes important yet insufficiently explored moral issues in k-12 special education. It aims to achieve a successful combination of experience and theory. The experience comes from the many years the author was an Illinois special education due process hearing officer (1987-2007). The theory comes from the even more years he taught and did scholarly work in the areas of moral, political, legal, and educational philosophy as a philosophy professor (1969-2012).Each of the moral issues considered in the book figured importantly in one or more of the most significant disputes the author was called upon to adjudicate. Throughout the book he draws upon important concepts in moral, political, legal, and educational philosophy as conceptual resources. He considers these concepts invaluable for analyzing moral issues, especially when a person experiences discomfort caused by a sense that an issue is morally problematic but finds it hard to articulate the crux of the issue.Throughout the book, however the author has tried hard to write in language that readers unfamiliar with the terminology and discourse style of philosophy can understand, and always to make it apparent why and how particular philosophical points bear upon important moral issues in k-12 special education.

In this book, Bob Ladenson articulates well the justification, morally and logically, for universal quality free public education, and for students with disabilities in particular. His years of experience as a special education hearing officer, and an academic philosopher and ethicist provide a unique vantage point for this analysis. He blends philosophy with individual examples from his work, giving the reader the benefit of understanding both the theory and the real world application. I intend on using this in my classes.

Robert F. Ladenson is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He was an Illinois Special Education Due Process Hearing Officer (1987-2007).