title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: University education in Washington Heights includes Yeshiva University and Boricua College. Located between 184th and 186th streets east of Broadway, Yeshiva University's Wilf Campus was founded in 1928 and is the Jewish institution's main campus; it was originally envisioned with Moorish Revival aesthetic, although most of its buildings ended up with a modern design. Schools within the campus include Yeshiva College, the Syms School of Business, and the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy high school. Boricua College, whose Manhattan campus is located on 156th and Broadway in the Audubon Terrace complex, is a small private college founded in 1975 to serve the city's Puerto Rican population.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The medical campus of Columbia University hosts the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the College of Dental Medicine, the Mailman School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, and the biomedical programs of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which offer Masters and Doctorate degrees in several fields. These schools are among the departments that compose the Columbia University Irving Medical Center.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: CUNY in the Heights, a higher education program of the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York, is actually located in Inwood on the corner of 213th Street and Broadway, despite its name. In the same building, the CUNY XPress Immigration Center is a branch of their Citizenship Now! program, which offers immigrants free legal services to help in attaining citizenship.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights is connected to Fort Lee, New Jersey across the Hudson River via the Othmar Ammann-designed George Washington Bridge, the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge. Upon completion in 1931, it was also the world's longest suspension bridge. The Pier Luigi Nervi-designed George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal is located at the Manhattan end between 178th and 179th streets, extending between Fort Washington and Wadsworth avenues. After its construction in 1963, Nervi won an award for the terminal's unique use of concrete, including its huge butterfly-like ventilation ducts. The station provides service to northern New Jersey via NJ Transit Bus Operations; Paterson and Jersey City via Spanish Transportation; the Northeastern Corridor via Greyhound; and upstate New York via Rockland Coaches and OurBus.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The Trans-Manhattan Expressway, part of Interstate 95, runs for from the George Washington Bridge in a trench between 178th and 179th streets. The construction of the George Washington Bridge and the Trans-Manhattan Expressway required the demolition of all apartment buildings between 178th and 179th streets, in addition to many west of Cabrini Boulevard between 177th and 181st streets, evicting over 1,000 families. To the east, the highway leads to the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, completed in 1963, which crosses the Harlem River and connects to the Bronx via the Cross Bronx Expressway. The Washington Bridge, built in 1888, crosses the river just north of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge and connects to both the Trans-Manhattan and Cross Bronx expressways.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Crossing the river at 175th Street in Manhattan, the High Bridge is the oldest bridge in New York City still in existence. The bridge was completed in 1848 to carry the Croton Aqueduct as part of the city's water system; a promenade was added in 1864 that stayed in use up until the 1970s, although the aqueduct function was discontinued in 1949. In the late 1920s, several of its stone piers were replaced with a steel arch that spanned the river to allow ships to more easily navigate under the bridge. In June 2015, the High Bridge reopened as a pedestrian and bicycle bridge after a three-year rehabilitation project.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: For transport northward and southward across Manhattan, Washington Heights is connected with two other significant highways: the Harlem River Drive by the Harlem River and the Henry Hudson Parkway (part of New York State Route 9A) by the Hudson River. The Harlem River Drive began as a horse carriage roadway in 1898 and was converted into a highway exclusively for cars during the 1950s. The road has since blocked access to the waterfront from Highbridge Park, although the Harlem River Greenway (planned for renovation ) can still be accessed from 155th Street and Dyckman Street. The Henry Hudson Parkway, built in 1936, is also surrounded by parkland but leaves Fort Washington Park with a large amount of waterfront space on its western side, while the Hudson River Greenway lies on its eastern side. Running above-ground between the highway and the greenway is the Empire Service Amtrak line, whose closest stops are at Yonkers and Penn Station.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights is well served by the New York City Subway. On the IND Eighth Avenue Line, service is available at the 155th Street and 163rd Street–Amsterdam Avenue stations (), the 168th Street station (), and the 175th Street, 181st Street, and 190th Street stations (). The IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line () has stops at 157th Street, 168th Street, 181st Street, and 191st Street.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Out of these stations, only 175th Street is fully accessible, although the tunnel to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station at its 177th Street exit is not. The 168th Street station is accessible only for the entrance to the A and C trains. To help residents navigate the steep hills of the neighborhood's northwestern area, the 181st Street and 190th Street IND stations provide free elevator service between Fort Washington Avenue and the Broadway valley below. On the northeastern side, the 191st Street station also has an elevator to St. Nicholas Avenue and a tunnel running to Broadway.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The 181st Street and 190th Street IND stations have several unique entrances and exits, many featuring a stone brick design inspired by the Overlook Terrace cliffside. The 168th Street, 190th Street, and both 181st Street stations are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 191st Street and 190th Street stations have the distinction of being the deepest in the entire subway system by distance to ground level, at 180 and 140 feet respectively. In 1951, researchers from New York University found that the 190th Street station would provide shelter from nuclear fallout.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The 2013 UEFA Champions League Final was the final match of the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League, the 58th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 21st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The match took place on Saturday, 25 May 2013, at Wembley Stadium in London, England, between German Bundesliga clubs Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. In the first all-German Champions League final, Bayern won the match 2–1 with goals from Mario Mandžukić and man of the match Arjen Robben coming either side of an İlkay Gündoğan penalty for Dortmund.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: One week later, Bayern won the 2012–13 DFB-Pokal and, having already won the 2012–13 Bundesliga, completed the continental treble. As a result of their Champions League win, Bayern qualified to play against Chelsea, the winners of the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League, in the 2013 UEFA Super Cup, and also earned the right to enter the semi-finals of the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup as the UEFA representative. They would eventually go on to win both competitions.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: A viewership of 21.6 million on the German ZDF and over 360 million world wide has been reported, making it the most watched sports broadcast of 2013.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Wembley Stadium, England's national stadium and home of the England national football team, was announced as the venue of the 2013 final on 16 June 2011. Having hosted the 2011 final, Wembley made history for being the first stadium in the tournament's history to host the final twice in three years. Discussing the short time between the two finals, UEFA President Michel Platini explained that the final would be in celebration of 150 years of the Football Association's existence. It was the seventh occasion that Wembley hosted the final after hosting the 1963, 1968, 1971, 1978, 1992 and the 2011 finals of Europe's premier club competition.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The original Wembley Stadium hosted five European Cup finals. The 1968 and 1978 finals were both won by English sides: Manchester United beat Benfica 4–1 in 1968 and Liverpool defeated Club Brugge 1–0 in 1978. Benfica also lost in the 1963 final, beaten 2–1 by A.C. Milan, while Ajax won the first of three consecutive European Cups at Wembley in 1971, beating Panathinaikos 2–0. In the 1992 final, Spanish club Barcelona defeated Italian side Sampdoria 1–0 in the final match played as the European Cup prior to the following season's introduction of the current Champions League format.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: First opened for the British Empire Exhibition in 1923, the stadium was originally known as the Empire Stadium. That year, it hosted its first FA Cup Final, when almost 200,000 spectators attempted to watch the match between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United. Wembley played host to all of England's matches at the 1966 FIFA World Cup, including the 4–2 victory over West Germany in the final, and at UEFA Euro 1996. The original stadium was closed in 2000 and demolished three years later, to be replaced by a 90,000-capacity arena, which opened in 2007. The new stadium hosted the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final, which pitted Barcelona against Manchester United in a re-match of the final played two years previously. Barcelona claimed their fourth European title as they ran out 3–1 winners.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: This was the first time in the history of the Champions League (and European Cup) that the final was contested between two German sides. There were three previous Champions League finals between two clubs from the same country: 2000 (Spain), 2003 (Italy), and 2008 (England).


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: It was Bayern Munich's 10th European Cup/Champions League final, third all-time behind Real Madrid (12) and A.C. Milan (11). They won four of those finals: in 1974, 1975, 1976, and most recently in 2001. The 2013 final was Bayern's third final in four years; they lost in both 2010 and 2012 (as the first team since 1984 to reach the Final held in their home stadium), adding to previous final losses in 1982, 1987, and 1999.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: For Dortmund, this was their second Champions League final, with them winning their first title in 1997. The next season as defending champions, they defeated Bayern in their only previous meetings in European competitions, winning 1–0 on aggregate in the 1997–98 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, before being eliminated 2–0 on aggregate in the semi-finals by Real Madrid, managed at the time by Jupp Heynckes.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: In 2003, Bayern provided a €2 million loan without collateral to the nearly bankrupt Dortmund which has since been repaid. There has been a heated rivalry between Bayern and Dortmund, known in Germany as "Der Klassiker", which became prevalent during the 1990s. In 2011–12, Dortmund won the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal with Bayern finishing runners-up in both competitions; Dortmund clinched the league title in a home match where bananas were tossed at Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. In 2012–13, Bayern bested Dortmund for both trophies, as well as the DFL-Supercup. Just before Dortmund's Champions League semi-final, it was announced that one of their homegrown stars, Mario Götze, would make a €37 million transfer to Bayern for the upcoming 2013–14 season, a move that some felt would have put more distance between wealthy Bayern and the rest of the Bundesliga. The final 2012–13 Bundesliga game between the two clubs was a 1–1 draw marked by acrimony as Bayern's Rafinha was sent off for elbowing Dortmund's Jakub Blaszczykowski, sparking an argument on the touchline between Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp and Bayern sporting director Matthias Sammer. The press has used terms like 'power shift' and 'changing of the guard' after Dortmund and Bayern eliminated Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, respectively, in the Champions League semi-finals.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The two-time Champions League winner and ex-England international Steve McManaman was appointed as the official ambassador for the final.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: In May 2013, Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli was selected to supervise the final. He was joined by compatriots Renato Faverani and Andrea Stefani as assistant referees, Gianluca Rocchi and Paolo Tagliavento as additional assistant referees, Gianluca Cariolato as reserve assistant referee, and Slovenian Damir Skomina as fourth official.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The opening ceremony was directed by Kevin Spacey's executive assistant and The Prince's Trust ambassador Hamish Jenkinson and his business partner Jonny Grant, who had previously directed the 2011 opening ceremony, also at Wembley. The ceremony, also titled "Battle of Kings", was produced by Films United. It was directed and produced by Grigorij Richters and his producing partner Alex Souabni. Both were the former filmmakers-in-residence of Kevin Spacey and Jenkinson at The Old Vic Theatre in London. The film focused around the story of activist and fundraiser Stephen Sutton, who was part of the group of performers.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The match ball for the final was the Adidas Finale Wembley, which featured the same "Starball" panel configuration as the last three finals. The ball was predominantly white, with each star in blue with yellow patterning and a purple border. Six of the 12 stars featured designs recalling the six previous times that the European Cup final had been held at Wembley Stadium. The ball was unveiled on 30 January 2013 and was used for all knockout stage matches in the 2012–13 competition.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The international ticket sales phase for the general public ran from 11 February to 15 March 2013. Tickets were available in four price categories: £330, £230, £140, and £60. Due to the high demand for tickets, allocation was determined by a lottery.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The two finalist clubs were allocated 25,000 tickets each. Borussia Dortmund received 502,567 requests for tickets, while there were approximately 250,000 orders for tickets from members of Bayern Munich. Both clubs used draws as a means of awarding tickets.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: As is the annual custom, the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Women's Champions League trophies were presented to the host city at a special ceremony at Banqueting House, Whitehall, on 19 April 2013. Receiving the trophies from UEFA President Michel Platini were the Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson and the Mayor of London's commissioner for sport, Kate Hoey. Representing the previous season's competition winners were John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Čech, Fernando Torres and Branislav Ivanović of Chelsea, and Lotta Schelin of the Lyon ladies' team. Also in attendance were final ambassadors Graeme Le Saux and Faye White, who had escorted the trophies from Stamford Bridge to Banqueting House via London's public transport system, and David Bernstein, the chairman of The Football Association.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The UEFA Champions Festival was held at the International Quarter, Stratford City, next to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, from 23 to 26 May 2013.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The 2013 UEFA Women's Champions League Final was held at Stamford Bridge on 23 May 2013 between Wolfsburg and Lyon. Wolfsburg won the game, with Martina Müller scoring the only goal. This ensured that for the first time ever the same nation won both the men's and women's European club titles in the same year.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Borussia Dortmund's Mario Götze, who would join Bayern Munich in the summer, missed the match with a hamstring injury that had kept him out since the semi-final second leg against Real Madrid. Right-back Łukasz Piszczek did play, however, despite being due for hip surgery, while centre-back Mats Hummels recovered from a sprained ankle in time to play. Bayern Munich were without defender Holger Badstuber, who was expected to be out for 10 months with a knee injury, and Toni Kroos, who had yet to recover from an injury sustained in the quarter-final.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Dortmund were the dominant team in the first half-hour of the match, pressing Bayern intensely. Manuel Neuer made five important saves in the first 35 minutes, including two from shots by Robert Lewandowski and one from Marco Reus. Despite this dominance, Dortmund failed to generate many dangerous attacks, as Neuer's only difficult save came when Jakub Błaszczykowski volleyed a cross toward Neuer's near post, which the Bayern keeper deflected out for a corner. A Mario Mandžukić header forced a save from Roman Weidenfeller and Javi Martínez put a header from the ensuing corner just over the bar. The first half was an open affair; while Dortmund dominated the early stages, Bayern were still able to generate several chances through Arjen Robben, who forced Weidenfeller into three saves in the first half. Dortmund were able to generate many of their chances due to uncharacteristically poor play from Philipp Lahm, who gave the ball back to Dortmund in his own half on two occasions.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Bayern later took the initiative and scored the first goal in the 60th minute, when Robben and Franck Ribéry combined to set up Mandžukić for a left-footed finish, the ball going past Marcel Schmelzer on the goal line from three yards out. Shortly after, Dante raised his foot in the penalty area and caught Reus in the stomach; İlkay Gündoğan scored the resulting penalty, shooting low into the left corner and sending Neuer the wrong way. Bayern had a chance to re-take the lead several moments later, when Thomas Müller rounded Weidenfeller and attempted to find Robben, with the ball rolling towards the open goal, only for Neven Subotić to make a last ditch clearance off the line, preventing a tap-in from Robben. Late in the match, Bayern seemed the more likely to score, as David Alaba forced Weidenfeller into a save with a shot from long range. Moments later, a through-ball from Robben caught the Dortmund defence cold, resulting in Bayern having Müller and Mandžukić in a two-on-one with Weidenfeller. Subotić again came to Dortmund's rescue, as he was able to catch up and pressure Müller into playing a poor pass, which left Mandžukić with a tight angle, and the Croatian blasted into the side netting. With a minute left in normal time, Ribéry played in Robben with a back-heeled pass; the Dutch forward burst past the defence and scuffed a weak, low shot past the onrushing Weidenfeller with his left foot from eight yards out for the winning goal.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Borussia Dortmund's manager Jürgen Klopp commented that the long season caught up with Dortmund. "It was late in the game and from the 75th minute it was very hard for us after a tough season, but we deserved to be in the final and we showed that tonight" he said.


title: 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels said the game was really close and very disappointing, and that they were the better team in the first 25 minutes but missed the goal that was needed.


title: Special education

text: Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual differences, disabilities, and special needs. This involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. These interventions are designed to help individuals with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and in their community, which may not be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.


title: Special education

text: Special education aims to provide accommodated education for disabled students such as learning disabilities, learning difficulties (such as dyslexia), communication disorders, emotional and behavioral disorders, physical disabilities (such as osteogenesis imperfecta, cerebral palsy, lissencephaly, and muscular dystrophy), developmental disabilities (such as autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities) and other disabilities. Disabled students are likely to benefit from additional educational services such as different approaches to teaching, the use of technology, a specifically adapted teaching area, a resource room, or a separate classroom.


title: Special education

text: Some scholars of education may categorize gifted education under the umbrella of "special education," but this pedagogical approach is different from special education because of the students' capabilities. Intellectual giftedness is a difference in learning and can also benefit from specialized teaching techniques or different educational programs, but the term "special education" is generally used to specifically indicate instruction of disabled students.


title: Special education

text: Whereas special education is designed specifically for students with learning disabilities, remedial education can be designed for any students, with or without special needs; the defining trait is simply that they have reached a point of unpreparedness, regardless of why. For example, if a person's education was disrupted, for example, by internal displacement during civil disorder or a war.


title: Special education

text: In most developed countries, educators modify teaching methods and environments so that the maximum number of students are served in general education environments. Integration can reduce social stigmas and improve academic achievement for many students.


title: Special education

text: The opposite of special education is "general education", also known as mainstream education. General education is the standard curriculum presented without special teaching methods or supports. Sometimes special education classrooms and general special education classrooms mix. This is called an inclusive classroom.


title: Special education

text: In the past, most students with special needs have been excluded from school. Such exclusion still affects about 23 million disabled children worldwide, particularly in poor, rural areas of developing countries.


title: Special education

text: Some children are easily identified as candidates for special needs due to their medical history. For example, they may have been diagnosed with a genetic condition that is associated with intellectual disability, may have various forms of brain damage, may have a developmental disorder, may have visual or hearing disabilities, or other disabilities.


title: Special education

text: On the other hand, for students with less obvious disabilities, such as those who have borderline intellectual disability or specific learning difficulties (dyslexia, dyscalculia, etc.), two primary methods have been used for identifying them: the "discrepancy model" and the "response to intervention model". The discrepancy model depends on the teacher noticing that the students' achievements are noticeably below what is expected, at which point the teacher may make the decision for the student to receive support from a special education specialist. Before doing so, the teacher must show documentation of low academic achievement. The response to intervention model advocates earlier intervention.


title: Special education

text: In the discrepancy model, a student receives special education services for a specific learning difficulty (SLD) if the student has at least normal intelligence and the student's academic achievement is below what is expected of a student with his or her IQ. Although the discrepancy model has dominated the school system for many years, there has been substantial criticism of this approach (e.g., Aaron, 1995, Flanagan and Mascolo, 2005) among researchers. One reason for criticism is that diagnosing SLDs on the basis of the discrepancy between achievement and IQ does not predict the effectiveness of treatment. Low academic achievers who also have low IQ appear to benefit from treatment just as much as low academic achievers who have normal or high intelligence.


title: Special education

text: The alternative approach, response to intervention, identifies children who are having difficulties in school in their first or second year after starting school. They then receive additional assistance such as participating in a reading remediation program. The response of the children to this intervention then determines whether they are designated as having a learning disability. Those few who still have trouble may then receive designation and further assistance. Sternberg (1999) has argued that early remediation can greatly reduce the number of children meeting diagnostic criteria for learning disabilities. He has also suggested that the focus on learning disabilities and the provision of accommodations in school fails to acknowledge that people have a range of strengths and weaknesses and places undue emphasis on academics by insisting that students should be supported in this area and not in music or sports.


title: Special education

text: A special education program should be customized to address each student's needs. Special educators provide a continuum of services, in which students with various disabilities receive multiple degrees of support based on their individual needs. It is crucial for special education programs to be individualized so that they address the unique combination of needs in a given student.


title: Special education

text: In the United States, Canada, and the UK, educational professionals use a student's Individualized Education Program (IEP). Another name for a student's Individualized Education Plan is a student's Individual Learning Plan (ILP).


title: Special education

text: "The IEP is meant to address each child’s unique learning issues and include specific educational goals. It is a legally binding document [in the US]. The school must provide everything it promises in the IEP."


title: Special education

text: In the US, for children who are not yet three years old, an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) contains information on the child's present level of development in all areas; outcomes for the child and family; and services the child and family will receive to help them achieve the outcomes.


title: Special education

text: In the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law that requires every school system to provide a free and appropriate public education for every child, ages 3 to 22, regardless of how or how seriously that child may be disabled. To ensure that this federal law is obeyed, the government requires every school system provide this type of education to each student in order to receive federal funding. This changed a little in 2004 when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) decided to update the law. After the law was updated into the Disabilities Education Improvement Act, the ability to identify special needs children and give them the appropriate education environment was improved.


title: Special education

text: Students with all forms of special needs are assessed to determine their specific strengths and weaknesses. The earlier these students with special needs are assessed, the faster they get the accommodations that they need, and the better it is for their education. Placement, resources, and goals are determined on the basis of the student's needs. Accommodations and modifications to the regular program may include changes in the curriculum, supplementary aids or equipment, and the provision of specialized physical adaptations that allow students to participate in the educational environment as much as possible. Students may need this help to access subject matter, physically gain access to the school, or meet their emotional needs. For example, if the assessment determines that the student cannot write by hand because of a physical disability, then the school might provide a computer for typing assignments, or allow the student to answer questions verbally instead. If the school determines that the student is severely distracted by the normal activities in a large, busy classroom, then the student might be placed in a smaller classroom such as a separate classroom or resource room.


title: Special education

text: Parents of students with a learning disability must be aware of what type of disability their child has, so they can get access to accommodations such as speech therapy, occupational therapy and adaptive physical education. For example, if a student takes an academic test and it indicates that the student struggles with reading comprehension, parents can request speech and language support or classroom accommodations, such as extra time to complete reading and writing tasks.


title: Special education

text: In most developed countries, schools use different approaches to providing special education services to students. These approaches can be broadly grouped into four categories, according to how much contact the student with special needs has with non-disabled students (using North American terminology):


title: Special education

text: A "special school" is a school catering for students who have special educational needs due to learning difficulties, physical disabilities, or behavioral problems. Special schools may be specifically designed, staffed and resourced to provide appropriate special education for children with additional needs. Students attending special schools generally do not attend any classes in mainstream schools.


title: Special education

text: Special schools provide individualized education, addressing specific needs. Student to teacher ratios are kept low, often 6:1 or lower depending upon the needs of the children. Special schools will also have other facilities for children with special needs, such as soft play areas, sensory rooms, or swimming pools, which are necessary for treating students with certain conditions.


title: Special education

text: In recent times, places available in special schools are declining as more children with special needs are educated in mainstream schools. However, there will always be some children, whose learning needs cannot be appropriately met in a regular classroom setting and will require specialized education and resources to provide the level of support they require. An example of a disability that may require a student to attend a special school is intellectual disability. However, this practice is often frowned upon by school districts in the US in the light of Least Restrictive Environment as mandated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.


title: Special education

text: An alternative is a special unit or special classroom, also called a self-contained classroom, which is a separate classroom dedicated solely to the education of students with special needs within a larger school that also provides general education. This classroom is typically staffed by a specially trained teacher, who provides specific, individualized instruction to individuals and small groups of students with special needs. Separate classrooms, because they are located in a general education school, may have students who remain in the separate classroom full-time, or students who are mainstreamed in certain general education classes. An alternative to the separate classroom full-time for a student would be a one-to-one aide in the general education setting. In the United States, a one-on-one aide for a student with a disability is called a paraprofessional. In the United States a part-time alternative that is appropriate for some students is sometimes called a resource room. Another alternative would be attending a separate classroom for a specific subject such as social studies.


title: Special education

text: One of the first special schools in the world was the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris, which was founded in 1784. It was the first school in the world to teach blind students. The first school in U.K. for the Deaf was established 1760 in Edinburgh by Thomas Braidwood, with education for visually impaired people beginning in the Edinburgh and Bristol in 1765.


title: Special education

text: In the 19th century, people with disabilities and the inhumane conditions where they were supposedly housed and educated were addressed in the literature of Charles Dickens. Dickens characterized people with severe disabilities as having the same, if not more, compassion and insight in "Bleak House" and "Little Dorrit".


title: Special education

text: Such attention to the downtrodden conditions of people with disabilities brought resulted in reforms in Europe including the re-evaluation of special schools. In the United States reform came more slowly. Throughout the mid half of the 20th century, special schools, termed institutions, were not only accepted, but encouraged. disabled students were housed with people with mental illnesses, and they were not educated much, if at all.


title: Special education

text: Deinstitutionalization proceeded in the US beginning in the 1970s following the exposes of the institutions, and it has taken sometime before the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act of 1974, to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and then Individuals with Disabilities Educational Improvement Act (IDEIA) have come into fruition. School integration was supported as early as the 1970s, and teacher preparation programs in higher education have carefully taught and instructed graduates on inclusion at the classroom, individual, school, and district levels for decades resulting in dual certification of "regular teachers".


title: Special education

text: With the Amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997, school districts in the United States began to slowly integrate students with moderate and severe special needs into regular school systems. This changed the form and function of special education services in many school districts and special schools subsequently saw a steady decrease in enrollment as districts weighed the cost per student. It also posed general funding dilemmas to certain local schools and districts, changed how schools view assessments, and formally introduced the concept of inclusion to many educators, students and parents.


title: Special education

text: The student can be taught in either a classroom or outside environment. Both environments can be interactive for the student to engage better with the subject.


title: Special education

text: Different instructional techniques are used for some students with special educational needs. Instructional strategies are classified as being either "accommodations" or "modifications".


title: Special education

text: An "accommodation" is a reasonable adjustment to teaching practices so that the student learns the same material, but in a format that is more accessible to the student. Accommodations may be classified by whether they change the presentation, response, setting, or scheduling of lessons. For example, the school may accommodate a student with visual impairments by providing a large-print textbook. This is a presentation accommodation. A "modification" changes or adapts the material to make it simpler. Modifications may change what is learned, how difficult the material is, what level of mastery the student is expected to achieve, whether or how the student is assessed, or any other aspect of the curriculum. For example, the school may modify a reading assignment for a student with reading difficulties by substituting a shorter, easier book. A student may receive both accommodations and modifications.


title: Special education

text: All developed countries permit or require some degree of accommodation for students with special needs, and special provisions are usually made in examinations which take place at the end of formal schooling.


title: Special education

text: In addition to how the student is taught the academic curriculum, schools may provide non-academic services to the student. These are intended ultimately to increase the student's personal and academic abilities. Related services include developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are required to assist a student with learning disabilities and includes speech and language pathology, audiology, psychological services, physical therapy, occupational therapy, counseling services, music therapy, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation and mobility services, medical services as defined by regulations, parent counseling and training, school health services, school social work, assistive technology, other appropriate developmental or corrective support services, appropriate access to recreation and other support services. In some countries, most related services are provided by the schools; in others, they are provided by the normal healthcare and social services systems.


title: Special education

text: As an example, students who have poor impulse control, behavioral challenges, or are autistic may learn self-management techniques, be kept closely on a comfortingly predictable schedule, or given extra cues to signal activities.


title: Special education

text: A university field, termed "severe disabilities", also is taught throughout the US university sector in schools of education. Advanced instruction is based upon community-referenced instruction, and alignment with transition to adulthood and progressive community practices.


title: Special education

text: Rehabilitation counseling personnel are often association with supported employment services, and typically with "transition to adulthood" in which multi-decade recommendations for better coordination between the school and the community service sectors have been made at the federal and university levels.


title: Special education

text: At-risk students (those with educational needs that are not associated with a disability) are often placed in classes with disabled students. Critics assert that placing at-risk students in the same classes as disabled students may impede the educational progress of disabled people.


title: Special education

text: Some special education classes such as separate classroom and resource room have been criticized for a watered-down curriculum.


title: Special education

text: The practice of inclusion (in mainstream classrooms) has been criticized by advocates and some parents of children with special needs because some of these students require instructional methods that differ dramatically from typical classroom methods. Critics assert that it is not possible to deliver effectively two or more very different instructional methods in the same classroom. As a result, the educational progress of students who depend on different instructional methods to learn often fall even further behind their peers.


title: Special education

text: Parents of typically developing children sometimes fear that the special needs of a single "fully included" student will take critical levels of attention and energy away from the rest of the class and thereby impair the academic achievements of all students.


title: Special education

text: Linked to this, there is debate about the extent to which disabled students, whether in mainstream or special settings, should have a specific pedagogy, based on the scientific study of particular diagnostic categories, or whether general instructional techniques are relevant to all students including those with special needs.


title: Special education

text: Some parents, advocates, and students have concerns about the eligibility criteria and their application. In some cases, parents and students protest the students' placement into special education programs. For example, a student may be placed into the special education programs due to a mental health condition such as obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety, panic attacks or ADHD, while the student and his parents believe that the condition is adequately managed through medication and outside therapy. In other cases, students whose parents believe they require the additional support of special education services are denied participation in the program based on the eligibility criteria.


title: Special education

text: Whether it is useful and appropriate to attempt to educate the most severely disabled children, such as children who are in a persistent vegetative state, is debated. While many severely disabled children can learn simple tasks, such as pushing a buzzer when they want attention, some children may be incapable of learning. Some parents and advocates say that these children would be better served by substituting improved physical care for any academic program. In other cases, they question whether teaching such non-academic subjects, such as pushing a buzzer, is properly the job of the school system, rather than the health care system.


title: Special education

text: Another large issue is the lack of resources enabling individuals with special needs to receive an education in the developing world. As a consequence, 98 percent of children with special needs in developing countries do not have access to education.


title: Special education

text: Another issue would be budget cuts. Cuts can affect special education students who don't have access to proper equipment or education. The National Coalition for Personal Shortages did a survey and almost 100% of the teachers said that they are not able to give the proper rights to disabled children. Teachers are getting cut off from work due to the budget cuts.


title: Special education

text: There is a financial debate that covers the use and allotment of special education government funding. The three views on this topic are that too much money is already spent, not enough money is being spent, or that the money that is given isn't being spent properly. The argument for the first is that the amount of money spent on one special needs child is enough to cover a large group of general education students, and sometimes even causes several students to experience budget cuts on general programs to support one child. The evidence for special education not having enough money is the lack of teachers, burnt out teachers and a limited variety of teaching tools for each student. The argument to spend the money differently states that there is a lot of money set aside, but that it is being wasted by spending too much time on paperwork, inefficient IEP meetings or spending money on things that don't actually benefit the child.


title: Special education

text: Disabled children are often denied their right to education. However, little is known about their school attendance patterns. The collection of data on children with disabilities is not straightforward, but data are vital to ensure that policies are in place to address the constraints these children face.


title: Special education

text: By one estimate, 93 million children under age 14, or 5.1% of the world's children, were living with a 'moderate or severe disability' in 2004. According to the World Health Survey, in 14 of 15 low and middle income countries, disabled people of working age were about one-third less likely to have completed primary school. For example, in Bangladesh, 30% of people with disabilities had completed primary school, compared with 48% of those with no disabilities. The corresponding shares were 43% and 57% in Zambia; 56% and 72% in Paraguay.


title: Special education

text: It has been shown that children with a higher risk of disability are far more likely to be denied a chance to go to school. In Bangladesh, Bhutan and Iraq, children with mental impairments were most likely to be denied this right. In Iraq, for instance, 10% of 6- to 9-year-olds with no risk of disability had never been to school in 2006, but 19% of those at risk of having a hearing impairment and 51% of those who were at higher risk of mental disability had never been to school. In Thailand, almost all 6- to 9-year-olds who had no disability had been to school in 2005/06, and yet 34% of those with walking or moving impairments had never been to school.


title: Special education

text: Disabled children require access to services that can support them throughout their time in school, such as more individual attention from instructors. According to the United Nations Centre for Human Rights, about 2% of children with disabilities have access to these services. Those without access to these services are excluded from education and unable to attend school. Due to the need of certain services and facilities, the estimated cost of providing education for a disabled child is 2.3 times higher than a child without disabilities. Given the poverty levels in a variety of developing countries, the education of children with disabilities does not become a priority. Children with physical disabilities are less likely to attend school in comparison with students who do not have a disability and children with an intellectual ability are even less likely than children with physical disabilities. In the Global South, 90% of children with some form of disability do not receive any form of structured education. While current initiatives toward inclusive education internationally have been implemented, such as the Education for All program, some countries in the Global South still challenge the lack of ability to provide children with disabilities access to education due to issues such as lack of resources and schools being overcrowded.


title: Special education

text: White Papers in 1995 and 2001 discuss special education in the country. Local schools are given some independent authority.


title: Special education

text: The Federal Ministry of Education constituted a committee to develop exclusively the first broad -based


title: Special education

text: China holds the largest system of education in the world and features a state run public school system under the order of the Ministry of Education.


title: Special education

text: Japanese students with special needs are placed in one of four different school arrangements: special schools, special classrooms with another school, in resource rooms (which are called "tsukyu"), or in regular classrooms. Some local areas such as Koto Ward in Tokyo are expanding these tsukyu (or, , "Tsubasa Classrooms") to cover all junior high schools within the next few years.


title: Special education

text: Special schools are reserved for students with severe disabilities who cannot be accommodated in their local school. They do not use the same grading or marking systems as mainstream schools, but instead assess students according to their individualized plans.


title: Special education

text: Special classes are similar, and may vary the national curriculum as the teachers see fit. "Tsukyu" are resource rooms that students with milder difficulties use part-time for specialized instruction individually in small groups. These students spend the rest of the day in the mainstream classroom. Some students with special needs are fully included in the mainstream classroom, with accommodations or modifications as needed.


title: Special education

text: Depending on the local authority, state elementary schools may also hold a "Naka-yoshi" (中よし, close friends) class group in addition to the 6 grades, where students who struggle to adapt to mainstream classrooms are gathered and given life skills as well as completing their studies at a more adaptable pace. This is different to Tsukyu in that although all-school activities are regularly held together, the majority of time is spent as a class.


title: Special education

text: Training of disabled students, particularly at the upper-secondary level, emphasizes vocational education to enable students to be as independent as possible within society. Vocational training varies considerably depending on the student's disability, but the options are limited for some. It is clear that the government is aware of the necessity of broadening the range of possibilities for these students. Advancement to higher education is also a goal of the government, and it struggles to have institutions of higher learning accept more disabled students.


title: Special education

text: After independence (1947), Pakistan had to face some serious challenges, due to which no proper emphasis was given to special education and even education. Among other reasons, lack of resources, financial as well as human, was the major one in this context. The need and importance of special education was felt in different educational policies of Pakistan in different times. At the first time, in its report, the Commission on National Education (1959) highlighted the importance of special education. After that the Education Policy (1972) and the National Policy and Implementation Programme (1979) gave some importance to this sector. The same was also reflected in different medium-term (five-year) plans. This was felt more seriously when the Directorate General of Special Education, Islamabad formulated a draft National Policy for Special Education in 1986 and revised it in 1988 to bring it in line with the emerging needs of the disabled population. After that a special education policy was launched in 1999. Recently, Government of Pakistan has launched a new National Policy for Persons with Disabilities 2002, which is dynamically being implemented.


title: Special education

text: Special education is regulated centrally by the Singapore Ministry of Education. Both special schools and integration into mainstream schools are options for students with special educational needs, but most disabled students are placed in special schools.


title: Special education

text: Disabled students who want accommodations on national exams must provide appropriate documentation to prove that they are disabled. Accommodations, but not modifications (e.g., simpler questions) are normally approved if they are similar to the accommodations already being used in everyday schoolwork, with the goal of maintaining the exam's integrity while not having students unfairly disadvantaged by factors that are unrelated to what is being tested. The accommodations are listed on the Primary School Leaving Exam.


title: Special education

text: Australian Association of Special Education Inc (AASE)'s position is informed by the Disability Standards for Education 2005 which require that disabled students are treated on the same basis as other students in regards to enrollment and participation in education.


title: Special education

text: With respect to standardized tests, special consideration procedures are in place in all states for disabled students. Students must provide documentation. Not all desired forms of accommodations are available. For example, students who cannot read, even if the inability to read is due to a disability, cannot have the exam read to them, because the exam results should accurately show that the student is unable to read. Reports on matriculation exams do not mention whether the student received any accommodations in taking the test.


title: Special education

text: Each country in Europe has its own special education support structures. Thirty-one European countries are covered by the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education.


title: Special education

text: Schools must take students' special education needs into account when assessing their achievements. Disabled students are normally included in their neighborhood school, although may be placed in special schools.


title: Special education

text: In Denmark, 99% of students with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia are educated alongside students without any learning challenges.


title: Special education

text: Schools adapt the national guidelines to the needs of individual students. Students with special educational needs are given an individualized plan.


title: Special education

text: They may be exempted from some parts of school examinations, such as students with hearing impairments not taking listening comprehension tests. If the student receives modifications to the school-leaving exams, this is noted on the certificate of achievement. If they are not following the national core curriculum, then they are tested according to the goals of their individual educational program.


title: Special education

text: French students with disabilities are normally included in their neighborhood school, although children may be placed in special schools if their personalized plan calls for it. Each student's personalized school plan describes teaching methods, psychological, medical and paramedical services that the school will provide to the student.


title: Special education

text: Most students with special needs in Germany attend a special school that serves only children with special needs. These include:


title: Special education

text: One in 21 German students attends a special school. Teachers at those schools are specially trained professionals who have specialized in special needs education while in university. Special schools often have a very favorable student-teacher ratio and facilities other schools do not have.


title: Special education

text: Some special needs children in Germany do not attend a special school, but are educated in a mainstream school such as a Hauptschule or Gesamtschule (comprehensive school).


title: Special education

text: Students with special educational needs may be exempted from standardized tests or given modified tests.


title: Special education

text: Students whose disabilities have been certified may be exempted from some standardized tests or given alternative tests. Accommodations are responsive to students' needs; for example, students with visual impairments may take oral tests, and students with hearing impairments take written tests. Accommodations and modifications are noted on the certificate of achievement.


title: Special education

text: According to the 1993 Act on Public Education, students with special educational needs may be exempted from standardized tests or given modified tests. They have a right to extra time, a choice of formats for the tests (e.g., oral rather than written), and any equipment that they normally use during the school day.


title: Special education

text: As of 2006, disabled students received a significant bonus (eight points) on the university entrance examination, which has been criticized as unfair.


title: Special education

text: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) supports students with physical and intellectual disabilities.


title: Special education

text: As a general rule, students with special educational needs are integrated into their regular, mainstream schools with appropriate support, under the "Going to School Together" policy ("Weer Samen Naar School"). Four types of disability-specific special schools exist. The national policy is moving towards "suitable education" ("passend onderwijs"), based on the individual's strengths and weaknesses.


title: Special education

text: A strong emphasis is placed on the specific needs and positive capabilities of the individual, rather than on limitations. Disabilities are normally documented by experts.


title: Special education

text: The National Support System for Special Needs Education (Statped) is managed by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. The general objective for Statped is to give guidance and support to those in charge of the education in municipalities and county administrations to ensure that children, young people and adults with major and special educational needs are secured well-advised educational and developmental provisions. The institutions affiliated with Statped offer a broad spectrum of services. Statped consists of 13 resource centres owned by the State, and 4 units for special education, where Statped buys services. These centres offer special educational guidance and support for local authorities and county administrations.


title: Special education

text: Disabled students have a "guaranteed right" to appropriate accommodations on assessments. Schools are generally considered autonomous.


title: Special education

text: On national tests, the National Examination Center normally grants most requests for accommodations that are supported by the local school's examination committee. Legislation opposes the use of modifications that would be unfair to non-disabled students.


title: Special education

text: Schools are required to provide services and resources to students with special educational needs so that they make progress and participate in school. If the local school is unable to provide appropriately for an individual student, then the student may be transferred to a special school.


title: Special education

text: Spanish non-governmental organizations like ONCE have traditionally provided significant services to disabled students.


title: Special education

text: Local schools have significant autonomy, based on national guidelines. Schools are expected to help students meet the goals that are set for them.


title: Special education

text: There are special schools () for students with low abilities to attend normal education. In 2012 and 2013, the media criticized how students with disabilities that are considered more mild, such as dyslexia, have been placed in special schools, saying that this may seriously hamper their chances on the labour market.


title: Special education

text: Education is controlled by the 26 cantons, and so special education programs vary from place to place. However, integration is typical. Students are assessed according to their individual learning goals.


title: Special education

text: In England and Wales, the acronym "SEN" (for Special Educational Needs) denotes the condition of having special educational needs, the services which provide the support and the programmes and staff which implement the education. In England "SEN PPS" refers to the Special Educational Needs Parent Partnership Service. "SENAS" is the special educational needs assessment service, which is part of the Local Authority. "SENCO" refers to a special educational needs coordinator, who usually works with schools and the children within schools who have special educational needs. The Special Educational Needs Parent Partnership Services help parents with the planning and delivery of their child's educational provision. The Department for Education oversees special education in England.


title: Special education

text: Most students have an individual educational plan, but students may have a group plan in addition to, or instead of, an individual plan. Group plans are used when a group of students all have similar goals.


title: Special education

text: In Scotland the Additional Support Needs Act places an obligation on education authorities to meet the needs of all students in consultation with other agencies and parents. In Scotland the term Special Educational Needs (SEN), and its variants are not official terminology although the very recent implementation of the Additional Support for Learning Act means that both "SEN" and "ASN" (Additional Support Needs) are used interchangeably in current common practice.


title: Special education

text: At a young age students who have special needs in Turkey are provided special education from The Ministry of Education, who are responsible in giving them the education that they need.


title: Special education

text: All special-needs students receive an Individualized Education Program (BEP) that outlines how the school will meet the student's individual needs. The Özel Eğitim Kurumları Yönetmeliği (ÖEKY) requires that students with special needs be provided with a Free Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment that is appropriate to the student's needs. Government-run schools provide special education in varying degrees from the least restrictive settings, such as full inclusion, to the most restrictive settings, such as segregation in a special school.


title: Special education

text: The education offered by the school must be appropriate to the student's individual needs. Schools are not required to maximize the student's potential or to provide the best possible services. Unlike most of the developed world, American schools are also required to provide many medical services, such as speech therapy, if the student needs these services.


title: Special education

text: According to the Department of Education, approximately 10 percent of all school-aged children currently receive some type of special education services.


title: Special education

text: As with most countries in the world, students who are poor, ethnic minorities, or do not speak the dominant language fluently are disproportionately identified as needing special education services.


title: Special education

text: Poor people and refugees are more likely to have limited resources and to employ inexperienced teachers that do not cope well with student behavior problems, "thereby increasing the number of students they referred to special education." Teacher efficacy, tolerance, gender, and years of experience and special education referrals.


title: Special education

text: Before 1978, little action was taken to educate disabled children in Colombia. Children would be left home without much interaction with the outside world. In 1985, special education was researched across the country and education programs were created. After 1990, disabled people were given access to public school classes. The increase in advocation for accessibility for disabled children was initiated by the awareness and recognition of the rights of this group of children to education. While there has been improvement over recent years, there is still slow development for special education programs and special education policy.


title: Special education

text: Statistics from DANE (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística) state that there are 2,624,898 disabled people who reside in Colombia, representing 6.3% of the country's population. According to 2010 research 90% of disabled students in Colombia did not attend a mainstream school, and only 26% of them are able to attend school at all.


title: Special education

text: The history of special education in Colombia can be categorized into three time periods: the period of neglect, the period of diagnosis and planning, and the emergence of special education. The period of planning ran from the years 1978 to the year 1990. The Ministry of Colombia in 1995 implemented a national plan for the development of special education called "Plan Nacional para el Desarrollo de la Educación Especial". The purposes of the plan was to create a national diagnosis of special education and to initiate programs for individuals with disabilities. In 1994, the Ministry of education put the first law into action to introduce special classes in public schools that include disabled students, called Law 115. In 2011, Colombia entered into the Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities, an agreement among the United Nations Education Scientific and Culture Organization(UNESCO) to protect people who live with disabilities.


title: Special education

text: The most recent development of special education in Colombia was Article 11 of Law 1618, which was passed in 2013. The law states that "the Ministry of Education will define the policy and regulate the scheme of education for persons with special educational needs, promoting educational access and quality under a system based on inclusion in the educational services". The Colombian government has also made financial strides into special education, investing over $12.3 million in 2015.


title: Special education

text: In North America, special education is commonly abbreviated as "special ed", "SpecEd", "SPED", or "SpEd" in a professional context.


title: Special education

text: Education in Canada is the responsibility of the individual provinces and territories. As such, rules vary somewhat from place to place. However, inclusion is the dominant model.


title: Special education

text: For major exams, Canadian schools commonly use accommodations, such as specially printed examinations for visually impaired students, when assessing the achievements of students with special needs. In other instances, disabled students may receive alternative assessments or modifications that simplify tests, or they may be exempted from the tests entirely.


title: Special education

text: All special-needs students receive an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that outlines how the school will meet the student's individual needs. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that students with special needs be provided with a Free Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment that is appropriate to the student's needs. Government-run schools provide special education in varying degrees from the least restrictive settings, such as full inclusion, to the most restrictive settings, such as receiving special education services at home or hospital.


title: Special education

text: According to the Department of Education, approximately 6 million children (roughly 10 percent of all school-aged children) currently receive some type of special education services. As with most countries in the world, students who are poor, ethnic minorities, or do not speak the dominant language fluently are disproportionately identified as needing special education services. Poor, black and Latino urban schools are more likely to have limited resources and to employ inexperienced teachers that do not cope well with student behavior problems, "thereby increasing the number of students they referred to special education."


title: Special education

text: During the 1960s, in some part due to the civil rights movement, some researchers began to study the disparity of education amongst people with disabilities. The landmark "Brown v. Board of Education" decision, which declared unconstitutional the "separate but equal" arrangements in public schools for students of different races, paved the way for "PARC v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" and "Mills vs. Board of Education of District of Columbia", which challenged the segregation of students with special needs. Courts ruled that unnecessary and inappropriate segregation of disabled students was unconstitutional. Congress responded to these court rulings with the federal Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975 (since renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)). This law required schools to provide services to students previously denied access to an appropriate education.


title: Special education

text: In US government-run schools, the dominant model is inclusion. In the United States, three out of five students with academic learning challenges spend the overwhelming majority of their time in the regular classroom.


title: Special education

text: Autism, or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), refers to a range of conditions. These conditions involve challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. They also involve unique strengths and differences.


title: Special education

text: Autism is a disability that impairs the social interactions and communication skills of a person. People who are autistic tend to think and act differently from others. Many autistic children find themselves comfortable with a device in their hands. For students with autism, there are apps called "visual scene displays" that are most helpful for children who are having difficulty with verbal skills, according to Jules Csillag, a speech–language pathologist who focuses on special ed tech. Apps such as SceneSpeak and Speech with Milo help autistic children develop storytelling skills with text-to-speech voice and interactive storybooks. Using apps like these in a classroom can improve autistic student's verbal skills.


title: Special education

text: There are several controversies surrounding the diagnoses and causes of autism. It is now believed that there is no single cause of autism. Research seems to suggest that autism is normally the result of both genetic and environmental influences.


title: Special education

text: If a student has Down syndrome, assistive technology can help with their learning experience. Author of "Down Syndrome: A Promising Future, Together," Terry Hassold, who got his PhD in human genetics, explains that students with Down syndrome have delays with cognitive ability. Their brains have a late reaction when their neurological system sends a message for any task. Because of this late reaction, they tend to take longer to complete a task than an average student. Assistive technology is crucial in helping students with Down syndrome with their writing ability. Children with Down syndrome tend to have shorter fingers and a lowered thumb making their ability to write more difficult. Also, some of the usual wrist bones are not formed, making it difficult to hold objects. Slanted desks are one type of assisted technology that can aid in the successful ability to write. A three-ring binder can be used to create a slanted desk by turning the binder sideways. Also, students with Down syndrome often try to hold their pencils by anchoring them against the thumb rather than using the tip of their thumb. Shortened pencils or triangular-shaped pencils encourage students to hold them correctly. Using any of these assistive technologies can help students with Down syndrome during their educational process.


title: Special education

text: Many people with special needs are denied when they want to participate in a sport. In the U.S., the Office for Civil Rights ensures students with disabilities always have opportunities to participate in extracurricular athletics equal to other students. Special education students can benefit from sports in many ways. For example, studies show it boosts self confidence and improves the participant's skills in relationship building and working as part of a team.


title: Special education

text: Just about any sport can be altered for special education purposes. Some of the popular sports are swimming, wheel chair soccer, handball, gymnastics, and weightlifting.


title: Special education

text: Many competitive organizations are available for special needs student athletes. For example, the Special Olympics is an annual, world-wide competition held for disabled children that want to participate in sports. Other organizations include the Paralympic Games and Unified Sports, the latter which pairs participants with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team. Educational institutions can also promote Adapted Physical Education, which tailors sports for students with certain disabilities. Organizations like S.T.R.I.D.E. Adaptive Sports help educational institutions in providing opportunities for special education student athletes. Some of these sports might include wheelchair basketball or sledge hockey.


title: Special education

text: Some sports even have their own organizations. For example, in baseball athletes can participate in the Miracle League or Little League Challenger Division. Another organization that soccer athletes can participate in US Youth Soccer TOPSoccer or Just for Kicks.


title: Special education

text: Other sports which can be played or adapted include track & field, quad rugby, tennis, bowling, and skiing.


title: Special education

text: A 2021 study that examined the impact of a sharp reduction in the provision of special education services in Texas found that this policy change substantially reduced the high school completion rates and college enrollment rates of the students who were denied access to special education.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: Tom Clancy's The Division is an online-only action role-playing video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published in 2016 by Ubisoft, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is set in a near future New York City in the aftermath of a viral pandemic; the player, a Special Agent of the Strategic Homeland Division, is tasked with helping the group rebuild its operations in Manhattan, investigate the nature of the outbreak, and combat criminal activity in its wake. "The Division" is structured with elements of role-playing games, as well as cooperative and player versus player online multiplayer. This game also marks the debut of Massive and Ubisoft's Snowdrop game engine.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: "Tom Clancy's The Division" received generally positive reviews. A sequel, "Tom Clancy's The Division 2" was released in March 2019.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: "Tom Clancy's The Division" is an action role-playing game set in an open world mid-crisis Manhattan with destructible environments that can be freely explored by the players. The player's mission is to restore order by investigating the source of a virus. The player character can carry three weapons, and explosives like sticky bombs and seeker mines to fight against enemies. Players may take cover behind objects during fire-fights to avoid taking damage from enemies, and to give them a tactical advantage when attacking. The game is played from a third-person perspective, meaning the character model is visible.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: As players progress, they earn experience points (commonly known as XP) and currency. They can use this currency to buy weapons and gear, and use the points to learn new talents and skills. The player's gear is categorized into seven levels: worn, standard, specialized, superior, high-end, gear set items or the rarer exotic items, each with a specific color code. Gear can be either bought, or found as in-game loot, or crafted from gathered materials. The storyline missions involve objectives that are relevant to their respective wing of the Base of Operations, which serves as the player's home base. At the player's home base there are three wings: Medical, Security, and Tech. Playing missions for a wing grants the player points for that wing which the player can spend to gain access to new talents, perks and facilities in the Base of Operations. The player will receive intel videos from each head of the wing at certain progression points, which the player can watch. The intel received is specific to its wing, with the Medical wing giving virus reports on the outbreak, the Security wing giving insight into each in-game enemy faction and the Tech wing providing camera footage. The game features a dynamic, time-based weather system which may bring benefits or disadvantages to players. For instance, storms can hinder player's visibility and make aiming difficult. The game also features a day-night cycle which can change the behaviour of enemies in the game.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: The Dark Zone is the player-versus-player competitive multiplayer mode featured in "The Division", where a lot of high-end weapons are left behind when the military retreats in the game. It is separated from the main campaign and has its own progression system. Higher quality items can be found within the Dark Zone, but are considered "contaminated"; contaminated loot can be stolen by other players, and must be flown out via helicopter in order for them to be available to the player after they leave the Dark Zone. Players can be accompanied by several co-operative partners and other neutral, player-controlled agents. These people, however, can turn against the player at any moment, going rogue. Players' level and ranking may drop if they die too often in the zone.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: On Black Friday 2015, a viral epidemic, transmitted by a Smallpox-based virus planted on banknotes, sweeps through New York City. The disease, known as Green Poison or "The Dollar Flu", causes widespread chaos, and major cities across the United States are placed under quarantine. The U.S. Government activates sleeper agents in the population who operate for the Strategic Homeland Division (or simply "the Division") to assist emergency responders and the National Guard, now called the Joint Task Force (JTF), in restoring order. In Brooklyn, the protagonist, a Division agent, assists the JTF before planning to depart for the Quarantine zone with fellow agent Faye Lau. However, the VTOL meant to take them there is destroyed in an explosion, killing the Division Commander along with most of the second wave and severely wounding Faye Lau. Arriving in a JTF-commandeered news helicopter instead, the Division agents reclaim the James A. Farley Post Office Building as their base of operations. From there, the agents undertake assignments to rescue important personnel, help in restoring the base of operations to full working capacity and combat criminal groups, such as the Rioters, common street thugs in New York who generally want to take advantage of the quarantine; the Rikers, escapees from Rikers Island; and the Cleaners, insane New York Sanitation workers who wield flamethrowers and believe everyone is infected. In the course of the game, the agent helps rescue important personnel like Dr. Jessica Kandel, Captain Roy Benitez and Paul Rhodes. These personnel head the Medical, Security and Tech wings of the base of operations, respectively. Agents also recover a sample of Green Poison. Studying the sample reveals the virus was manufactured and then heavily modified by a controversial biologist named Dr. Gordon Amherst.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: Eventually, the agents find footage of Division agent Aaron Keener going rogue and killing other agents, having gone insane after witnessing the chaos and destruction caused during the breakdown of order following the initial outbreak. It is also discovered Keener and the rest of the first wave of agents who went rogue along with him are assisting the "Last Man Battalion" (LMB), an equally rogue private military company that was abandoned by the government during the evacuation, and are now hostile to it. Working together, these two groups destroyed the VTOL and killed the Commander to weaken Division operations in New York. Intercepting a signal from the Russian consulate, the agents attempt to rescue Vitaly Tchernenko, a Russian virologist who claims to have information on the Green Poison. However, he is kidnapped by Keener and the LMB before the Division can reach him. After helping the JTF secure supplies and weapons, the JTF and Division agents launch an attack on the LMB's base, the now-evacuated United Nations headquarters. The agent finds footage of Keener and his fellow rogue agents abandoning the LMB, with Tchernenko as their prisoner. The leader of the LMB, Charles Bliss, initially escapes in a helicopter, but then returns to make a final stand alongside his men. In the end, the agent destroys the vehicle, killing Bliss. Lau informs the agent that most threats are destroyed or weakened, however the LMB was split into factions. New York is approaching stability, but an unknown signal leads the agent to a secluded laboratory. There, they find Dr. Amherst's remains, having discovered that he has died from exposure to his own virus. They also find a message from Keener, showing he has the technology to manufacture a new strain of Green Poison and intends to do so, and mysteriously tells the agent to explore the center of Manhattan, called the “Dark Zone.” The agent is informed that the information in the lab will further the development of a vaccine and is shown a recovered message from Amherst. In the message, Amherst reveals he engineered Green Poison as part of his eco-terrorist plan to decimate the human race and preserve the planet. If the player follows Keener's instructions, they will discover a message from Keener claiming that he plans to continue with Amherst's plot, as he has come to worship the virus as the judge of all humanity and plans to reverse engineer and improve it; he then offers the player a position beside him based on their actions in the Dark Zone.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: "Tom Clancy's The Division" was originally being developed as an eighth generation consoles exclusive. Shortly after the game's unveiling, Ubisoft stated that other platforms were not ruled out. Ubisoft asked PC gamers to show interest in the game by signing petitions, and then they would decide. The new intellectual property and tech has been in development for several years although development on the actual game began in early 2013.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: During E3 2013, the game was officially announced, with a trailer explaining the results of Operation Dark Winter and the purpose of Directive 51. During the Expo, Ubisoft announced a companion app that allows players to play the game on tablets. Players are able to join in the game as a drone to offer tactical support for players playing on PC and consoles. On 20 August 2013, Ubisoft announced that the game would be released for PC on Microsoft Windows as a result of the "vocal and passionate PC community." On 7 February 2014, Ubisoft announced that Ubisoft Reflections was co-developing the game and was responsible for developing the map-design, character-design and the online components of the game. Red Storm Entertainment, a subsidiary of Ubisoft that was co-founded by Tom Clancy, was also working on the weapon-design of the game. Ubisoft Annecy was also announced to be one of the co-developers of the game on 8 May 2015.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: On 15 May 2014, it was announced that "The Division" would be delayed until 2015, according to an anonymous source inside Massive Entertainment studio. "The Division" uses Ubisoft's new proprietary engine known as Snowdrop, which is made for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. On 9 June 2014, "The Division" was showcased at E3 2014 with an anticipated release for late 2015. In February 2016, Ubisoft announced that downloadable content for "The Division" would be timed exclusives for Xbox One.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: During E3 2015, the game's final release date and a player versus player area known as the Dark Zone were revealed. Its companion app was cancelled, as the company considered that the addition of drones will bring unfairness to the competitive multiplayer mode of the game. Unlike the previous E3 demo, Long Island, and Staten Island do not appear in the game at launch, while Brooklyn only appears in the opening hours of the game as the tutorial area. The beta was set to be released for the Xbox One in December 2015 and for Windows and PlayStation 4 in 2016. On 7 December 2015, Ubisoft announced that "The Division"s beta would be moved to "early 2016" and that an Xbox One exclusive alpha would begin on 9 December 2015.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: On 26 January 2016, it was confirmed that the Closed Beta would begin on 28 January 2016 for Xbox One and 29 January 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows, and end, for all platforms, on 1 February 2016. On 31 January 2016, Ubisoft announced that they had extended the beta, and that it would end on 2 February 2016.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: On 9 February 2016, Ubisoft announced that "The Division"s open beta would begin for Xbox One on 18 February 2016, and for PC and PlayStation 4 on 19 February 2016, and would end for all platforms on 22 February 2016. Over 6.4 million players, across all platforms, participated in the open beta. On 27 February 2016, Ubisoft confirmed that there would be no microtransactions at launch. "The Division" was released on 8 March 2016, two years after its initially planned release.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: There was a promotional short film released on Amazon Prime Video titled "The Division: Agent Origins"


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: The game is supported by additional content, such as daily and weekly missions, Dark Zone missions and free updates, after the game's launch. The April update, "Incursions," introduces new gadgets, a new area called Falcon Lost and updated AI to the game. The May update, named "Conflict", adds Dark Zone Extraction Hijacking and the new Incursion - Clear Sky, which was released. The game was announced to be supported by 3 paid expansions. In June, "Underground", which includes missions set in tunnels and subways, was released. It was reported that it would be followed by "Survival", which adds the Survival game mode. "Last Stand" was set to be released in the last quarter of the year.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: "Survival" and "Last Stand" were delayed to late 2016 and early 2017, respectively, so that Ubisoft could focus its effort on fixing the core game's issues, such as balancing and bugs. "Survival" was available on all platforms by December. "Last Stand" was released on 28 February 2017.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: Ubisoft in March 2017 revealed plans for a second year of additional content with two free expansions. Update 1.7 was released on 15 August including additional features and tweaks. The update added "Global Events", limited-time events with gameplay modifiers that give special rewards. It also adds the ability to customize a character's face, cosmetic items as well as "Commendations" which replaces "Feats".


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: Update 1.8 was released on 5 December 2017. It adds a new area called West Side Pier as well as two new games modes called Resistance and Skirmish. In Resistance,


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: the player has to fend off waves of enemies. Skirmish is a multiplayer mode where teams of four players have to achieve the highest kill-count.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: "Tom Clancy's The Division" received "generally favourable" reviews according to review aggregator, Metacritic. "Ars Technica" drew comparisons between "The Division" and "Destiny", a first-person shooter game with similar overall mechanics regarding items, crafting, and "shared world" elements. The game was also compared to "modern" massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), explaining that "structurally, it all feels like it could have been ripped from "Guild Wars 2" or a latter-day "World of Warcraft,"" including "that old MMO staple of being stuck in a server queue before diving into a game" on-launch, in combination with the "quintessential Ubisoft design style" of varying types of collectible and upgrade systems. "The Division" was criticized for lacking variety in its activities and missions, explaining that it "does little to break from or advance what is fast becoming the general form of the "loot shooter" genre. In fact, it takes very few risks at all, particularly with its enemies and encounter design." The Dark Zone was described as being "harrowing", but was panned for sharing characteristics with the post-game content of "Destiny", as being the only means of obtaining higher-level gear that is, ultimately, only theoretically needed for further play in the Dark Zone, and for not introducing any major differences in gameplay mechanics like the raids of "Destiny".


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: Vince Ingenito of "IGN" was more critical of "The Division", outlining that "next to every good thing "The Division" does, there hangs a big, ugly asterisk". The overall atmosphere was panned for being "barren and unengaging" overall; as examples, Ingenito focused upon the lack of dynamic events in the game world, that there were "long stretches of eventless walking where very little happens" due to the lack of events and encounters, the lack of variety in missions and activities, and that the grid layout of Manhattan made navigation and exploration "tedious". The gun mechanics of "The Division" were described as being "standard" and more in line with the more realistic feel of other "Tom Clancy"-branded games, with guns that had distinct feels due to their varying statistics, and that "the fact that the action leans so heavily on smart tactics makes it rewarding when the last foe in a pack finally goes down."


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: The progression system was also criticized for being "fractured", requiring that players visit multiple locations with different systems in order to upgrade their abilities, explaining that "[it's] hard to accurately gauge just how strong you really are, and as a result, easy to get in over your head in a mission that your character level indicates you can handle." While noting that its "post-game" content was mainly limited to harder versions of story missions with stronger "bullet sponge" enemies, Ingenito praised the Dark Zone for "[fixing] just about every problem I have with "The Division's" pacing, its lack of player-driven moments, and the overall toothlessness and emptiness of its open world", by adding an "omnipresent" danger and a higher degree of risk to player interactions. In conclusion, Ingenito felt that the game's ideas and mechanics were "not spread evenly or interwoven cleanly enough to form a cohesive, consistently enjoyable loop".


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: Prior to version 1.0.2 of the game, named enemy NPCs would respawn indefinitely, as long as their entourage of minions were never killed. This allowed players to collect the named enemies' superior and high-end loot over and over again. The most popular target of this exploit was a character known as the Bullet King, as this character was the named enemy closest to any player spawn point in the game. The glitch has been resolved in patch 1.0.2 of the game, released by Ubisoft on 22 March 2016. An exotic weapon (the highest quality weapon), an LMG whose ability allows its user to never reload while firing, was named after the character in "The Division 2".


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: According to Ubisoft, the game broke company records, including highest number of first-day sales (breaking the record previously set by "Watch Dogs" in 2014), and becoming the company's best-selling game. "The Division" also broke the industry record for biggest first-week launch for a new game franchise, generating an estimated amount of $330 million globally. The retail version of "The Division" was the best selling game in its week of release in the U.K. and Ireland, debuting at No. 1 in the UK retail software sales chart. The game's launch marked the biggest video game debut in the first quarter of the year in the U.K., breaking the record previously held by Sony's "Gran Turismo 4". It was the third biggest launch of a Ubisoft game in the U.K., behind "Assassin's Creed III" and "Watch Dogs". The game has the highest week one sales for a new intellectual property, breaking the record held by "Destiny". The game was No. 1 in Japan, selling over 80,000 units in its first week. The NPD Group indicated that the retail version of "The Division" was the best selling game in March 2016 in the U.S. The game sold more than 10 million copies during the eighth generation of video game consoles.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: In June 2016, it was announced that a live action feature film adaption of "The Division" is in development. Jake Gyllenhaal was cast to star in the lead role, and to co-produce the film with CEO of Ubisoft Motion Pictures, Gerard Guillemot. By August, Jessica Chastain was cast in the co-starring role of the film.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: In January 2017, Stephen Gaghan was attached to direct, though he left the project in 2018. In April 2018, David Leitch signed on as director. Kelly McCormick, Gyllenhaal, Guillemot, Riva Marker, Chastain and Kelly Carmichael will act as producers for the film.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: In June 2019 during Ubisoft's E3 2019 presentation, the company announced that Rafe Judkins serves as screenwriter. Netflix purchased the distribution rights to the film, and will exclusively release the feature through its streaming service. The project is a joint venture between Nine Stories Productions, Freckle Films, 87North, and Ubisoft Motion Pictures. On February 25, 2021, Deadline reports that Rawson Marshall Thurber will replace Leitch as director due of Leitch's scheduling conflicts with the film "Bullet Train" but will stay on as producer.


title: Tom Clancy's The Division

text: On 9 March 2018, a sequel to the game, "Tom Clancy's The Division 2", was announced, that was currently being worked on by Massive Entertainment. The game was officially premiered at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 in June 2018. On 10 June 2018, "Tom Clancy’s The Division 2" was announced to be released on 15 March 2019, with the game set to take place within Washington, D.C. after it falls into anarchy, and six months after the events of "Tom Clancy's The Division".


title: Naoko Takeuchi

text: Takeuchi was born in Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan, to parents Kenji and Ikuko Takeuchi. She has a younger brother, Shingo. She gave the names of her relatives to the characters she created for "Sailor Moon", and mentions this in interviews and in several comic strips she produced, in place of author notes.


title: Naoko Takeuchi

text: Takeuchi attended Kofu Ichi High School. She wore a seifuku and joined the astronomy and manga clubs. These experiences influenced her work for "Sailor Moon", in addition to her other pieces, such as "Love Call" and "Rain Kiss". Her formative high school experiences influenced her trajectory to become a manga artist. Takeuchi's father encouraged her to pursue other career paths, in case she wouldn't find success as a professional artist, which is why she attended university to study chemistry.


title: Naoko Takeuchi

text: Takeuchi graduated from the Kyoritsu College of Pharmacy, where she received a degree in chemistry and became a licensed pharmacist. Her senior thesis was called "Heightened Effects of Thrombolytic Actions Due to Ultrasound".


title: Naoko Takeuchi

text: After graduating from the Kyoritsu College of Pharmacy, at the age of 19, Takeuchi entered the manga industry by submitting her work "Love Call" to Kodansha; Takeuchi received Nakayoshi's New Artist award for "Love Call". She worked steadily on one-shot pieces until writing "Maria", which was published in "Nakayoshi" from early to mid-1990. This work, Takeuchi's first serial comic, was loosely based on Jean Webster's 1912 novel "Daddy-Long-Legs" and on her friend Marie Koizumi, who helped write it.


title: Naoko Takeuchi

text: After completing "Maria", Takeuchi worked on the ice-skating series "The Cherry Project", which was serialized in "Nakayoshi" from late 1990 to 1991. While working on "The Cherry Project", Takeuchi wanted to do a manga on outer space and girl fighters. Her editor, Fumio Osano, asked her to put the fighters in sailor suits. This concept would later become a one-shot called "", which would later begin serialization in "RunRun". When Toei Animation planned to adapt her manga into an anime series, she reworked "Sailor V" and added four other superheroines.


title: Naoko Takeuchi

text: In December 1991, "Nakayoshi" began serializing "Sailor Moon", which became an instant hit. The success encouraged Takeuchi to work on both "Sailor Moon" and "Sailor V" from 1991 to 1997. However, "RunRun" was canceled with the November 1997 issue, and the planned "Sailor V" anime adaptation was canceled along with it. During that six-year period, she produced 60 chapters, which were collected in 18 volumes. The success of the manga led to a 200-episode anime adaptation, three animated films, numerous video games, and wide-ranging merchandising.


title: Naoko Takeuchi

text: At the series' end, Takeuchi worked on "PQ Angels" for "Nakayoshi". This gained a fair amount of popularity, but was canceled due to Kodansha losing seven pages of her manuscript. Takeuchi said that Toei Animation had the manuscript, therefore it would have been possible to create an anime adaptation of the series.


title: Naoko Takeuchi

text: Takeuchi's own studio is called "Princess Naoko Planning" (PNP). Takeuchi established PNP to manage her properties, mainly "Sailor Moon". The studio later encompassed Yoshihiro Togashi's work as well and appeared in the credits for such anime as "Level E" and "Hunter × Hunter". Its name also appears on the musical credits for "Shin Kaguya Shima Densetsu" and other projects.


title: Naoko Takeuchi

text: Following the loss of seven pages of Takeuchi's "PQ Angels" manuscript, Osano departed Kodansha and the plans for the "Materials Collection" were canceled. Takeuchi departed Kodansha for Shueisha.


title: Naoko Takeuchi

text: On August 13, 1998, Takeuchi made her first appearance in the United States at the San Diego Comic-Con International convention for three days. That same year, she published the first "Sailor Moon" artbook since her departure from Kodansha, "Sailor Moon Infinity Collection Art Book" with limited releases.