Students With Disabilities’ Access to Special Education in Mexico and the United States: International Comparative Analysis (Poster 35)

• In Event: Saturday Poster Sessions 7:45 am
  In Poster Session: Law and Education SIG Poster Session

Abstract

The present analysis explores the legal frameworks' impacts on students with disabilities' access to special education and the barriers to access special education in Mexico and the United States. There are two significant findings from the analysis. First, Mexico and the United States have common characteristics in their special education legal framework– flexibility of provisions without explicit guidelines for implementation. Such a commonality draws attention to Mexico's challenges in localization when adopting the US system. Second, despite the differences in economic resources between the two nations, one consensus challenge is discussed: A shortage of teachers. This finding may suggest that the teacher shortage may be a global challenge rather than one confining issue to a particular economic context.

Authors

• Jane Y. Jeong, University of Texas at Austin

• Natasha M. Strassfeld, University of Texas at Austin