50年过去了，特殊教育的未来是否岌岌可危？

五十年前，美国的特殊教育诞生了。

Fifty years ago, special education in America was born.

现在是时候开展一项全国性的协调行动，来关注这个国家三千五百万残障人士的需求，既要回应他们的障碍，也要重视他们的能力。

The time has come for a coordinated national undertaking to address the concerns of this nation's thirty five million handicapped citizens to respond to their abilities as well as their disabilities.

这是杰拉尔德·福特总统1975年11月在一次活动上的讲话。

That was president Gerald Ford speaking at an event in November 1975.

一周后，他签署了一项具有里程碑意义的法律，即今天众所周知的《残疾人教育法》或简称IDEA。

One week later, he signed a landmark law known today as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA.

它保障了所有残障儿童享有'免费且合适的公共教育'的权利。

It guaranteed all children with disabilities the right to a, quote, free appropriate public education.

乔治·W·布什总统时期的前教育部长玛格丽特·斯佩林斯表示，对IDEA的政治支持从未动摇。

Margaret Spellings, the former education secretary for president George w Bush, says political support for IDEA has not wavered.

过去五十年直到今年，我们长期保持着对该法律的强大两党支持和忠诚。

We have long had, for the last fifty years until this year, you know, huge bipartisan support and fealty to the law.

事实上，当

In fact, when

我出现了，你们刚才应该听到了。

I showed up You could hear right there.

斯佩林斯说，直到今年为止。

Spelling said, until this year.

这是因为在特朗普政府试图解散教育部的背景下，人们越来越担心残疾学生的权益保护正面临威胁。

That's because amid the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, there's a growing fear that protections for students with disabilities are in jeopardy.

许多负责监督《残疾人教育法》实施或保护学生免受残疾歧视的联邦工作人员已经失业或面临失业风险。

Many of the federal workers charged with overseeing IDEA or protecting students from disability discrimination have lost their jobs or are at risk of losing their jobs.

我们担心特殊教育将不复存在。

We are concerned special education will cease to exist.

杰奎琳·罗德里格斯是国家学习障碍中心的CEO。

Jacqueline Rodriguez is the CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

当你剥夺法律赋予残疾儿童的这些保护时，全国每个孩子的孩子都处于危险之中。

When you take protections away from kids with disabilities that are legally entitled to those protections, every kid in the country is at risk.

如果他们针对你，就会针对所有人。

If they come for you, they're gonna come for everybody.

想想这个。

Consider this.

在《残疾人教育法》五十周年之际，有很多值得庆祝的事情。

On the fiftieth anniversary of IDEA, there is a lot to celebrate.

但美国是否即将面临特殊教育危机？

But is The US about to face a special education crisis?

我是NPR的Elsa Chang。

From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang.

节日期间，人们常被追求完美的压力所困扰，但这反而会让节日失去欢乐与光彩。

During the holidays, there's a lot of pressure to make things perfect, but that can actually make the season less merry and bright.

我记得当时在想，天哪。

And I remember thinking, oh my gosh.

在所有的忙碌中，我却心不在焉。

In all the doing, I am not here.

我没有真正活在当下。

I'm not present.

我迷失了存在。

I am missing being.

本周NPR网络Life Kit播客为您带来真正享受节日季的小贴士。

This week on the Life Kit podcast from the NPR network, tips to make your holiday season actually enjoyable.

请在NPR应用或您常用的播客平台收听。

Listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

每周五在《All Songs Considered》邂逅新音乐。

Fall in love with new music every Friday at All Songs Considered.

这是NPR的音乐推荐播客。

That's NPR's music recommendation podcast.

每周五我们会用整期节目分享本周最棒的新歌发布。

Fridays are where we spend our whole show sharing all the greatest new releases of the week.

让寻找新音乐重新成为你生活的一部分。

Make the hunt for new music a part of your life again.

订阅《All Songs Considered》的新音乐星期五专题，各大播客平台均可收听。

Tap into new music Friday from All Songs Considered, available wherever you get your podcasts.

跟进新闻动态感觉像一份24小时不停歇的工作。

Keeping up with the news can feel like a twenty four hour job.

幸运的是，这确实是我们的本职工作。

Luckily, it is our job.

在NPR新闻速递播客中，我们每小时都会精选最新最重要的新闻事件，并将其打包成五分钟的短节目，方便你在会议间隙或通勤路上轻松收听。

Every hour on the NPR News Now podcast, we take the latest, most important stories happening, and we package them into five minute episodes so you can easily squeeze them in between meetings and on your way to that thing.

现在就来收听NPR新闻速递播客吧。

Listen to the NPR News Now podcast now.

这里是NPR的《深思熟虑》栏目。

It's consider this from NPR.

五十年前的感恩节刚过后的1975年，杰拉尔德·福特总统签署了一项具有里程碑意义的法律，创建了我们今天所熟知的特殊教育体系。

Fifty years ago, just after Thanksgiving nineteen seventy five, president Gerald Ford signed a landmark law that created special education as we know it.

接下来几分钟，我们将通过审视现状来纪念该法案五十周年——当前特朗普政府正试图大幅削减联邦残障学生支持部门的员工编制。

Well, for the next few minutes, we're gonna mark its fiftieth anniversary by taking stock of where things stand today as the Trump administration has tried to make significant cuts to federal staff who support and protect students with disabilities.

现在有请NPR教育记者科里·特纳为我们带来详细报道。

NPR education correspondent Corey Turner joins us now.

嗨，科里。

Hi, Corey.

嘿，耶尔萨。

Hey, Yelsa.

那么我们先来谈谈在这项具有里程碑意义的法律出台之前，残疾学生的处境是怎样的？

So can we just first talk about what things were even like for students with disabilities before this landmark law even came down?

1970年的联邦数据显示，公立学校仅接收了五分之一的残疾儿童入学，埃尔莎。

In 1970, federal data shows that public schools educated just one in five children with a disability, Elsa.

我和埃德·马丁交谈过。

I spoke with Ed Martin.

他现在已经94岁了，当年他参与起草了这项具有里程碑意义的法律，改变了这一切。

He's now 94, and he helped write that landmark law that changed that.

最主要的是，他们过去几乎是被忽视的存在。

Mostly, it was just that they were invisible.

他们一直被留在家中。

They had been kept at home.

我们的目标是

Our goal was to

结束这种状况。

end that.

在该法律通过前，马丁协助组织了面向家长的公开听证会，让他们能直接向立法者讲述自己的经历。

So before the law passed, Martin helped organize public hearings for parents so they could share their stories directly with lawmakers.

有位母亲向我们讲述了一个故事：校车停在她家车道尽头，而她女儿站在窗前哭泣着问，为什么我不能和其他孩子一起去上学？

There was one mother who told us a story about the school bus stopping at the foot of her driveway and her daughter standing in the window crying saying, why can't I go with the other kids?

最终，埃尔莎，国会听取了意见。

Ultimately, Elsa, Congress listened.

他们通过了我们现在熟知的《残疾人教育法》(IDEA)。

They passed what we now know as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA.

嗯。

Mhmm.

就在接下来的学年里，这项法律帮助了约370万名学生。

And the very next school year, it helped some 3,700,000 students.

哇。

Wow.

好的。

Okay.

这项法律帮助了数百万学生，具体意味着什么？

And what does it mean that this law helped all of those millions of students?

具体来说，他们的生活发生了什么改变？

Like, what changed for them precisely?

是的。

Yeah.

该法律保障残疾儿童享有免费适当公共教育的权利。

The law guarantees children with disabilities the right to a free appropriate public education.

这意味着学校必须提供相应便利条件。

That means schools have to provide accommodations.

法律还要求尽可能让这些孩子留在传统班级中接受教育。

They're also required to keep kids in traditional classrooms as much as possible.

为了帮助支付这笔费用，国会每年向各州拨款数十亿美元。

To help pay for it, Congress sends states billions of dollars every year.

最后，教育部通过其特殊教育项目办公室进行监督，该办公室负责处理家庭的来电，并确保各州遵守法律。

And then finally, the education department provides oversight through its office of special education programs, which fields calls from families, and it makes sure states follow the law.

如果家长担心学校未能达标，或者更糟，实际上在歧视他们的孩子，该怎么办？

And what if parents worry that a school is falling short or even worse, actually discriminating against their child?

他们可以向民权办公室（OCR）提交残疾歧视投诉。

They can file a disability discrimination complaint with the Office for Civil Rights or OCR.

虽然OCR的权限并非来自《残疾人教育法》，但两者往往有很多重叠之处。

Now its authority does not come from IDEA, but there tends to be a lot of overlap.

如果OCR发现学校对待孩子的方式存在问题，其律师可以展开调查。

And if OCR sees something concerning about how a child has been treated at school, its attorneys can open investigation.

家庭无需聘请昂贵的律师或代理人。

And there's no need for a family to hire an expensive lawyer or advocate.

正如我们所说，我们知道特朗普政府已对教育部进行了大幅削减。

Well, as we said, we know that the Trump administration has made deep cuts across the education department.

你认为这些削减会如何影响联邦政府在特殊教育中的角色？

How might those cuts affect the federal role in special education, you think?

是的。

Yeah.

从几个方面来看。

In several ways.

我刚才提到的民权办公室，在春季裁员中失去了大约一半的员工。

The office for civil rights that I just mentioned, it lost about half its staff in spring layoffs.

然后在十月份的停摆期间，政府几乎解雇了所有剩余人员。

And then during the shutdown in October, the administration fired just about everyone else who was left.

他们还解雇了特殊教育办公室的几乎所有员工。

They also fired nearly everyone at the office for special education.

虽然这些停摆期间的裁员后来被撤销了，但不能保证政府在1月30日后不会再次尝试削减。

Now those shutdown cuts have since been reversed, but there is no guarantee the administration won't try to make the cuts again after January 30.

特朗普总统还表示希望将特殊教育转移到另一个机构。

President Trump has also said he wants to move special education to a different agency.

在为这些削减辩护时，教育部长琳达·麦克马洪表示她并不想削减特殊教育经费。

In defending these cuts, education secretary Linda McMahon has said she does not want to cut special education funding.

相反，她说要削减的是'中央集权的官僚体系对本该由州政府主导的事务进行微观管理'。

Instead, she wants to cut quote, the centralized bureaucracy micromanaging what should be a state led responsibility, she says.

但我也采访了玛格丽特·斯佩林斯，她本人是共和党总统乔治·W·布什执政时期的前教育部长，她表示联邦政府为家庭提供了非常重要的保障。

But I also spoke with Margaret Spellings, who is herself a former education secretary under Republican president George w Bush, and she says the federal government provides a really important backstop for families.

如果我是一个有阅读障碍或特殊教育诊断学生的家长，当我在州或地方政策制定者那里遇到阻碍时，我能做些什么？

If I'm a parent of one of those students with dyslexia or a special ed diagnosis, what can I do if I hit a roadblock with state or local policymakers?

因为这位家长看到的法律条文上写着'这是代表我孩子享有的权利'。

Because I, this parent, am looking at the lot that says, you know, here are my rights on behalf of my kid.

科里，你说民权办公室现在的员工数量大约是1月份的一半。

Well, Corey, you said the office for civil rights now has about half the staff it had in January.

对吧？

Right?

是的。

Yeah.

那么对于提出残疾歧视投诉的家长来说，这意味着什么？

What does that mean for parents filing disability discrimination complaints then?

为了回答这个问题，埃尔莎，我想很快向你介绍一个我遇到的家庭。

To answer that question, Elsa, I wanna introduce you very quickly to one family I met.

他们住在堪萨斯城郊区，玛吉·海尔曼和她八年级的女儿布鲁克林。

They live in a Kansas City suburb, Maggie Heilman and her daughter Brooklyn, who's in eighth grade.

布鲁克林患有唐氏综合症，这影响了她的语言能力。

Brooklyn has Down syndrome, which also affects her speech.

她告诉我她喜欢打篮球，也喜欢跳舞。

She loves playing basketball, she told me, also dancing.

她和妈妈聊到布鲁克林在学校最喜欢的午餐是鸡块配土豆泥。

She and her mom talked about how Brooklyn's favorite hot lunch at school is chicken nuggets with mashed potatoes.

嗯，真香。

Yum.

我可以再做一次，你来煮。

And I can mold second You cook it.

鸡块？

Nuggets?

天啊。

Oh my.

我就知道你要了第二份。

I knew you got seconds.

不是吗？

Doesn't it?

那位妈妈对我真好。

That momma is nice to my toes.

你喜欢蘸着土豆泥吃。

You like to dip the mashed potatoes.

是啊。

Yeah.

我也是。

I do too.

2023年10月，玛吉·海尔曼告诉我，她接到布鲁克林学校的电话，说她女儿情绪激动，被单独关在一间小软垫房里二十分钟。

Now in October 2023, Maggie Heilman told me she got a call from Brooklyn School that her daughter had become agitated and was secluded for twenty minutes in a small padded room.

学校有时会在学生对自己或他人构成威胁时采取隔离措施。

Now schools sometimes turn to seclusion when a student poses a risk to themselves or others.

这种做法在许多州是被允许的，但也可能造成心理创伤。

It is allowed in many states, but it can also be traumatic.

海尔曼表示她已告知学校工作人员，她反对对布鲁克林使用隔离手段。

And Heilman says she told school staff that she opposed the use of seclusion with Brooklyn.

她说在那之后，学校改用了一种非正式的隔离方式。

After that, she says the school used a kind of informal seclusion.

我们眼睁睁看着女儿的身心健康每况愈下。

And we just saw our daughter's health physically, mentally, emotionally deteriorate.

最终布鲁克林转学了，她的情况立刻有了转机。

And then finally, Brooklyn switched schools and things immediately turned around for her.

但海尔曼说她为之后入学的其他学生感到担忧。

But Heilman says she worried for the students who came after her.

于是她向民权办公室（OCR）提交了投诉，认为布鲁克林被剥夺了获得免费适当公共教育的合法权利。

So she filed a complaint with the office for civil rights, OCR, arguing that Brooklyn had been denied her legal right to a free appropriate public education.

那个投诉后来怎么样了？

And what happened with that complaint?

我们只知道大约一年前，OCR的一位律师展开了调查。

Well, an attorney at OCR opened an investigation, we know that, just over a year ago.

但自那以后，海尔曼先后经历了两位OCR律师，他们似乎都因政府大规模裁员而离职。

But since then, Heilman has had two different OCR attorneys who both appear to have gotten caught up in the administration's mass firings.

海尔曼已经好几个月没有收到关于她案件的新消息了。

Heilman hasn't heard anything new about her case in months.

教育部在给NPR的声明中表示：'我们正在重建并重新聚焦OCR，使其能够保护学生并执行法律。'

In a statement, the department told NPR, we are rebuilding and refocusing OCR to enable the office to protect students and enforce the law.

但埃尔莎，公开数据表明OCR正在减少这类劳动密集型的残障相关调查。

But Elsa, public data suggest OCR is shifting away from these kind of labor intensive disability related investigations.

自特朗普上任以来，该机构已在73起残障案件中达成解决协议。

Since Trump took office, it has reached resolution agreements in 73 disability cases.

但与特朗普2017年首个任期第一年的数据相比，

But compare that to the first year of Trump's first term in 2017.

OCR当年达成了1000多起类似案件的协议，而非73起。

Instead of 73, OCR reached agreements in more than a thousand such cases.

哇。

Wow.

这差距太大了。

That's a huge difference.

考虑到五十年前，残疾儿童的处境确实非常艰难，

Well, considering how fifty years ago, things were really hard for kids with disabilities, how

如何

does

与现在的情况相比呢？

that compare with where things are now?

我的意思是，现在《残疾人教育法》覆盖了超过800万儿童，为他们提供了在这项法律出台前残疾儿童根本无法获得的教育机会。

I mean, look, IDEA now reaches more than 8,000,000 children, giving them educational opportunities that kids with disabilities simply did not have before this law existed.

这是一个巨大的成功。

And that is a huge success.

嗯。

Mhmm.

我认为现在，我们正处于一个变革或至少是不确定的时期。

I think right now, we're we're just in a moment of of change or at least uncertainty.

你知道，特朗普政府传达的信息是，IDEA配套资金应继续流向各州，但各州可以在没有太多联邦监督的情况下自行处理其余事务。

You know, the message from the Trump administration is the money that comes with IDEA should keep flowing to states, but that states can handle the rest without much federal oversight.

坦率地说，上一次家庭真正只能依赖各州还是在1975年这项法律通过之前。

And frankly, the last time families really had to rely solely on their states was before 1975 when this law was passed.

这是NPR教育记者科里·特纳的报道。

That is NPR education correspondent, Corey Turner.

非常感谢你，科里。

Thank you so much, Corey.

不客气，埃尔莎。

You're welcome, Elsa.

本期节目由凯瑟琳·芬克制作。

This episode was produced by Katherine Fink.

由妮可·科恩和珍妮特·伍兹编辑。

It was edited by Nicole Cohen and Jeanette Woods.

我们的执行制作人是萨米·耶尼根。

Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan.

这里是NPR的《考虑一下》节目。

It's consider this from NPR.

我是艾莎·张。

I'm Elsa Chang.

NPR播客《特朗普任期》为您提供关于特朗普政府重大新闻的当日更新。

NPR's podcast Trump's terms is your source for same day updates on big news about the Trump administration.

短小精悍的节目形式，每次聚焦一个主题，时长约五分钟。

Short, focused episodes, one topic at a time, about five minutes or so.

我们汇集了NPR所有报道领域的资讯，确保您总能获取最重要、最紧迫的新闻故事。

We carry out reporting from across all of NPR's coverage, so you are always getting the biggest, most urgent stories.

您可以通过NPR应用或任何播客平台收听《特朗普任期》。

Listen to Trump's Terms on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

想听无广告插播的播客吗？

Wanna hear this podcast without sponsor breaks?

亚马逊Prime会员可通过Amazon Music收听无广告版的《细想此事》，您也可以在+.npr.org支持NPR的重要新闻报道并获取《细想此事》Plus版。

Amazon Prime members can listen to consider this sponsor free through Amazon Music, or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get consider this plus at +.npr.org.

那就是+.npr.org。

That's +.npr.org.