Feature
Special Ed101
for School Librarians
by Alana M. Zambone and Jami L. Jones
S
Students with special needs often find
pecial and general educators rely on the motivation and success in the school
school library for many reasons, such as library because it is a place to go where
classroom failure or frustration can be left
the wealth of resources that are used to behind (Jones and Zambone 2008). At the
school library, special needs students can
motivate students and individualize instruction find a variety of materials to complement
their learning strengths, have a chance to
and the fact that many students with disabilities work independently or in smaller groups,
enjoy spending time there (Smith-Canter, and have an opportunity to make choices,
which contributes to their development
Voytecki, Zambone, and Jones 2009). In the (Smith 2006; Wesson and Keefe 1995).
A first step to helping students with
June 2009 issue of School Library Media Activities special needs begins with understand-
ing the different disabling conditions.
Monthly, Helen R. Adams discussed the legal and Students with disabilities are exceedingly
ethical mandates for school librarians to serve heterogeneous, although students with
different disability labels may exhibit
students with special needs (54). While school similar academic, social, and behavioral
challenges in school. Often, the person
librarians may not always have a great deal of gets lost in consideration of his or her
disabling conditions and the ways these
training and support to accommodate students conditions affect the student’s develop-
with disabilities, they have historically welcomed ment and learning. Each individual’s
characteristics, experiences, and disability
this group of students. This article is designed to influences development, learning, and
functioning. Most importantly, it is im-
provide school librarians with an overview of the portant for school librarians to remember
that students with disabilities are people
types of challenges faced by students with special first.
needs and global suggestions for addressing The Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) defines the specific
some of those challenges within the context of criteria for special education services and
describes the characteristics of thirteen
the school library program. different disability categories. To be
School Library Monthly/Volume XXVI, Number 6/February 2010 19
eligible for special education, students in
public schools must exhibit the charac- Table 1. Overview of Learning Challenges
teristics of one or more of these thirteen
disability categories. IDEA typically orga- Functions Impairments or Challenges Disability Categories
nizes the thirteen categories of disabilities Manifesting These
listed into two groups: high incident and Challenges
low incident disabilities. High incident Cognitive Cognitive deficits or Learning Disabilities
disabilities appear most often in the gen- differences such as Mental Retardation
eral population. These include: sequencing, abstract Traumatic Brain Injury
▶Learning Disabilities understanding, and/ More Severe Forms
▶Mild or moderate Mental Retarda- or generalizing what is of Autism Spectrum
tion, currently referred to as Intellec- learned to new tasks or Disorders
tual Disability