Going to School~Ir a la Escuela : A Documentary Video by Richard Cohen
Bret A. Boyer, PhD
Going to School~Ir a la Escuela, from Richard Cohen Films, is a moving, 64-minute documentary video addressing the issue of inclusion for individuals with physical and psychological disabilities in the U.S. public school system. The film presents first-hand accounts of struggles to integrate students with disabilities into the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It outlines the failures of the school district to provide inclusion consistent with IDEA, the advocacy of parents that led to a class action suit, and the resulting 1993 Chandra Smith Consent Decree. The consent decree directed the school district to comply with specific factors of IDEA and created procedures to facilitate compliance. Through interviews with children, parents, educators, and school administrators, the film illustrates barriers to the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in typical classrooms and the moving of “special education” from separate classrooms to standard class formats.
While the conditions experienced by the students highlighted in the film are not all spinal cord injuries (SCI); students with muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy face barriers similar to those with SCI. One student who sustained an SCI in a weapons explosion in El Salvador and her mother described their experiences immigrating to the USA and then struggling to procure the appropriate educational resources. The video does an excellent job of capturing the difficulties that families of children with disabilities face and effectively portrays the strengths that families need to overcome these barriers.
This film works well on several levels. It presents real-world difficulties that require tireless parental advocacy, costing these families earnings and quality of life. It shows how their problems were more fully and effectively addressed with legal and community efforts that created and applied resources on the proper level and with the appropriate format. It highlights the creation of the Parent Resource Network, a parent advocacy group demanding “total inclusion.”
For those providing psychology and social work education, this video gives an honest and first-hand depiction of what these families encounter and the experiences of the educators who sought to facilitate inclusion. It depicts the role of inclusion in fostering community involvement, positive self-image, and the increased specificity of educational resources to meet individuals’ needs. Difficulties experienced by non-English speaking parents, multilingual families, and those for whom English is a second-language, are well articulated. Indeed, the effectiveness of the Parent Resource Network in providing peer advocacy, education to parents, and English translation in the understanding and procurement of Individualized Educational Plans are portrayed in detail.
Of particular importance for those with SCI, the film highlights difficulties with wheelchair accessibility of school buildings, transportation needs, post-traumatic stress symptoms experienced by a girl with SCI, and the determination of the family to overcome these struggles. The film, however, does not fully cover several issues and some issues are only peripherally depicted, or portrayed solely in case examples. While these are apparently not part of the primary agenda for the video, they represent issues that require a more comprehensive awareness by practitioners and represent concepts appropriate for training in graduate-level psychology or social work. Among these issues are the following:
1. Services for alternative communication. One child is provided a sign language interpreter in the classroom.
2. Financial stressors and risks to maintaining medical insurance. Families report working multiple jobs, unusual shifts, reducing work involvements to care for disabled children, and the overall intrusiveness of care giving for special needs children without access to adequate services.
3. Application of “wrap-around” services in the educational setting. The film highlights the experience of a child with cerebral palsy and shows an attendant accompanying the child in the classroom. The “wrap-around” therapists are usually applied as an intensive outpatient alternative to residential or inpatient treatment for behavior disorders, but the “wrap-around” service model has been employed in many states for therapeutic attendants within the educational setting. The “therapeutic support staff ” acts as a “shadow” for the individualized assistance needed for the child to function in the typical classroom.
4. The integration of physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), and speech therapy in educational interventions.
5. Family therapy.
6. Treatment for post-traumatic stress and SCI.
While the film does not fully educate the viewer about these issues and resources, it does provide a brief reference or, at least, depicts them in examples and interviews. In this way the film provides a useful platform for educators that can serve as a springboard for more comprehensive coverage in a course curriculum. The film shows one child with a “wrap-around” therapist and a sign-language interpreter in the classroom and shows him attending physical and occupational therapy in the school setting. For advanced trainers, however, it does not articulate in sufficient detail the means to include these integrated services in an Individualized Educational Plan. The film also depicts several parents describing the emotional and financial stresses and the need for family services, as well as a girl with SCI describing her intrusive re-experiencing and anxiety symptoms, consistent with post-traumatic stress. If utilized in a course context, the instructor could augment these video examples with complete coverage of these topics in a didactic lecture format.
Overall, this video appears to be very useful for teaching undergraduate psychology and social work students about physical disability issues. It can also function as a tool for generating discussion and launching didactic teaching efforts about SCI issues for graduate-level psychology and social work courses. The genuine and moving portrayal of these families’ experiences powerfully illustrates the struggles that rehabilitation psychologists and social workers will face in working with those with SCI.
Bret A. Boyer, PhD, is assistant professor and coordinator of the Health Psychology Concentration at Widener University’s Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology in Chester, Pennsylvania. He is also director of the Family Health Psychology Center and director of Behavioral Medicine at Mercy Catholic Medical Center in Darby, Pennsylvania.