Paragraph 2 - Ethnicity and Exceptionality The Council recognizes the special and unique needs of members of ethnic and multicultural groups and pledges its full support toward promoting all efforts which will help to bring them into full and equitable participation and membership in the total society. Paragraph 3 - Identification, Testing, and Placement The Council supports the following statements related to the identification, testing, and placement of children from ethnic and multicultural groups who are also exceptional. a. Child-find procedures should identify children by ethnicity as well as type and severity of exceptionality or degree of giftedness. b. Program service reporting procedures should identify children by ethnicity as well as exceptionality or degree of giftedness. c. All testing and evaluation materials and methods used for the classification and placement of children from ethnic and multicultural groups should be selected and administered so as not to be racially or culturally discriminatory. d. Children with exceptionalities who are members of ethnic and multicultural groups should be tested in their dominant language by examiners who are fluent in that language and familiar with the cultural heritage of the children being tested. e. Communication of test results with parents of children from ethnic and multicultural groups should be done in the dominant language of those parents and conducted by persons involved in the testing or familiar with the particular exceptionality, fluent in that language, and familiar with the cultural heritage of those parents. All levels of government should establish procedures to ensure that testing and evaluation materials and methods used for the purpose of classification and placement of children are selected and administered so as not to be linguistically, racially, or culturally discriminatory.
Paragraph 4 - Programming and Curriculum Adaptation The Council supports the following statements related to programming and curriculum adaptation for children from ethnic and multicultural groups: a. Long-term placement should be avoided unless students are reevaluated at prescribed intervals by individuals qualified in assessing such students with the most appropriate culture-free assessment instruments available. b. All school districts should take necessary steps to ensure that both students and their parents fully comprehend the implications of and the reasons for proposed programming decisions, including the mature and length of placement. Parents should be fully involved in the decision-making process. c. Culturally appropriate individualized education programs should be designed which include the child’s present level of educational performance, annual goals, short-term objectives, and specific educational services to be provided. d. It is of utmost importance to identify children’s relative language proficiency so that languageappropriate special education programs may be provided (e.g., bilingual special education and special education programs incorporating Englishas-a-Second-Language instruction). e. Children with exceptionalities who are members of ethnic and multicultural groups should have access to special cultural and language programs provided to nonexceptional group members, with the necessary program adaptations to make the program beneficial to the exceptional child or youth. f. Culturally appropriate educational materials should be readily available in ample quantity so that all students, including those from ethnic and multicultural groups, may benefit from their content. g. Curriculum should be adapted or developed to meet the unique needs of children from all cultural groups. Curriculum should include a multicultural perspective which recognizes the value of diverse cultural traditions to society as well as the contributions of all cultural groups of American and Canadian society. Appendix 9: CEC Professional Policies 271
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