Compliance: A Bad Word with Good Intentions
When I started as a special education teacher in the 1990s, I wasn’t very far removed from the passage of the Education of All Handicapped Children’s Act of 1975 and the tremendous mistreatment of individuals with disabilities that happened in the many decades that preceded its passage. In 1990 the law was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) to reflect person-first language. The reauthorization brought with it a few other changes such as adding Autism and Traumatic Brain Injury to the list of categorical disabilities.
When I began as a teacher, the purpose, intent, and need for the IDEA was abundantly clear and fresh in all of us new teachers’ minds. With so much activity and advocacy happening in such a short period of time, we discussed important issues in higher education and organizations like CEC regularly. I never resented writing IEPs or implementing the IDEA requirements as a teacher or an administrator, as the circumstances that brought the law forward were indelibly etched in my mind.
In a very similar fashion, the laws that will govern and protect the civil rights of these children as they exit the schoolhouse and enter the real world were created around the same time. From the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title IX of the Education Act, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, several decades have moved by and we are far removed from the conversations, daily incidents, and the frightening statistics of gross discrimination and negligence that initially prompted these laws.
Forgetting Good Intentions
Like IDEA and IEPs, many non-minority individuals find the training and requirements of these laws as perfunctory, burdensome, and a waste of time. I do not believe this is a function of bigotry or not agreeing with the principles imbedded in civil rights legislation; rather, many Americans are far removed today from the decades of egregious, rampant, and blatant mistreatment and discrimination that once populated the Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.
As we move further away from daily, blatant, and egregious acts of discrimination in this country, I fear we are attributing the ‘negative’ aspects of civil rights legislation with the positive intentions of each of the laws. In schools for example, many educators see IEPs and the regulatory requirements of IDEA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 not as tools of protection and access to opportunity, but rather as nothing more than burdensome paperwork that limits their ability to work with children.
When it comes to these policies that protect our liberties, we seem to have a very short memory as to the reasons the legislation was needed. I don’t believe there is any mal-intent, but rather a function and reality of time, distance, and the acceptance of new social norms and expectations. The issue with this mindset is that the IEPs which are required by law are now becoming nothing more than a paper-weight. When one perceives a requirement as perfunctory and a waste of time, the final product and energy that follows the implementation is minimalist and devoid of purpose.
Beyond the Schoolhouse
As I look past the schoolhouse for children with disabilities and at the workplaces where they will be employed, I fear the same is happening with regard to anti-discrimination policies and laws that have the same intentions of IDEA. Similar to the educators who resent the paperwork and hours of additional labor associated with IDEA, employees now view HR-based training as perfunctory and a waste of time. Similar to the situation with educators' perceptions of the IDEA and its requirements, employees will not take the training or the messages embedded in the training seriously if they see the policies and requirements as removed and unimportant.
What does this mean for historically discriminated against individuals and groups? Well, if we lose the awareness of the history of what drove the necessity for such protections, then we are more likely to revert back to our most natural behaviors and mindsets. We are less likely to value the very principles in each of these laws, and we are less likely to practice empathy and respect for those groups. If we find the requirements burdensome and a waste of time, then we are less likely to observe and fight against the very behaviors prohibited by these laws and policies.
The Importance of Compliance
At the end of the day, compliance is not a bad word – although it has morphed into one. Compliance with anti-discrimination and civil rights legislation is nothing more than a roadmap of simple behaviors and expectations that protect our most cherished civil liberties and Constitutional rights. Compliance with these laws is a commitment to uphold the principles upon which our country was founded. Compliance is not paperwork. Compliance is not arbitrary nor trivial. To protect the people and liberties afforded us by our Constitution, we must be willing to be inconvenienced and to put in the work.
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Dr. Kurt Hulett is a leading special education author and educational consultant in the area of special education.
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