IOWA’S POSITION ON DISABILITY CATEGORIES

The Iowa Department of Education has adopted the position that disability categories or labels across all ages are not needed in the educational setting for the following reasons:

• the use of labels does not identify an individual’s unique needs;
• labeling encourages the perception that all individuals in a category have the same characteristics;
• a label, in and of itself, does not provide educators with information regarding the individual’s instructional needs;
• educators’ expectations based on labels may influence the performance of students;
• labeling, in most cases, is negatively loaded terminology and maybe permanently stigmatizing;
• labeling puts the burden of failure on the student; and
• the use of labels may become the basis for assigning an individual to more restrictive services than required.