The Council on Academic Affairs will meet to discuss the special education department’s request to provide students with two new courses dealing with learning disabilities.

Disabilities in the Context of Education and the Life Span, SPE 2000, which would be required of all special education majors, would deal with the impact disabilities have on individuals and their families or primary care givers, the course proposal says

The new course would also discuss laws and legislation that affect special education and some history of special education.

The course proposal says that students who have completed Education of Individuals Labeled Exceptional either before or during the fall 2002 semester will not be required to take the new course, which the department hopes to make effective in the fall 2002 semester.

The other new course proposal Learning Differences of Individuals with Moderate to Severe Exceptional Learning Needs, SPE 3100, will also be required of all special education majors who have not taken Characteristics of Individuals Labeled Mildy/Moderately Exceptional, SPE 3200, before or during the fall 2002 semester, the course proposal says.

This course would study the behavior of individuals with mental retardation, physical or orthopedic handicaps, brain trauma, autism and other health impairments.

The course would also emphasize the cultural competence of individuals with severe exceptional learning needs and ways to facilitate independence and involvement in the community for them, the proposals says.

The Council on Academic Affairs will meet at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Arcola-Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union to discuss the objectives of the course before voting on its enactment.