T aiwan's National Policies for Children in Special Education: Comparison with UNCRPD , Core Concepts, and the A merican IDEA

The goals for special education policy in T aiwan are to enable students with disabilities to develop their capacities to the fullest, have equal opportunity to access an effective education, live independently, fully participate in their communities, and become economically as self‐sufficient as possible, thereby contributing to their communities in various ways. The authors compare these policies to three conceptual models, one international and two national, and ask: (1) to what extent do these policies have congruence with the recently promulgated U nited N ations C onvention on the R ights of P ersons with D isabilities ( UNCRPD ) (a document that declares rights in an arguably culturally neutral way)? (2) to what extent are they congruent with the core concepts of U . S . disability policy? and (3) to what extent do these goals, adopted by a democratic government that is significantly different in culture from the U nited S tates, reflect U . S . policy as set out in the I ndividuals with D isabilities E ducation A ct ( IDEA )? The authors also ask: To what extent might T aiwan policy be improved as a consequence of a comparison of it with U . S . and U nited N ations policy? In reflection, the authors conclude that in general, T aiwan's national special education policy coheres with IDEA , the core concepts, and UNCRPD . The differences between T aiwan's policy and those of IDEA and the core concepts occur mainly because of T aiwan's traditional values and beliefs toward disability. The authors propose more sophisticated elaborations of T aiwan's policies related to family participation, rights of privacy, and appropriate evaluation procedures.